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The Knack... and How to Get It

Play trailer Poster for The Knack... and How to Get It 1965 1h 24m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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72% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 68% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Desperate to improve his luck with women, London schoolteacher Colin (Michael Crawford) enlists his artist roommate, Tom (Donal Donnelly), to help drag a brass bed back to their flat. Along the way they meet Nancy (Rita Tushingham), a new girl in town, who follows them home. There they encounter Tolen (Ray Brooks), the third roommate and a consummate lady-killer. He tries to help Colin seduce Nancy, but ends up whisking her away on his motorcycle instead, and Colin is determined to get her back.
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The Knack... and How to Get It

Critics Reviews

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John Russell Taylor Sight & Sound Mar 31, 2020
The sets by television designer Assheton Gorton only emphasise one's earlier mystification that the British cinema has not made more use of his remarkable talents. Go to Full Review Pauline Kael McCall's Sep 20, 2023
In The Knack, the running jokes and gags never come off. Go to Full Review Elizabeth Hardwick Vogue Jun 20, 2023
The Knack is very funny. Richard Lester, its director, is an original talent with a sense of this very minute. Go to Full Review Sean Axmaker Stream on Demand Oct 9, 2022
... a delightfully frivolous take on swinging London and the sexual revolution. Go to Full Review Judith Crist New York Herald Tribune Aug 15, 2022
Richard Lester, the director who demonstrated his own knack with A Hard Day's Night, knows just how to disorganize a fragile little plot to make it a wonderfully rollicking, go-with-the-breeze film. Go to Full Review Edward Zatlyn Los Angeles Free Press Feb 4, 2020
The screenplay by Charles Wood (based on the play by Ann Jellicoe) is alive, written for the cinema with as many sight gags and visual trips as can be packed or stacked into the thin little story line. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Richard W @rdwoolf Apr 24, 2026 I enjoyed it's sixties British humor. It feels similar to A Hard Day's Night, which makes since as that was the film Richard Lester directed before making The Knack. I liked how it framed the younger lead characters against the older, stodgier British society that made disapproving comments throughout the film about what the lead characters were doing...the way older generations always do of younger generations. It is expected that the way women are treated in a sixties British sex comedy do no line up with how we believe women should be treated today. Attitudes, values, and even humor have changed since then. But some of the humor in this film involves a woman falsely making a very strong criminal complaint against one or more of the main characters. But also, it is surprising to see (but probably shouldn't be), not a single person in the film even considers that what she is saying might be true. It is all just a big joke to everyone else. Damn. That's cold. See more O g @RT76089177 Jul 24, 2025 Even the proto-Spencerisms - facially, verbally and in carrying out some fairly strenuous stunts - that Michael Crawford intriguingly exhibits in this film don't save it from being unwatchable. Equal parts "quirky", misguided and plain nasty. See more Leaburn O @RT35452347 Mar 26, 2024 Not the best Palme D'Or winner. Crawford stars so it is a humourous version of The Servant in my eyes. Bit weird and difficult to follow or care about. Watched on DVD. See more steve d @RT35616104 Jul 18, 2020 If this is the Knack, I don't want it. See more Sep 21, 2019 Fantastically tongue-in-cheek social critique! Love the narrative and editing experimentation going on here. Made me laugh quite a bit. The two male leads are the kind of people you love to hate, but the film doesn't initially frame them in a negative light which I liked. See more Sep 28, 2016 This is the movie Richard Lester made in between his two Beatles movies. It couldn't be more 1965. Phantom of the Opera fans might enjoy seeing Michael Crawford as a shy nerd. See more Read all reviews
The Knack... and How to Get It

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Cast & Crew

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Richard Lester

Director

Rita Tushingham

Nancy Jones

Ray Brooks

Tolen

Michael Crawford

Colin

Donal Donnelly

Tom

William Dexter

Dress Shop Owner

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The Knack... and How to Get It

The Knack... and How to Get It (1965) The Knack, and How to Get It (1965) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Desperate to improve his luck with women, London schoolteacher Colin (Michael Crawford) enlists his artist roommate, Tom (Donal Donnelly), to help drag a brass bed back to their flat. Along the way they meet Nancy (Rita Tushingham), a new girl in town, who follows them home. There they encounter Tolen (Ray Brooks), the third roommate and a consummate lady-killer. He tries to help Colin seduce Nancy, but ends up whisking her away on his motorcycle instead, and Colin is determined to get her back.
Director
Richard Lester
Producer
Oscar Lewenstein
Screenwriter
Charles Wood
Distributor
Lopert Pictures Corp.
Production Co
Woodfall Film Productions
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
British English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 29, 1965, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 16, 2008
Runtime
1h 24m
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