Villain (1971)

	Directed by: Michael Tuchner	COUNTRY United Kingdom GENRE Crime/Ganster NORWEGIAN TITLE - RUNNING TIME 98 minutes
	Produced by: Jay Kanter Alan Ladd, Jr. Elliott Kastner
	Written by (based on a novel by James Barlow): Dick Clement Ian La Frenais

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Vic Dakin	Richard Burton
Wolfe Lissner	Ian McShane	½
Bob Matthews	Nigel Davenport	½
Gerald Draycott	Donald Sinden	½
Venetia	Fiona Lewis	½
Frank Fletcher	T. P. McKenna	½
Edgar Lowis	Kitty Winn	½
Mrs. Dakin	Cathleen Nesbitt	-

Review

Brash, bold, brutal British crime drama featuring Richard Burton as a sadistic, closeted gangster who bullies rivals and allies alike in order to maintain control of his enterprise. Burton's performance is daring, sizzling, and a tad affected, but despite this – and perhaps because of Burton's own conflicted nature – he remains convincing both as a ruthless killer and as a repressed, sadistic homosexual. The relationship between him and Ian McShane as his accomplice Wolfe has layers and carries an apt shroud of mystery. And the film's action and procedural sequences have a gritty, street-level realism that grounds the story and gives it the necessary credibility.