The Butterfly Collector – 1965 | 119 mins | Thriller | Colour

Plot Synopsis

William Wyler undertakes a vastly difficult assignment, and carries it off with rare artistry, in bringing to the screen a stage-bound, suspenseful enactment of John Fowles’ macabre bestselling novel The Collector. Samantha Eggar’s attempts to escape from the weird surroundings of her captor and her eventual realisation of his mental instability are the basis for the films riveting character study and chilling backdrop. Quintessential Sixties stars Stamp and Eggar (in a role intended for Natalie Wood) turn in remarkably restrained performances; Stamp in particular makes his character entirely believable and carefully veils his offbeat characterization. The film was Oscar nominated for Best Director, Adapted Screenplay and Actress. Kenneth More was also cast as Eggar’s older lover but was his role was cut from the final edit.

A maladjusted pools winner accumulates more than the prized collection of butterflies that fill his study when broadening his collecting by kidnapping a vibrant human specimen. Inferiority-ridden young bank clerk Freddie Clegg (Terence Stamp) with an uncontrollable sex obsession abducts attractive art student Miranda Grey (Samantha Eggar) in London and holds her prisoner in the cellar of his secluded farmhouse. Clegg declares his love for Miranda and has an uncontrollable desire to force her to reciprocate his feelings – she reluctantly agrees to be a cooperative prisoner for one month after which he promises to release her. However, on the evening of her liberation, Clegg goes back on his word triggering a chilling finale.