WHAT BECAME OF JACK AND JILL?

UK, 1971, 93 minutes, Colour.
Vanessa Howard, Mona Washbourne, Paul Nicholas, Peter Copley, Peter Jeffrey.
Directed by Bill Bain.

This film was also known as Romeo and Juliet 71. This is rather ironic as it is a variation on the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme, a thriller about cruelty and greed. This Jack and Jill go up a hill to try to wheedle money out of Jack’s (here called Johnny) aunt. They go through various devices to frighten her and violence to persuade her to give them the money. The aunt is played by classic actress Mona Washbourne. Vanessa Howard is Jill, Paul Nicholas (Tommy) is Johnny.

The film was directed by Australian-born Bill Bain who went to England and directed television series like The Avengers and Upstairs, Downstairs for which he won an Emmy.

This is typical of some of the thrillers from the late 60s and early 70s – variations on horror themes by studios like Hammer and Amicus.

1. A satisfactory thriller, interesting in situation and character? Themes of greed, cruelty, good and evil? Retribution?

2. The atmosphere of London, suburbs, flats? The world of youth and age and the contrast? The atmosphere of the fear of youth, T.V. and the sinister interpretation of innocent youth rallies? The build-up to the march and its sinister use? An authentic atmosphere for this murder mystery?

3. The irony of the title, the reference to the nursery rhyme, the cynical interpretation (yet how realistic according to the rhyme?).

4. How sympathetic a character was Gran: the grandmother type, how oppressive of Jack, her strengths and weaknesses of character, her love for Johnny, her worry and his fomenting of it, her wealth and the house and her decisions about her will? The variety of ways of deception? Audience reaction to the ingenuity, to the cruelty? The build-up to her death and its ugliness?

5. Johnny as the Jack of the nursery rhyme? A modern London young man, how likeable, how unlikeable? Strengths and weaknesses of character? His antipathy towards Gran and his cruelty? The ways he deceived her? The quality of his relationship with Jill? His reaction to the will, the victimization of Frankie? Falling out with Jill and his vindictiveness? How credible an amoral young man?

6. How credible an amoral young woman was Jill? Modern girl, strengths and weaknesses, the bond with Johnny. her association with his plan against Gran, her final jealousy, her death? Any pathos or sympathy?

7. The sketching of Frankie and her potential an victim?

8. The gallery of minor characters and their contribution to the plot, human nature? The doctor, the police, the Jehovah Witness, the neighbours? What touches did they add to the film?

9. The build-up to the finale and villains falling out amongst themselves, the clash and the violence?

10. The rhyme and its application? A thriller fable and the implied values of good and evil?