The Girl-Getters

source: The Girl-Getters

Moviecut—The Girl-Getters

As a Paigntonian, I feel the need to correct a point of fact in FilmFlaneur's review, which by the way, in all other respects I found to be excellent, erudite, expansive and extremely interesting. However, FilmFlanuer states that The System was filmed in Torquay and Brixham, but it was predominantly filmed in Paignton. Scenes beneath Paignton Pier and at The Harbour Lights restaurant (used as a flat in the film) spring to mind immediately, even 50+ years after seeing some of the filming personally and about 30 years since I last saw the film itself. .

THE GIRL-GETTERS is really THE SYSTEM as the other title makes little sense -- and although the British New Wave comedy/drama does begin like a horny-dudes ensemble, it soon narrows solely onto Oliver Reed as Tinker, head of the wolf pack who "gets his" by falling in love with a rich model as cool, smooth, complicated and yes, beautiful as he is... Director Michael Winner, before the Charles Bronson action flicks, began an eclectic partnership with post-Hammer villain Reed, and this is both their best work: Winner providing a looser LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER vibe with similar satirical montage breaks; and Reed who, as Tinker... the local womanizing photographer... is all smiles and robust energy, hardly frowning or scowling before a long career playing scowling villains... Taking place during two weeks at a British vacation spot, there's a kind of 24-hour feeling, and THE SYSTEM must've influenced AMERICAN GRAFFITI as we're put right there with the characters (including a female version of Tinker; a sullen married lady; a "finally grown up" engaged guy; and RUNNER starlet Julia Foster as a ditsy conquest)... All hanging out at this sunny retreat where tourists abound, and our boys use their titular SYSTEM to cover the entire area (for girls and money), saving up for the approaching Winter, a plot-point mentioned many (perhaps too many) times throughout... And although they never reach that particular season, you can still feel the foreboding chill move in, ironically after Reed's creative and, for the first time, genuine charm had almost completely thawed Jane Merrow's sublime dream-girl, Nicola, in what's more of a prolonged end of a party than a beginning, middle and end of a romantic summertime adventure -- yet it's all that too.

aka THE SYSTEM. Michael Winner's early film is probably his best. A group of young Brits (mostly men, but a few women as well) play the field at a beach resort, looking for sex and occasionally for real love. Oliver Reed is Tinker, a seaside shutterbug/romeo who's horrified to find that he might actually be falling in love. This is very much a film of its time & place, when little related to sex could really be examined on the screen. Winner & screenwriter Peter Draper successfully weave together several stories, some charming, some sad and a lot of it very funny. The cinematography by Nicholas Roeg is great and the acting is all first rate. Reed commands the screen in this early role & Jane Merrow, Barbara Ferris, and a very young David Hemmings are in it too. Harry Andrews plays Reed's strict but somehow infinitely patient boss. The catchy theme song is by The Searchers.

THE SYSTEM is yet another 'gang film' for youthful star Oliver Reed, who made loads of these pictures over the years. It's not on the same level as THE DAMNED, THE PARTY'S OVER, or even BEAT GIRL, but it does have elements of interest for British film fans although I wish the subject matter had been a little darker. Reed plays the leader of a gang of young men (including David Hemmings, of course) who spend the summer months in a beachside tourist trap, preying on the young beautiful women who come to visit. The men take it in turn to woo the women by means of a special system they have devised which sees the females divided equally between the group. However, the threat of real love is ever present, which may break up the group. It's fair to say that a film like THE SYSTEM has dated a lot since first release as the characters and general social milieu have long since disappeared. What one seemed progressive now feels very tame, although Reed's acting remains strong and the supporting cast do very well. This was an early film in the career of Michael Winner, who does his best to deliver a beautifully-shot production.

Looking back at any 1960's film one can't but help look at the shops, the streets, the way people dressed, the girls, and and the boys. The food even, I noticed the Kurzel cake display in one scenes, this is all great visual history. The film is obviously cashing on the new found Great British Youth culture, on the band waggon of the Beatles, A hard Days night. A film well worth seeing, but perhaps not too many times. Wendy Richards, gets a very small walk on part, and like the DVD cover box said the film contains a host of British stars some were to make it big much later on. The film is very tame by todays standards but there is a feeling of a youthful freeing up which was happening at the time, a good period film of times gone by. See it today.

I first saw this film when it was released (in 1964) and it had a profound effect on me then, imagine my surprise when I saw it in the middle of the night on TV a few days ago and it hasn't lost any of it's freshness. Oliver Reed is brilliant, as he always was before he took to the bottle, and the idea of the girl turning the tables on the *-sure man is executed magnificently. Furthermore the quote that I remember for forty years still rang true (Harry Andrews, a photographer, says "we're here to make memories" and Oliver Reed's reply "I thought we were here to make money"). People may laugh at Michale Winner now but this was god, very good. Even today.

A neglected but in its unassuming way very well-made little melodrama by a young Michael Winner, shot mainly on location around Torbay right at the start of the Swinging Sixties era. Fairly racy in its day, it never tries to sensationalise its premise that casual sex is as normal as the twist among the holidaying young people. The cast is exceptional. This was Winner's first collaboration with Oliver Reed, whose charisma and aura of watchful menace here is unmistakable. There was never another star in British cinema quite like him. Jane Merrow is just as excellent as the sympathetic but ultimately unattainable Nicola; she makes the character totally three-dimensional without any histrionics. Barbara Ferris also stands out among a talented young cast, especially in her final stoned lament at the evening beach-party. Winner is helped immeasurably by a brilliant cinematographer, Nicolas Roeg (here in between lensing such notable Brit-flicks as The Caretaker, Nothing But the Best and Masque of the Red Death). His location work right from the title sequence gives a vivid sense of place of a jaded seaside resort in the last days of summer. Directorial flair is surprisingly confident, borrowing just enough new-wave technique to languidly establish the film's youth pedigree without ever indulging in obtrusive effect for its own sake. Winner's previous film, West 11, a lowlife murder suspensor, also made good use of a mainly young cast. After The System he moved on to bigger but not necessarily better things before Hollywood swamped what talent he had. A pity, because this film, never acknowledged as being one of the best British b-films of the time, really is pretty good.

With the Girl-Getters or The System as it was shown to be when i lived in the UK is a tale of misspent youth on a Southern England coastal town. Like many of these towns the folk lay dormant for most of the year until the summer comes, and with it trade in the form of tourism. This was in a time before the package tour and the Costa-del-slosh that most of the young men have reverted to. This was a time when a virile young male spent his days prowling the promenade in search of his prey. The system was a cunning plan thought up by Tinker played brilliantly by the late Oliver Reed, was to a method of getting as much action of the female variety as possible. I will not ruin the surprise by revealing what the system exactly entails but needless to say it works with measured success. Until that is Tinker falls fowl of his own tricks and has his heart broken by a more fiestly young lady with a nice sports car and a wealthy father. The Soundtrack is particularly commendable as can be gleaned from the opening titles, and continues with a particulary mod beat. I particularly enjoyed the film as I am of the same age as Reed in the film and it is good to see that little has changed in our quest for summer fun except for perhaps the fashion of the time and hairstyles. Or has it.