Rattle of a Simple Man

Percy Winthram is a naive young man who still lives with his mother. He goes to London with his friends for the Cup Final and finds himself in a Soho club, face to face with a hostess named Cyrenne. Taking up a friend’s bet, he goes back to her flat, and a night worth boasting of seems to be in prospect. But once the beer and the bravado run out, Percy’s innocence and vulnerability come into the open. The film does not build the night as a sexual promise; it turns it into a conversation between two lonely people. The account does not define the woman by her work and does not make a fool of the man. It was adapted from a play and takes place almost in a single setting. Harry H. Corbett and Diane Cilento appear in Muriel Box’s ninety two minute British film, completed in 1964.