ONE OF THOSE THINGS (THE WANTON)

Denmark, 1971, 86 minutes, Colour.
Roy Dotrice, Judy Gleeson, Zena Walker, Geoffrey Chater, Ann Firbank.
Directed by Erik Balling.

One of Those Things was re-titled The Wanton in Australia and released as a sexploitation film. While it has one or two erotic sequences, its main moral interest lies in the power wielded by one person over another and the private administration of justice. Judy Gleeson (doing a variation of her Three Into Two Won't Go character) blackmails a businessman responsible for manslaughter but who does not go to the police because of his career. She dominates him, seduces him. He murders her. The film seems to ask the audience to approve this. The moral dilemma is certainly strongly presented. A Danish film, with a good English cast, which is competent and raises questions about life in contemporary society.

1. What did the title refer to? Was it a straight-forward title or was it ironic?

2. What picture of the business world did the film give? How did the business world affect the hero and his family life? Was he satisfied in his work, in the secrecy, planning, mergers, international negotiating, power game etc.?

3. Why did he accept the invitation to go to the teenagers' party? (What should his wife have done for him?) Why was he bored? What picture of the young people did the film give - youth, self-interested, marijuana, etc.?

4. What should the hero have done after he had run down the man? Why did he not go to the police? Would this kind of exposure have ruined his career? In the light of what happened, would this exposure and risk have been easier and more worthwhile?

5. Did you expect him to react in this way - nervous, the dark glasses on the TV, his reactions to his fellow-executives?

6. What did you think of the girl? How calculating was she? Why did she not blackmail him? Did she intend the industrial spying right from the start? Why did she not worry about people's opinions? How did she torment him, abuse him, manipulate him? How did you react to her boldness and her taking over his life? Could you see that it would be a strong temptation to kill her?

7. What picture of adult life did the film give - the sauna-bath party, the smoking of marijuana. the sexual frustration of the executive's wife?

8. How had the girl made herself indispensable to the executives by her spying and manipulation?


9. Were you surprised when the hero capitulated to the sexual seduction? Was this what she was after? What was his reaction? How was he humiliated?

10. Did he have any hesitation in arranging her death? Can you see why he murdered her?

11. His wife said to forget about everything and start again and the film left it as that. Did the film condone murder, the taking of justice into one's own hands?

12. Was this an entertaining film? Depressing? Realistic? Worthwhile?