The Walking Stick (1970)

There may be some people who will object to the core premise of "The Walking Stick" by saying that they've seen the same basic premise in other movies before. I don't object to seeing the same premise again as long as the story is retold professionally and with a fresh light. Indeed, one strength the movie has is that the performances are very good - Eggar and Hemmings manage to make their characters believable. Unfortunately, the script and direction are another matter. The story takes way too much time to get from one major plot turn to another - a lot of fat could have been trimmed before shooting started. Also, the direction for the most part is a little too low key. I'm not asking for a great deal of flashiness, but a little more life should have been put into the movie. I am not saying this is an awful or bad movie, but it is kind of disappointing.

The Walking Stick features broody, moody David Hemmings as Leigh, an artist living the bohemian lifestyle in London's (then un-redeveloped) Docklands. He makes friends with crippled sweet young thing Deborah (Samantha Eggar, who specialized throughout the sixties in vulnerable female roles), a polio victim with weak legs and unloving parents (Phyllis Calvert and Ferdy Mayne). But Leigh has an ulterior motive: he's going to use Deborah to help him rob the auction house at which she works. If moral ambiguity is your bag, or if you're a fan of either Hemmings or Eggar, you won't want to miss this very special, very rare treat. Also of note: Stanley Myers' terrific score, sometimes lush, sometimes swinging, and Arthur Ibbetson's frequently stunning, beautifully composed cinematography.

Curtailing evil, criminal intentions, a dashing young man, Leigh, seduces and persuades the dreary, moderate polio victim Deborah Dainton into falling in love with him. Deborah leads a neatly organized life, and is obligated to see it being reduced to shreds when she discovers her boyfriend is part of a gang who intends to rob the auction house in which she works in. That's when Deborah has to come to grips with the fact that Leigh may have maintained a relationship with her solely for the benefit of the heist. This is an utterly unforgettable study on bitterness, hope and disappointment. We get to witness the magnificence of Eggar's performance as her character slowly discovers what Leigh - David Hemmings - truly had in mind when they began living together. And how Eggar manages to show that her bad leg does not stop her from being as tricky - if not trickier - than the good for nothing Leigh.'The Walking Stick' is an emotionally-charged melodrama that does not appeal to tacky tearjerker clichés. Everything is beautifully executed in a low-key, calm and yet gut-wrenchingly real manner, with an emotionally disarming ending that will leave you sobbing.

A very beatiful low key film about a woman and a man meeting and getting to know one another little by little. Underneath, things are not what they appear to be...In "Walking Stick" Samantha Eggar and David Hemmings give very fine and clear performances as unseeming Londoners. The actors were very hot and coveted starlets at the end of the sixties, starring in loads of ambitious films and then later never to be heard from again... Shame really, they´re brilliant.