Tuesday 21 September 2010

Tam Lin (1969)



Title song by Pentangle. Starring Ava Gardner, Ian McShane, Cyril Cusack, er, Richard Wattis, Stephanie Beacham, Madeline Smith, Jenny Hanley AND Joanna Lumley. Plus Withnail's Bruce Robinson. Miss Gardner's gowns are executed by Belmain apparently, which sounds like a Celtic sacrifice. More here:



Roddy McDowall's only stab at directing - from the glimpses here maybe it should be filed under 'dated but intriguing'?

Folklore-wise, Tam Lin was kidnapped by the Queen of the Fairies and can only be rescued by a virgin. Roses are plucked in forests, transmogrification occurs and I would love to see how this is applied to the screenplay (Gardner = Fair Queen, McShane = Tam Lin I'd imagine). It's also filmed in Edinburgh. Anyone seen it?



That's probably the Queen of the Fairies and Tam Lin right there.

1 comment:

  1. Yes, seen it - it's rather good. The Faerie Queen enchants Tom Lynn with a pair of yellow lensed shades and he is bound to her - until his true love appears and sets him free in a bizarre scene where he turns into a bear then catches fire. File under 'it was the sixties'!

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