A Severed Head (1971)

The wine taster and merchant Martin Lynch-Gibbon is married to the shallow and spoiled Antonia Lynch-Gibbon, and loves his mistress Georgie Hands. Antonia is under therapy with Martin's ... See full summary »

Director:

Dick Clement

Writers:

Iris Murdoch (novel), Iris Murdoch (play)

Stars:

Lee Remick, Richard Attenborough, Ian Holm

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Lee Remick	...	Antonia Lynch-Gibbon
Richard Attenborough	...	Palmer Anderson
Ian Holm	...	Martin Lynch-Gibbon
Claire Bloom	...	Honor Klein
Jennie Linden	...	Georgie Hands
Clive Revill	...	Alexander Lynch-Gibbon
Ann Firbank	...	Rosemary Lynch-Gibbon
Rosamund Greenwood	...	Miss Seelhaft
Constance Lorne	...	Miss Hernshaw
Robert Gillespie	...	Winking Patient
Katherine Parr	...	Receptionist
Nerys Hughes	...	Nurse
Anne Jameson	...	Woman at Party (as Ann Jameson)
Yvette Rees	...	Woman at Party

Storyline

The wine taster and merchant Martin Lynch-Gibbon is married to the shallow and spoiled Antonia Lynch-Gibbon, and loves his mistress Georgie Hands. Antonia is under therapy with Martin's best friend, the psychiatrist Palmer Anderson. One day, Antonia decides to ask for a divorce from Martin, to live with Palmer, but they want to keep Martin as their friend. When Palmer's sister Dr. Honor Klein comes from Oxford to stay with her brother, she discloses the affair of Georgie, who was her student, and Martin to Palmer and Antonia. Meanwhile, Martin's brother Alexander Lynch-Gibbon has a love affair with Georgie, and Martin falls in unrequited love with Honor, but he discovers a secret about Palmer. Who will stay with whom in the end?

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Plot Keywords:

female nudity | topless female nudity | sex comedy | friend | psychiatrist | 

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Taglines:

A Severed Head is not a horror story ... It's something else!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Opening credits: All characters and events in this film are fictitious Any similarity to actual events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits feature the main characters as children's dolls in a series of vignettes mounted on a turntable.

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Connections

Referenced in McCloud: Top of the World, Ma! (1971)

User Reviews

A Severed Head

Focussed on Ian Holmes wine merchant, a group of bored middle class professionals fill their lives by having a series of doomed affairs with each other.

Time has not been kind to this 'satire' based on Iris Murdoch's book. The characters are pretty much all detestable or plain daft and although Holmes brings the occasional smile to the face, the other characters particularly Attenborough and Remick are so unrealistic it's impossible to buy into what was presumably supposed to be sharp and biting.

Firmer direction might have helped - overall, sloppy.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 January 1971 (UK)

Also Known As:

Affairs and Relations

Filming Locations:

Putney SW London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Winkast Film Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1