Review for Blind Date (aka Chance Meeting)

"Film is a dog: the head is commerce, the tail is art…rarely does the tail wag the dog'
Joseph Losey

Losey found his cinematic feet at the age of 39 when he directed a 12-year-old Dean Stockwell in The Boy with Green Hair. He then directed The Lawless (1950), a remake of Fritz Lang's M (1951), The Prowler (1951) and The Big Night (1951). It was after these politically enthused movies, which dealt with social injustice, race relations, serial killers, police corruption and personal cynicism, that the House of Un-American Activities (during the McCarthy era) blacklisted Losey in 1951 for supposed ties with the communist party. Only three years before this, Losey's movie The Boy with Green Hair was a political statement on America's refusal to except difference:-



Unable to work in Hollywood, Losey travelled to Italy, directed the downbeat Stranger on the Prowl (1952) and used the pseudonym Andrea Forzano. He then changed his name to Victor Hanbury when he moved to the UK to make the psychological drama The Sleeping Tiger (1954) with Dirk Bogarde. Due to his political beliefs, Losey name had changed once again to Joseph Walton for The Intimate Stranger (1956). It was not until the tense crime thriller Time Without Pity (1957); six-years after leaving Hollywood, that Losey was able to use his real name. He had finally found a second home.

His career in the UK flourished, directing The Gypsy and the Gentlemen (1958) then Blind Date (1959). In early 1960s, Losey directed The Criminal (1960), the turbulent and deliberate melodrama Eva (1962) and the sci-fi masterpiece The Damned (1963). It was after this that Losey started his long collaboration with the playwright Harold Pinter, working together on The Servant (1963), with Pinter penning the script. The themes of which include class conflict, seduction and homosexuality. It starred Dirk Bogarde.



In the mid-60s, Losey reunited with Dirk Bogarde to make the anti-war film King and Country (1964). He then made the espionage adventure Modesty Blaise (1966) with Bogarde, Terence Stamp and Monica Vitti. It was after this colourful and camp film, which inspired the Austin Powers movies that Losey collaborated with Harold Pinter again on Accident (1967). After this, Losey worked with another playwright, Tennessee Williams on the self-indulgent Boom! (1968), the film starred Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.



When Losey was edging towards 60, he made Secret Ceremony (1968) with Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Mitchum and Mia Farrow. Figures in a Landscape (1970) would move him into the 1970s, followed by his third and final collaboration with Pinter, The Go-Between (1970).  The films that followed were, The Assassination of Trotsky (1972), A Doll's House (1973), Galileo (1975), The Romantic Englishwoman (1975), Mr. Klein (1976), Roads to the South (1978), Don Giovanni (1979), Boris Godunov (1980), La Truite (1982) and his final movie Steaming (1985), was released a year after his death at the age of 75. The majority of these films are available on DVD. Some are more difficult to find.



This brings us to Blind Date, the 1959 Losey film that stars Stanley Baker, Micheline Presle and Hardy Kruger . Like Boom! this was a sought after Losey film that wasnt available on DVD, until now. The family run distributor Renown Pictures has released it via their website for the reasonable price of 12.99. Look at their catalogue. They have some interesting British titles:-

http://www.renownpicturesltd.com/

Disc: Even though there are no special features, the picture is superb, take a look at some screengrabs: