Rent Loot (1970)

Anarchic Farce. - Loot review by Steve

This frantic black comedy adapted from Joe Orton's controversial stage success no longer has the power to offend. But the satire about the British establishment, the catholic church and the police is still relevant and funny. Hywel Bennett and Roy Holder play a couple of bisexual longhairs who rob a bank and stash the loot in the coffin of Holder's recently dead mother.

Which leaves them with a body on their hands. The play was controversial and some were affronted by the comic use of a corpse! Which hard to work out, because this is farce. It's all slamming doors and bare behinds. Gradually their caper unravels thanks to an incredibly mercenary and sexy Irish nurse (Lee Remick) and a brutal and corrupt copper (Richard Attenborough).

And so the swag has to be split into ever smaller shares. The whole bundle is directed with great energy and the well chosen cast makes the most of some great dialogue. There's a genuinely eccentric gimmick in just about every shot. It now feels cartoonish, with the gaudy primary colours, the eye-popping edits and the commentary of rock and roll songs.

Joe Orton was reinventing the farce in the context of the revolution of the late sixties counterculture, to represent the generational divide and a growing suspicion of authority. It was intended to be confrontational. It no longer has that impact, but it's still a breathless, spontaneous bad-taste comedy which is full of surprises.