''Cul-de-sac'' is a 1966 British

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a Film genre, genre combining the thriller (genre), thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting ...

film directed by

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

, written by Polanski and

Gérard Brach Gérard Brach (23 July 1927 – 9 September 2006) was a French screenwriter best known for his collaborations with the film directors Roman Polanski and Jean-Jacques Annaud. He directed two movies: ''La Maison'' and ''The Boat on the Grass, Le B ...

, and starring

Donald Pleasence Donald Henry Pleasence (; 5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an English actor. He was known for his "bald head and intense, staring eyes," and played more than 250 stage, film, and television roles across a nearly sixty-year career. Pleas ...

, Françoise Dorléac,

Lionel Stander Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor, activist, and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. He had an extensive career in theatre, film, radio, and television that spanned nearly 70 years, ...

and

Jack MacGowran John Joseph MacGowran (13 October 1918 – 30 January 1973) was an Irish actor. He was known for being one of the foremost stage interpreters of the work of Samuel Beckett and Seán O'Casey. He was also known to film audiences for his roles as ...

, with Iain Quarrier, Geoffrey Sumner, Renée Houston, William Franklyn, Marie Kean and Trevor Delaney in supporting roles. It also features

Jacqueline Bisset Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset ( ; born 13 September 1944) is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in ''The Detective (1968 film), The Detective'', ''Bullitt'', and ''The Sweet ...

in a small role, in her second film appearance. Polanski's second English-language feature, it follows two injured

gangster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''Organized crime, mob'' and the suffix ''wikt:-ster, -st ...

s who take refuge in the remote island castle of a young British couple in the

North of England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...

, spurring a series of mind games and violent altercations.

Plot

Gruff American gangster Dickey pushes his broken-down car along a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

through rising seawater while his eccentric companion Albie lies inside, bleeding from a gunshot wound after a botched robbery. Cut off by the unexpected rising tide, they are on the only road to the remote

tidal island A tidal island is a raised area of land within a waterbody, which is connected to the larger mainland by a natural isthmus or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide, causing the land to switch between being ...

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, where, in a dark castle on a hilltop, a deeply neurotic and effeminate middle-aged Englishman named George lives with his French second wife, the young and promiscuous Teresa. Dickey breaks into the castle and telephones his underworld boss, Katelbach, to send someone to collect him and Albie. He then disconnects the phone lines and proceeds to hold the couple hostage while awaiting the arrival of Katelbach the next day. When Albie dies from his injuries, Dickey forces Teresa and George to dig his grave. They then hold a wake, with Dickey and George getting drunk together on the beach while Teresa swims nude in the ocean. The next morning, a car approaches the castle, but instead of Katelbach, it turns out to be a bunch of George's obnoxious friends who have shown up unannounced. Dickey poses as a servant while Teresa flirts with one of the guests, Cecil. As they all sit down to dinner, the young son of one of the guests finds Cecil's shotgun and starts waving it at the crowd of people, frightening them all. He then fires it, blowing out a stained-glass window in the castle. The gun is wrestled away from the child and placed inside a hallway. George has had enough and demands they all leave, which they do, but Cecil forgets and leaves his unloaded shotgun behind. Dickey takes off his jacket and hooks the telephone back up, while Teresa furtively takes Dickey's pistol from his coat pocket. Upon calling the hotel where Katelbach was staying, Dickey is informed that he is not going to come, so Dickey prepares to take George's car to drive to the mainland. George refuses to let him, and a fight ensues. Teresa hands Dickey's pistol to George and George shoots him several times; Dickey manages to retrieve his

Tommy gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy gun", "Chicago typewriter", or "trench broom") is a blowback-operated, selective-fire submachine gun, invented and developed by Brigadier General John T. Thompson, a United States Arm ...

from his broken-down car, hidden in the chicken house. Too weak to fire the gun at George, Dickey collapses to the ground, laughing, and discharges the weapon at George's car, which explodes in flames. Fearful of being implicated in the killing (and of reprisals from Katelbach's other henchmen), Teresa frantically insists that she and George abandon the castle. George is in a state of shock and seems unable to move. Suddenly, they see a car approaching. Not knowing that Dickey's boss had abandoned him, they assume it is Katelbach. Desperate and afraid, Teresa runs and hides in a cupboard. The car arrives, and it turns out to be Cecil, who has returned to retrieve his shotgun. Cecil offers to take them to the police, but George refuses to go. He watches as Cecil and Teresa drive off into the night. George goes on a rampage, destroying his art studio, then running out of the castle and down to the beach. As day breaks, he sits down on a rock in a

fetal position Fetal position (British English: also foetal) is the positioning of the body of a prenatal fetus as it develops. In this position, the back is curved, the head is bowed, and the limbs are bent and drawn up to the torso. A compact position is ...

and weeps hysterically, shouting out the name of his first wife, as the early morning tide rises around him.

Cast

Themes and interpretations

Like Polanski's previous film '' Repulsion'' (1965), ''Cul-de-sac'' explores themes of horror, frustrated sexuality and alienation, which have become characteristic of many of the director's films, especially '' Rosemary's Baby'' (1968) and ''

The Tenant ''The Tenant'' () is a 1976 French psychological horror thriller film directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay he co-wrote with Gérard Brach, based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Roland Topor. The film stars Polanski, Isabelle Adj ...

'' (1976). ''Cul-de-sac'' has been compared in tone and theme with the works of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

and

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

and these similarities are underscored by the casting of two roles in the film,

who was renowned for his stage performances of Beckett's plays and

originated the role of Davies in Pinter's '' The Caretaker''. The film's German title is ''Wenn Katelbach kommt'' (''When Katelbach Comes''). Christopher Weedman also notes the film's similarities with "such hard-edged

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( ; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart ...

hostage thrillers as '' The Petrified Forest'' (

Archie Mayo Archibald L. Mayo (January 29, 1891 – December 4, 1968) was a film director, screenwriter and actor. Early years The son of a tailor, Mayo was born in New York City. After attending the city's public schools, he studied at Columbia Unive ...

, 1936), '' Key Largo'' (

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...

, 1948), and '' The Desperate Hours'' (

William Wyler William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a German-born American film director and producer. Known for his work in numerous genres over five decades, he received numerous awards and accolades, including three Aca ...

, 1955)."

Filming

The film was shot on location in 1965 on the island of

(also known as Holy Island) off the coast of

, England.

Lindisfarne Castle Lindisfarne Castle is a 16th-century castle located on Lindisfarne, Holy Island, near Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, much altered by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1901. The island is accessible from the mainland at low tide by means of a ca ...

, which served as the home in the film, is now a

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

property and can be toured by the public; despite the passage of time, the building and its surroundings are largely unchanged.

Reception

Critical response

On the film

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Cul-de-sac'' holds an approval rating of 83% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10.

Accolades

''Cul-de-sac'' was awarded the 1966

Golden Bear The Golden Bear () is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, the most important international film festival award. The bear is the heraldic an ...

at the 16th Berlin International Film Festival.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* *
''Cul-de-sac''
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

*
''Cul-de-sac''
– an article by Christopher Weedman at ''

Senses of Cinema ''Senses of Cinema'' is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, ''Senses of Cinema'' publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career ...

''
''Cul-de-sac: High Tides''
– an essay by David Thompson at

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cul-De-Sac 1966 films 1966 black comedy films 1966 comedy-drama films 1966 independent films 1960s British films 1960s comedy thriller films 1960s English-language films 1960s psychological thriller films British black-and-white films British black comedy films British comedy-drama films British comedy thriller films British independent films British psychological thriller films English-language black comedy films English-language comedy thriller films English-language independent films Films about home invasion Films directed by Roman Polanski Films scored by Krzysztof Komeda Films set in castles Films set in Northumberland Films set on islands Films shot in Northumberland Films with screenplays by Gérard Brach Films with screenplays by Roman Polanski Golden Bear winners Lindisfarne Psychological comedy films