Summaries

Synopsis

Roddy McDowell's one and only outing as director is a rather ingenious modern rendition of the classic old bard's tale. The Fairy Queen is now Michaela "Mickey" Cazaret, an aging millionairess (Ava Gardner) who is trying to keep herself young by surrounding herself with young people and sucking the life out of them - figuratively, if not literally. Her latest favourite is young Tom Lynn (Ian McShane). He's devoted to her, like the puppy the vicar's daughter (Stephanie Beecham) brings round.

Well, Tom is instantly smitten with young Janet (said Vicar's daughter). After a night of drunken mayhem in Mickey's bedroom, Tom dons Mickey's gold-tinted sunglasses, grabs a bottle of wine for a little hair-of-the-dog and goes for a walk along the Scottish hills. Stopping at a stream, he spies Janet who is on her way to Carter Hall to return the check Mickey gave her as payment for the puppy. (She didn't want to give it up, so asked for 50 pounds, thinking no one would pay that much for a puppy). In an irritatingly choppy sequence of still images (the only such sequence in the film), it is evident that he has his way with her. On the way back to the Hall, they talk about Mickey and how wealthy she is ("She can afford to live in her dreams and she takes us into them for company.") At the gate, Tom tells Janet she must go no further - possibly protecting her from the jealous rage he knows Mickey would feel. Mickey already knows, though - her spy Elroy (Richard Wattis) has already reported the affair. Mickey confronts him in the garden, tells him she loves him, but she isn't as convincing as he is when he tells her he loves her. Already he is questioning the relationship.

Back at the mansion, the others have convinced one of the gals to perform some psychic readings. They blindfold her and give her objects to hold - she tells them the impressions she gets. One guy places his ring on the table, but when she reaches for it, she grabs Mickey's sunglasses that Tom has set down. They freak her out. She screams and rips her blindfold off, demands to know who's they are. Tom wants to know what she saw, but she dismisses it and runs away in tears. Tom doesn't know just what to make of this. The following Sunday, Tom goes to church, listens to the vicar's sermon and waits for Janet outside afterwards. He spends the day with her and the little girl who is staying with the Vicar while her mom is in hospital. They have a picnic and take a long walk along the hills - a quiet normal day compared to the wild craziness that is life with Mickey.

His absence has been noted back at the Hall and Tom endures some evil-minded ribbing from Oliver (David Whitman) who is obviously jealous of Tom's position in Mickey's bed. Oliver goes too far, though, and Tom throws a drink in his face, whereupon Oliver backhands Tom, causing a bloody nose, which enrages Mickey. She warns Oliver not to make trouble again or he's out and then she storms away. Oliver pretends to be apologetic, but Tom ignores him, grabs a bottle and wanders away himself. But Elroy, Mickey's part-time spy and full-time personal secretary of long standing, calls Tom into his office for a chat. He shows Tom some files about young men who have been found dead in the wreckage of one of Mickey's cars - seems to happen every 7 years or so - he even has photos. This obviously upsets Tom, as it was meant to. He thinks Mickey put Elroy up to it and goes to confront her.

That evening, Tom announces his desire to leave, but she won't let him go. Some time passes and as Tom spends more time with Janet, he becomes increasingly unsatisfied with his situation with Mickey. He finally goes to Mickey and tells her he needs some time away to think. He's not asking this time, he's telling her. After one last pleasant evening at a night club together, Mickey tells him he can have one week to himself and then she's going to hunt him down and kill him. Meanwhile, Janet has found out she is pregnant. She tries to find Tom, but Mickey refuses to tell her where he is, so she decides to have an abortion. Because of an anonymous postcard, Tom finds her outside the abortion clinic in London before she can do anything and they spend a blissful week in his "morbid little caravan" before he spots Elroy spying on them and realizes the week is up and they need to run for it. Too late, though. Tom is jumped, roughed up and dragged back to Mickey for the final confrontation. Tom is scared, but defiant. He realizes what a monster she really is as one moment she is telling him how she's going to put him down like a rabid dog and the next she is asking him to say something nice to her because she's "feeling rather miserable."

She drugs him - forces him to drink what I gather is wine laced with LSD. Then the games begin. Mickey's new boy toy, Oliver, is running things. They're going to play "Murder." Usually a child's game, they're going to play it for real. Mickey will be the detective and Oliver the murderer, but who is to be the victim? It's surprising to Tom how ready and willing the other young'uns are to join in the hunt. They were his friends, after all. The subtle look he gives when a sweet girl points him out as the victim says it all. When the drug starts to take effect, Tom goes from fear to despair to defiance and then passes into oblivion at which point Mickey tells him to go get in the white car and drive as fast as he can. She is going to release her wild beasts and if they catch him, they'll tear him to pieces. So, he runs. Luckily, Janet knew where they were taking him and she shows up in time to jump in the car with him. He's driving like a maniac and almost kills them both (Now we know how those other guys died, right?), but Janet manages to get the car stopped. Back at the caravan (trailer for us Yanks), she had promised to hang on to him ( "I love you, I want you and I need you but you must hold on to me" ), but she's finding it difficult in his current state. Tom takes off across the field and into the woods, blindly running in terror. At one point, he imagines he's a bear caught in a trap and Janet finds him growling and twisting among the brambles. She gets him loose only for him to take off again. Next she finds him writhing in the mud - imagining his arms are a giant snake strangling himself. She is really struggling here! Again he takes off and runs to the river's edge where he kneels down for a drink, only for the water to turn to flame. She finds him now thrashing in the water imagining he is being consumed by fire. She gets him to shore where he finally collapses into her arms and this is how the others find them.

The rage in Mickey's eyes when she finds Janet holding him is almost palpable. She wants him dead. She wants them both dead. But Oliver didn't sign on for actual murder - Tom was supposed to kill himself. It didn't work, so he calls the others off, earning himself a sharp backhand from Mickey. The only one who seems rather pleased by this outcome is Elroy. When the others leave, Tom - still pretty out of it - snakes his hand over to take Janet's hand in his. She is the only reason he is still alive - because she held on to him as she'd promised.

And so Mickey is left with Oliver as her number one. She doesn't seem overjoyed by this as their plane takes off for parts unknown ...