Two Left Feet

Who’d have thought that Frank Spencer started out as a wild youth with not one but two girlfriends up his sleeve and the kind of youth prepared to protect himself from a gang with a flick-knife. But it’s true! Well almost.


For me Michael Crawford will always be synonymous with the drippy Frank in ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘em’ - which could be annoying for him as that was some forty years ago and a lot of Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals featuring Crawford in lead roles have passed under the bridge since then.


But before all of that there was this. A great little coming of age drama, equal parts Alfie, Quadrophenia and On the Buses (attitude-wise).

The title is a little misleading as, although Crawford (as Alan Crabbe) starts off in the movie as a bit shy and awkward, he soon blossoms and, apart from a bit of foot trouble whilst dancing, there is little here to suggest that he is overly clumsy. In fact, there are moments when he’s in danger of being quite a cool dude indeed.

Based on David Stuart Leslie's novel ‘In My Solitude’ and featuring support from Julia Foster, Michael Craze and Blow Up icon David Hemmings, Two Left Feet is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.


Alan Crabbe is 19 and works as a car mechanic, the youngest in the company. He has a bit of cash, his own gaffe at a boarding house but, despite playing it cool with his work colleagues about the fairer sex, he’s pretty desperate for a woman of his own.


The opening titles show him on a tube escalator eyeing up the passing girls as well as the underwear posters, and the sequence culminates with him queuing at a Soho cinema to see a film entitled ‘Naked as Nature Intended’ – all a bit racy for the time of its release, pre-Beatles and a few years away from the era of ‘free love’.


When he breaks for tea with his mates the new girl (Nyree Dawn Porter) working at the café takes an interest in him. She’s sexy and confident, older than he is and hip to the local jazz scene. When they go on a date they head for a jazz club where she ends up eyeing up a couple of hipsters who really know the moves.
Frustrated by the experience, and having paid for the evening, he complains as he drops het to a her door and reluctantly she agrees to let him in to her house ‘as he longs as he makes it a quick one’. Despite the fact that this has been all he’s dreamed about for months, he is put out by her lack of romance and refuses to follow through.


Despite this they go on a second date and soon they fall in with a cast of other youths which include the daughter of a local criminal, an alcoholic teenager and some violent thugs.


It’s easy to see why the film got an X-certificate on release though today it has been re-rated as a PG, which speaks volumes about the way society has changed since then. Of course, that would mean that no one under the age of 18 could have seen it whereas it’s clear, from the music and teen-scene, that this would have had its greatest appeal amongst younger teens. As a result it flopped.


The film was produced and directed by none other than Hammer stalwart Roy Ward Baker and certainly deserves a re-appraisal as a great example of sensitive coming of age cinema, dealing with tough issues in a realistic way. Crawford is knock-out in the title role and there is little doubt that, had he not been so damned convincing in ‘Some Mothers’ that he could have been a great serious actor. A real natural talent.

The film looks amazing too – a really clean transfer with great clarity and deep contrast.


The package comes with an image gallery, trailer and a cinema publicity brochure provided as a PDF – a really nice addition from Network.



If it looks like your kind of movie then it probably is – so buy it and support Network’s Herculean endeavours to bring all these little known cinematic gems out of the archives and onto our screens.