Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Tam Lin Blu-ray Movie Review

You look mah-velous.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 29, 2013

Roddy McDowall had an incredibly varied career, one which saw him become one of a very few child stars to continue having a reasonable—and at times much more than merely reasonable—professional life long after the “cuteness factor” had worn off. McDowall did experience something akin to film doldrums in the 1950s and early 1960s, but instead of accepting his fate, he merely matriculated into stage and television work and by the time the mid- to late sixties came along, he was once again getting a variety of film assignments, including outré efforts like Lord Love a Duck and more mainstream successes like Planet of the Apes. While McDowall would go on to regular work in a variety of media, and also establish himself as a photographer of some note, unlike many actors, evidently what he really wanted to do was not to direct, for he only ended up helming one feature film, the little remembered 1970 Tam Lin, which was released (briefly) in a variety of versions and markets under a rather dizzying array of different titles (though the cover of this Olive Films Blu- ray release lists the title as merely Tam Lin, the actual title card on the film is The Balled of Tam Lin). McDowall’s original vision was to create a “mod” update of the ancient Scottish folktale (retold by Robert Burns, among many others) of a Faerie Queen whose hypnotic control over her minions allowed her to attain immortality. Tam Lin, one of her (male) concubines, falls for a human girl and manages to escape the evil Queen's control. It was a fascinating idea, and one which seemed perfectly suited to being transferred to the drug fueled ambience of the late sixties or early seventies. Instead, the film was optioned by American International, hardly a home to art house fare, and was drastically recut to make it seem more like the latest in the even then dwindling subgenre of horror films featuring stars who had once been A-listers, but who were now struggling (ironically, considering the Burns poem’s subtext of aging) with the ravages of time.

Michaela Cazaret (Ava Gardner), who goes by the nickname Mickey, is a wealthy dowager who maintains a youthful outlook on life by surrounding herself with twenty-somethings, including her current lover Tom (Ian McShane, Deadwood). Mickey acts as hostess to a vast array of young moderns, including Georgia (Joanna Lumley, Absolutely Fabulous), a sarcastic jet setter, and Sue (Madeline Smith), a childlike woman who goes gaga over a little puppy which is brought around one day by Janet Ainsley (Stephanie Beacham), the vicar’s daughter (who is most definitely not a member of this “party hearty” assemblage). Janet catches Tom’s eye, but Mickey has already made it clear that Tom is her plaything, and he’d better watch his step.

Of course, true love will have its way, and Janet and Tom have a tryst which results in a pregnancy. Various plot machinations lead to Janet attempting to get an abortion, but Mickey’s slimy manservant Elroy (Richard Wattis) isn’t exactly the totally obsequious loyalist he appears to be, and Tom is able to stave off disaster. However, the handwriting is on the wall, especially once Elroy reveals that a long history of Mickey’s former lovers have met their fates in rather gruesome motoring accidents. The implication is clear: Tom probably shouldn’t be driving anytime soon.

McDowall stages the slowly more hallucinogenic proceedings with rare flair and aplomb. The film starts out rather slowly, with an almost palpable feeling of languorous entitlement. Mickey and her pretty young things are all kept in their own ways. Mickey of course reeks of independent wealth, but she’s a prisoner of her own delusions and selfishness, not to mention some perhaps magically imbued glasses she wears. Her hangers-on are probably the kids of the landed gentry, if not outright nobles, and they’re used to being catered to. It’s a symbiotic relationship forged in some outlying ring of hell or purgatory, where those who deign to indicate even an iota of independence find themselves on the receiving end of Mickey’s rather formidable wrath.

The film tips over into outright psychedelia in its closing act, when Mickey forces Tom to drink a potion laced with drugs, whereupon he becomes prey in a hallucinatory update of The Most Dangerous Game. Tom, completely under the influence of some psychotropic concoction, begins imagining that either he’s assumed different forms (like a bear, in a kind of unintentionally funny moment) or is being beset upon by various beasts like a mutant python. It’s a completely bizarre, if also unexpectedly logical, outgrowth of the original Tam Lin ballad, where the hero assumes various figures in different versions of the tale. The entire film is rather dreamlike, from virtually the first moment, where Mickey and Tom relax in afterglow, but she can’t help telling him she wants to kill him (how’s that for a little black widow post-coital chit chat?). That dreamlike state continues unabated through the incredibly sunny, indolent partying of the kids at Mickey’s estate, and in fact it’s just as present when Tom and Janet begin their sylvan set affair. McDowall crafts a visceral mood of a reverie that slowly but surely turns into a nightmare in the form of that most dreaded of late sixties and early seventies phenomena, the bad trip.

Tam Lin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tam Lin is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Perhaps because this film had such a troubled history, with only minimal releases (and not very many in this form), the elements here are in generally very good shape, with only minor specks occasionally showing up. Colors seem to have faded just slightly, with flesh tones skewed minimally toward the brown side of the spectrum, but otherwise this is a solid and nicely detailed release, which is not to say that it's razor sharp. McDowall and his cinematographer Billy Williams intentionally filter quite a bit of the film to give a gauzy, soft, appropriately dreamlike ambience that frequently dabbles in diffused light and soft focus (on occasion with regard to some close-ups of Gardner, which may have been done as a courtesy). Despite this approach, fine detail is quite good, revealing lush textures on Gardner's outfits and the rich appointments of Mickey's palatial manse, though the color scheme here is unexpectedly dowdy some of the time. Contrast is generally quite strong, though the last section of the film, while intentionally murky, seems to have slightly under performing differentiation between light values, and low level noise creeps into just one or two dark, fog shrouded, shots. There's one kind of bizarre anomaly at around 1:23:00 where some major instability creeps in for just a couple of shots; it looks like telecine wobble or gate weave on steroids, but I have a feeling it may have more to do with problematic elements having been reassembled for this version. Once again, Olive's standard "hands off" approach means that while no restoration appears to have been done, there's also no problematic digital tweaking, either.

Tam Lin Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tam Lin features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix which has just a few more pops and cracks than one might expect from a film of this vintage. Those anomalies occasionally distract from some of the quieter moments in the film, but the good news is for the most part dialogue and the rather haunting score (which combines songs by Pentangle, which sounds like a kind of Celtic Jefferson Airplane, and more traditionally Celtic underscore as well as more standard orchestral fare by Stanley Myers) sound fine. Aside from the relatively few pops and cracks, fidelity here is very good, and once the drugs set in, dynamic range is quite wide.

Tam Lin Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc. While that's the standard operating procedure for Olive Films Blu-ray releases most of the time, in this case it's a shame as there was an interesting Roddy McDowall introduction included on a previous home video release of this title.

Tam Lin Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I continue to be regularly amazed at the breadth and scope of the films Olive is bringing to Blu-ray. Tam Lin has been one of the most sought after cult items by rabid collectors and aficionados for years. In many cases, these little known or seen films turn out to be major disappointments once they're actually viewed, but in this case, Tam Lin's reputation is well earned. This is a fascinating retelling of an ancient folktale, buoyed by great performances and a palpable mood of drug infused fantasy. It is just a little silly at times, but it's never less than compelling and shows that McDowall had a firm directorial vision that unfortunately was only realized this one fleeting time. While it's a shame that McDowall's introduction isn't included here, this Blu-ray sports nice video and good audio and comes Highly recommended.