The Collector (Columbia Pictures) (1965)

Terence Stamp It isn’t news that good actors try to “dig into” their roles before the filming of a movie starts, and Terence Stamp, who stars in William Wyler’s “The Collector,” Columbia Pictures suspense-filled new drama at the PENT wie che G Theatre, in Technicolor, is no exception. It’s just that Stamp, rated one of England’s most promising young actors, goes perhaps a bit further in researching a role than some others. For “Billy Budd,” his first film, in which he played an innocent seaman among rough-tough shipmates (and for which he won an Academy Award nomination as best actor) Stamp spent months on the Thames getting to know seafaring men and their habits. As a matter of fact, he had a head start on this one, because his father was a bargeman on the Thames, and Terry had virtually been brought up on that river. In his second film, ‘Term of Trial,” he portrayed a character anything but innocent, an English “Teddy Boy,” or tough guy. And for that one Stamp concentrated on London’s toughest quarter, Knotting Hill Gate, where he quickly got on a firstname basis with some of the roughest characters who ever carried a shiv. In “The Collector,” however, Siamp had to go it on his own, because the character he portrays in the hunting John Fowles best-seller upon which the film is based, had no precedent for him to study. In “The Collector,” Stamp plays Freddie Clegg, a young bank clerk who is hard to classify even in words. He is prudish, dull, insignificant, a butterfily collector who wins an enormous amount of money in a football pool. The money enables him to fulfill a longtime desire to kidnap and imprison the vibrant young girl, a complete stranger to him, whom he thinks he loves, and to keep her prisoner in the celler of an isolated home outside of London. “In ‘The Collector’ I -have tried to relate Freddie to the problems everybody has,” Stamp says. “He has a boy’s dream, the kind of dream boys of 14 or 15 might have. The trouble with Freddie is that part of his mind never matured. At no time in the story does he believe he’s acing anything wrong. The only thing wrong he can _ realize, without understanding it, is that the girl doesn’t return his love.” For their performances in “The Collector,” Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar won the “best actor” and “best actress” awards at the Cannes Film Festival. “The Collector” was directed by William Wyler and it stars both Stamp and Samantha Eggar. It was produced by Jud Kinberg and John Kohn from a screenplay by Stanley Mann and Kcehn. (Mat IB; Still No. NY565) Terence Stamp is starred with Samantha Eggar in William Wyler's ''The Collector," Columbia Pictures’ release in Technicolor based on the novel by John Fowles. (Mat 1A; Still No. R8) Samantha Eggar stars with Terence Stamp in William Wyler's "The Collector," new Columbia Pictures’ drama in Technicolor based on the novel by John Fowles. General Advance Wiiliam Wyler has won three Academy Awards—for ‘Mrs. Miniver,” “The Best Years of Our Loves” and “Ben-Hur”’— and he has been nominated for ten others. A new William Wyler picture merits attention. When that picture is William Wyler’s “The Collector,” based on the suspenseful best-seller by John Fowles, then ........ Theatre audiences can expect something pretty unusual in the way of screen entertainment. According to Hollywood, “The Collector” is an absorbing, unconventional and _ altogether powerful drama. “The Collector” was filmed in Technicolor. William Wyler’s “The Collector,” in both subject matter and treatment, is regarded as a truly unique undertaking for the screen. That it so triumphantly succeeds is considered a tribute to the movie-making skiils of its brilliant director, and to the fiery performances of its stars, Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar, the former as an insignificant London bank clerk and the latter as the vibrant young art student whom he kidnaps and holds prisoner. For their performances in “The Collector,’ Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar won the “best actor” and “best actress” awards at the Cannes Festival. Nor are Wyler and his young principals alone in the applause being won by “The Collector.” Stanley Mann and John Kohn, who penned the screenplay, adhere close to Fowles’ best-selling tale, translating its shock and terror and conflict into pictorial terms with a fidelity that is a tribute to the original. And Jud Kinberg and Kohn served as co-producers, brilliantly bringging together some of the best of American and British behindthe-scene technicians to give William Wyler and “The Collector” a richness and a smoothness that adds to the new drama. (Mat 2C; Still No. NY500) Terence Stamp, butterfly collector who turns kidnapper, chloroforms lovely Samantha Eggar in this scene from William Wyler's "The Collector,"’ haunting new Columbia Pictures release in Technicolor. ~ Page 10 Film The Collector’ Advance Notice As the butterfly collector and the girl he kidnaps, Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar star in William Wyler’s volatile and dramatic “The Collector,” new Columbia Pictures release at the Theatre on Pe as Dae in Technicolor. The film, based on John Fowles’ best sclling novel, was directed by Wyler from the screenplay by Stanley Mann and John Kohn which Jud Kinberg and Kohn produced. For their performances in “The Collector,’ Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar won the “best actor” and “best actress” awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Review “Powerful” is one word for William Wyler’s “The Collector,” which opened yesterday at the Theatre with Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar starred in Technicolor. “Memorable” is another word, “haunting” a third. Additional adjectives may also be applied: “The Collector” is a truly brilliant example of motion picture entertainment at its absorbing: best. Story of an insignificant London bank clerk who kidnaps a vibrant young art student and holds her captive for months, “The Collector” is based on the John Fowles’ novel whose originality and daring kept it on the best-seller lists of England and American for months. William Wyler’s production of “The Collector” will certainly be among the more-honored films of the year, just as other of his pictures have been: films like “Mrs... Miniver,”. “The Best Years of Our Lives” and “Ben Hur,” to cite three for which he won Academy Awards. The screen comes alive with the intensity of the performances of Stamp and Miss Eggar. Their mastery of difficult roles is eloquently brought out by Wyler’s sensitive, understanding and persuasive directorial hand and his obvious enthusiasm for the story they put on the screen. The very professional work of this threesome is reflected in a motion picture that is constantly all-consuming. For their performances in “The Collector,” Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar won the “best actor” and “best actress” awards at the Cannes Film Festival. The John Fowles novel was adapted for the screen by Stanley Mann and John Kohn and here, too, there is an intelligent and sympathetic fidelity to the original story. And producers Jud Kinberg and Kohn were equally devoted to the idea that a story well done should not be undone by irrelevant and _ inconsequential changes. Certainly William Wyler’s “The Collector” is a moving, disturbing and sometime shocking motion picture. Don’t miss it. No Comment’ A funny thing happened to British actor Terence Stamp on his way to Hollywood to co-star with Samantha Eggar in William Wyler’s “The Collector,” dramatic new Columbia Pictures release at the Theatre in Technicolor, To many in Hollywood and the show world in general, what happened to Terry was shocking and unthinkable: Stamp decided, entirely on his own, that he would give no formal interviews during the filming of John Fowles’ best selling novel. Stamp made it plain from the start that he wasn’t going to be coy about it or hard to get. He simply decided there would be no interviews with him during the making of “The Collector.” He put it this way: “I was in Hollywood, for the first time in my life, for what I considered could be one of the great films of all time. Certainly I was with one of the great producer-directors of this age, William Wyler. “T am relatively new at films. I’ve made only two before this one: ‘Billy Budd’ and ‘Term of Trial.’ I have a lot to learn, a long way to go. “T didn’t want writers saying that I will be good in ‘The Collector.’ I wanted to be good in ‘The Collector.’ So I didn’t want to talk about myself and my aspirations during the filming of the picture. Instead I wanted to spend every moment concentrating on the part, listening to William Wyler, studying and re-studying the script and trying to get inside the part. I wouldn’t do all this and spend time talking about myself and how great I hoped to be.” For their performances in “The Collector,” Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar -won the “best actor” and “best actress” awards at the Cannes Festival. It may be that other young actors will follow Stamp’s policy of less interviews and more acting! Samantha Eggar In John Fowles’ chilling bestseller, “The Collector,” filmed by William Wyler for Columbia Piciures release and now at the Belen Matar adese oie Theatre in Technicolor, Miranda Gray is a beautiful young English girl with a tremendous joy of life. So is the vibrant Samantha Eggar, who portrays Miranda on the screen. Further, Miranda is a girl who leaves her home in the English countryside to go to Lonjust what Samantha also did. In the story, Miranda gets kidnapped and, for two months, is immured from the world in an isolated country mansion. Samantha never has been kidnapped, but she did fall prey to an acting career which, in a way, has kept her apart from everyday life; as an actress, however, she most certainly has not isolated herself. Miss Eggar spent most of her girlhood in the Sussex and Buckingham countryside. She is the niece of theatrical producer Jack Eggar but her parents, on the strict side, were opposed to her becoming an actress. After leaving boarding school, Samantha spent two years at art school, stuying fashion design. But she still wanted to act so her parents finally relented and sent her to the famed Webber-Douglas School in London. While there, she met artist-photographer-writer Cecil Beaton, who gave her a part in his play, “Landscape With Figures.” From that day hence, Samantha Eggar became a prisoner of the theatre. When she played three Shakespearean heroines in succession on the stage of London’s Royal Court Theatre, the young actress was spotted by film producer Betty Box, who cast her in her first film, “Wild and the Willing,” a modest little affair, which she followed with “Dr. Crippen,” “Doctor in Distress” and “Psyche 59,” when she joined big-timers Curt Jurgens and Patricia Neal. Now, under the direction of William Wyler in “The Collector,” Samantha Eggar says her wildest dreams have come true. For their performances in “The Collector,” Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar won the “best actor” and “best actress” awards at the Cannes Film Festival. “Sam” Eggar, as she was knewn to the “Collector” crew, made sure she would not fail. Like the Miranda Gray she portrays, Samantha might as well have been in prison, during work on “The Collector.” She studied her script in her dressing room at lunch time, with the lunch being sent in, with no-nonsense, stern-visaged dramatic coach Kathleen Freeman at her side. Samantha did not have a Saturday or Sunday off. Instead, more study, more Miss Freeman. (Mat 2A; Still No. NY512) Her hands tied and almost helpless with terror, lovely Samantha Eggar is dragged back to her cellerprison by kidnapper Terence Stamp in this scene from William Wyler’s "The Collector," new Columbia Pictures release in Technicolor based on the John Fowles novel.