O Lucky Man!
Short description
Malcolm McDowell plays Michael Travis, an ambitious young coffee salesman travelling through Britain. His early success, complete with company car and sharp suit, gives way to a picaresque journey in which he meets corrupt businessmen, government officials and medical researchers, and finds his naive idealism tested by a world that rewards compromise. The film is a surreal satire on capitalism and class, following its hero through a series of ironic and improbable episodes rather than a conventional plot.
Lindsay Anderson directed, working from a screenplay by McDowell and David Sherwin. It was his second feature, arriving five years after if.... (1968), and it shares that film's interest in authority and rebellion while expanding into musical and fantasy territory. The large credited cast of 42 includes Ralph Richardson, Rachel Roberts, Arthur Lowe, Helen Mirren and Graham Crowden, several of them in multiple roles. Albert Finney, McDowell and Michael Medwin produced. Alan Price provided the music.
Made on a budget of about 3 million USD, the film runs 184 minutes. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 7.7/10 from 21 reviews, while on TMDB its audience rating is 6.8/10 from 120 votes, a gap suggesting stronger critical than general approval.
What's left behind the scenes
- A scene in which Rachel Roberts (1927-1980) portrays a housewife contemplating suicide was cut from the American release. In November 1980, Roberts committed suicide due to depression.
- Around 30 takes were filmed of the scene in which the director, played by Lindsay Anderson (1923-1994), hits Malcolm McDowell's character in the face with the script.
- Practically every member of the cast played multiple roles.
- When Mick arrives at the clinic, one lab technician calls another Stanley. This is a tribute to Stanley Kubrick, whose film *A Clockwork Orange* (1971) placed Malcolm McDowell's character in a similar situation. *Oh, Lucky Man!* contains other references to Kubrick's cult dystopian film.
- Ralph Richardson (1902-1983) constantly forgot the names of other characters, so he wrote them on his palms and on the sleeves of his costume.
- Mick's car: a 1965 Ford Anglia Estate 1200 Deluxe.
- In the orgy scene, the actors appear drunk, but in reality, they were drinking tea.
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