Saturday Night Out (1964) User Reviews

A Film from the "Special Years" of British Cinema

[loza-1 · 7/10 · 2 July 2005]

The British films of the swinging sixties are typified for their crashing through the art barriers and doing things that had never been done before. Sometimes it came off; sometimes - well, all too often, to be exact - it didn't. Compare this with the "straight films" of the 1950s. Between these two phases of British cinema, there were a "special years" transitory phase: the straightness of the past was laid side by side with the oncoming weirdness of the swinging sixties. This is such a film.

The film follows the adventures of some merchant seamen on a London night out, before they return to their ship in the morning. There are some memorable scenes in this film. These include the "boyfriend" who is in a meditative trance, the know-all sailor getting his comeuppance, when he gets ripped off in a clip joint, and Bernard Lee voluntarily writing a cheque for ten pounds after a failed blackmail attempt. All this, and The Searchers playing in a pub, too.

It is a typical British B movie of the period, and is quite watchable.

A Look At London Life in the 1960s

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 18 February 2015]

There is no mistaking which decade this film was made in.It is clearly London and the swinging sixties.Mind you it is difficult to believe that this was 50 years ago and got an X certificate.Nowdays more like PG.The film has a very catchy title number which has stayed with me all the years since I first saw the film.The film is one of the portmanteau type,covering the adventures of 5 merchant seamen on leave.Some stories better than others.Bernard Lee in a rather different part,played partly for comic effect is quite good.The sailor going to the clip joint is quite interesting as it features one of the last performances of former boxer \Freddie \mills before he died in unexplained circumstances.The love story with the Australian sailor and the one with the electrician who spends the night alone in a room with a girl he has picked up and sleeps in a chair,are less satisfactory.This film captures London's Dockland in its last throes before it was transformed into offices and homes.In one instance they refer to a bomb site and this is nearly 20 years after the end of the war.

On The Town

[boblipton · 6/10 · 30 August 2021]

Seven sailors in London have an evening out before they have to return to ship.

It's an example of the 'Swinging London' genre of film, which means a diversity of exploits, from David Lodge, who spends the evening in with an old girl friend, to Bernard Lee, who thinks he's struck gold, to John Bonney and Coiln Campbell, who find love and frustration. There's a lot of seaminess to this movie, which turns out to be essentially normative and no worse than PG-12 by modern standards.

Liverpool band The Searchers play one number in a night club. The producers got the Beatles for the gig, but decided they didn't want to pay the train fare.

Saturday Night's alright

[wilvram · 31 July 2011]

For some years an enterprising firm, Odeon Entertainment, have been restoring and releasing old and neglected British films for their 'Best of British' label. Though it would be stretching a point to claim that all of the titles live up to this billing, they have often managed to unearth some minor treasures. Though banal at times, particularly in characterisation, and not least in the contrived suspense leading to its happy ending, Saturday Night Out is an excellent example. It was emphatically not a 'quota quickie' ( a species that had largely died out by the start of World War 2) but was intended as a main feature.

Granted, the subject of five of the crew (plus one passenger) of a ship, spending an intended night of adventure ashore, is hardly a novel one, but this is a fascinating period piece. Donald and Derek Ford's screenplay is a blend of themes explored in the British New Wave films from the turn of the 1960s, and those from the batch of alleged Soho vice exposes, e.g John Lemont's THE SHAKEDOWN, that slightly preceded them. In fact we concentrate on only three of the crew, as stage Irishman Paddy (Nigel Green) is only concerned to imbibe as much liquor as he can, while Arthur (David Lodge) heads, more or less, straight for the bed of his girl in this particular port, played by Margaret Nolan, but this doesn't add much to the story. Passenger George (Bernard Lee) is picked up by the exotic Wanda (the stunning Erika Remberg) only to become a victim of the old badger game which she's running with the smarmy Paul (Derek Bond), adroitly turning the tables on them. Lee (John Bonney) is entranced by Penny, a whimsical anarchist and existentialist, played by the captivating Heather Sears, in a case of the attraction of opposites. The good looking Bonney is excellent and on this performance it is surprising that he never became a major star. Loudmouthed Harry (Inigo Jackson), outraged to find that his intended conquest for the evening is in fact a prostitute, ends up in a Soho clip joint where he's robbed while being distracted by two hostesses (Caroline Mortimer and Vera Day, both excellent). He then takes a beating from a bouncer played by ex boxer Freddie Mills, ironically soon to be the victim of a fatal shooting, thought not to be unconnected with his real life involvement in shady nightclubs. The shy and inexperienced Jamie and Jean, convincingly played by Colin Campbell and Francesca Annis meet in a realistically looking pub (featuring a couple of numbers from popular Merseyside group The Searchers). Despite finding themselves sharing a room in a boarding house for the night, after coming to the aid of its landlady's mother ( a reliably funny cameo from Patricia Hayes), they don't sleep together, but, in contrast with the other protagonists, already have a basis for a lasting relationship. It's a point the writers make with slightly more conviction than they had managed in their previous script for director Robert Hartford-Davis and producers Michael Klinger and Tony Tenser, blatantly exploitative THE YELLOW TEDDYBEARS.

Heather Sears, Caroline Mortimer & Francesca Annis

[TheFearmakers · 6/10 · 13 August 2021]

Not to be mistaken with the famous British kitchen sink drama SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING; the next day hardly matters and there are hardly any sinks in SATURDAY NIGHT OUT...

Except maybe at Heather Sears' bizarro apartment as a flaky, blunt and childish Beatnik chick, having met one of several merchant seaman on a weekend pass, starting out at a nightclub where house band The Searchers jovially blast their dance-steady Beatlesque rock...

Providing the kind of source music (non-composed and heard by both the audience and characters) that'd become normal a decade later in the 24-hour spanning all-night classic AMERICAN GRAFFITI...

Alas this forerunner has a bland existential plot yet is loaded with fine British actors like Bernard Lee (despite being way too old for ingenue Erika Remberg), Nigel Green and David Lodge...

And while not crime-centered like many B&W British New Wave flicks, the best story involves Inigo Jackson seduced by and progressively ripped off by a darker club's b-girls Caroline Mortimer and Vera Day as he slowly catches on, providing the most situational suspense herein...

Meanwhile the only satisfying arc has Francesca Annis forever hooked with the handsomest of the traipsing males: all of whom should have had a wilder, more intriguing SATURDAY NIGHT OUT...

Overall this feels more like a Tuesday.

Nearly a documentary

[johnhclark · 8/10 · 27 April 2021]

I was in the Merchant Navy at this time and much of the film rings true. I only visited a clip joint once but you never forget. This was not the part of London that swung but further East. Some scenes are embarrassing but it is entertaining.

Someone saw a French film

[jromanbaker · 2/10 · 28 April 2021]

Think of Godard, Rivette and Varda, all taking the camera into the streets and making masterpieces, and then look at how the English did the same and made a formless mess like this. Without style it shows the vulgarity of London in the early 1960's and its clubs, drunk people and violence. Heather Sears after being in ' Room at the Top ' is watchable, and so was Colin Campbell. Both of them could act, but the rest are stereotypes with hopeless dialogue, badly constructed scenes and confusion of motivation. Basically a hotchpotch of ' stories ' it does not convince, and I give it a two for those actors coping with terrible direction. Oh, I forgot the premise of the film; sailors on leave and this is no ' On the Town. '

Charming, thoughtful film

[chrispeter99 · 9/10 · 28 April 2021]

I wasn't expecting much but I was very pleasantly surprised.

The thoughtful work on this film by all concerned is clear to see. Thanks!

Great performances.

Lively B-movie about five merchant sailors on a night's liberty

[denny-16 · 22 May 2000]

Although strictly a 'quota quickie', this British picture is lively and passably entertaining in it's episodic telling of the adventures of five sailor's spending a night in London. The two youngest go looking for girls but only find prostitutes ( discussed in a surprisingly frank manner) although photogenic Francesca Annis and naive Colin Campbell do find common ground. David Lodge heads for bed with floozy Margaret Nolan ( a popular glamor model of the time--she was also in 'Goldfinger') for a saucily comic diversion. Bernard Lee takes the acting honors as a quiet, mature gentleman who is almost caught in a badger game. Add to this an appearance by Merseybeat group, The Searchers, and you do have a fairly peppy Saturday Night Out!

I'd Rather Have Had A Saturday Night In!

[davidcorne245 · 26 July 2011]

If ever a DVD should be prosecuted under the Trades Description Act this is it. To actually be released under the banner of 'The Best Of British' defies logic as it is mind blowingly awful from start to finish. There are few saving graces apart from a chance to revisit a London now long gone in the mists of time and see the blossoming beauty of the lovely Francesca Annis who shares her screen time mainly with the likable Colin Campbell. Bernard Lee has the best line after turning the tables on the smarmy Derek Bond and Erika Remberg's failed blackmail attempt, but the appearance of Nigel Green who spent the whole of his role drinking and stereotyping a drunken Irishman seemed utterly pointless. To have David Lodge as a lothario was another case of miscasting and I spent a lot of the time watching the film to see if Inigo Jackson was wearing a syrup or as they say in the States, a rug. I know times change and one shouldn't be too harsh on a film made nearly 50 years ago, but this was probably a film just as boring in 1964 as it is today. The less said about the Heather Sears role as a kind of forerunner hippy the better; her scenes seemed to go on forever and anyone who watched this on a Saturday night out would have wished they's spent a Saturday night in rather than going to see this codswallop. This was also the last film appearance of Freddie Mills who died a year later in mysterious circumstances. Rumours that his demise came after a disgruntled patron had seen this film were apparently unfounded.