The Strange Affair – 1968 | 106 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

This bitty adaptation of Bernard Tom’s undemanding anecdotal novel concerns an idealistic young police recruit who is convinced that right is right, but gradually discovers that life just isn’t that straightforward in a bitterly cynical ending. Director David Greene fashions a quirky pop-art thriller that deftly mixes a pseudo-documentary storyline with the rancid odour of Swinging London’s underworld sleaze and corruption. Greene displays a visual flair for the mod paraphernalia of the 60s including flower-power peace protesters, Indian mystics, inflatable furniture and round beds.

Idealistic Peter Strange (Michael York) fails his University finals, so decides to do something positive for society and enrols as a young constable with the Metropolitan Police. Strange is determined to doing everything by the book,unlike the more cavalier approach to police work exuded by Scotland Yard detective David Pierce (Jeremy Kemp). Pierce is tipped off to a drug shipment being delivered to Robert Quince (Jack Watson), head of a London crime family,but the tip comes to nothing and Pierce suspects a bent copper, Insp. Wally Evans(Artro Morris), tipped them off.

Meanwhile,Strange is sent on riot control duty and befriends 16-year-old “mod”girl protester Frederica ‘Fred’ March (Susan George). The pair subsequently begins dating and Strange takes one hapless step after another, allowing his morals to slip. He spends the night in bed with underage Fred, but unbeknown to the rookie copper, her permissive Aunt and Uncle secretly film their lovemaking from behind a one-way mirror for a pornographic ring.

Insp.Evans survives a corruption probe and Pierce’s attempt to put the Quince trio behind bars is thrown out of court for lack of evidence. Frustrated at his failed attempts to get a secure legal conviction, a desperate Pierce resorts to blackmailing PC Strange into planting heroin on one of the three smugglers. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Strange agrees, but at the subsequent trial the strain shows when Pierce takes the witness box and the case collapses.