I'm not at all surprised to find that Tam Lin is the only film to be directed by actor Roddy McDowall: after this dreadful effort, I imagine that no-one dared fund another. McDowall's movie, loosely based on a poem by Robert Burns, suffers from a serious case of hippyitis, a malady that affected a fair few films in the late '60s and early '70s, the symptoms being crazy youths, groovy dialogue, psychedelia, frisbee playing, folk music and a general feeling that drugs were somehow involved throughout filming.
Ava Gardner plays middle-aged millionairess Michaela Cazaret, who invites young people to stay at her mansion, enjoying their company until she tires of them and sends them packing. Ian McShane (looking more than a bit like Ollie Reed) is Tom Lynn, Michaela's current favourite, but when he falls for vicar's daughter Janet (the gorgeous Stephanie Beacham) and gets her up the duff, he incurs the older woman's wrath.
McDowall's inexperience behind the camera is extremely evident from the sloppy storytelling and ill-advised 'stylish' touches that might have possibly seemed cool in the '70s, but look horribly dated now -- Tom's encounter with Janet by a stream, shown as a series of stills, is one of the worst cinematic sequences it has been my misfortune to sit through. The majority of the film is boring and uneventful; thankfully, the final act is a bit more lively, as Tom (hallucinating after being drugged) and Janet are pursued through a marsh by Michaela's acolytes, but Roddy can't help himself, and renders the potentially tense chase laughable by having Tom imagine that he is a bear, wrestle a giant rubber snake, and catch fire.
Ava Gardner plays middle-aged millionairess Michaela Cazaret, who invites young people to stay at her mansion, enjoying their company until she tires of them and sends them packing. Ian McShane (looking more than a bit like Ollie Reed) is Tom Lynn, Michaela's current favourite, but when he falls for vicar's daughter Janet (the gorgeous Stephanie Beacham) and gets her up the duff, he incurs the older woman's wrath.
McDowall's inexperience behind the camera is extremely evident from the sloppy storytelling and ill-advised 'stylish' touches that might have possibly seemed cool in the '70s, but look horribly dated now -- Tom's encounter with Janet by a stream, shown as a series of stills, is one of the worst cinematic sequences it has been my misfortune to sit through. The majority of the film is boring and uneventful; thankfully, the final act is a bit more lively, as Tom (hallucinating after being drugged) and Janet are pursued through a marsh by Michaela's acolytes, but Roddy can't help himself, and renders the potentially tense chase laughable by having Tom imagine that he is a bear, wrestle a giant rubber snake, and catch fire.