H E Bates was a popular author with the makers of British films and television programmes in the 1970s. "Dulcima" from 1971 was followed by a film of "The Triple Echo" the following year, and by television serialisations of "Love for Lydia", "A Moment in Time" and "Fair Stood the Wind for France". Several episodes of the ITV drama series "Country Matters" from 1972-73 were also based upon Bates's stories.
Bates's novella "Dulcima" was written in 1953 and was probably set in Kent or Sussex; the film transfers the action to 1960s Gloucestershire. Dulcima Gaskain is a young woman from a working-class rural family who becomes housekeeper to a widowed middle-aged farmer named Mr Parker. He has plenty of money, but is a miserly, bad-tempered, drunken recluse, and lives in squalor until Dulcima starts to clean and tidy his house. Parker becomes besotted with the younger woman and the two become lovers; there is even talk of marriage. Dulcima invents a fictitious admirer, "Albert", to arouse Parker's jealousy, believing that this is the best way to keep him interested in her. Problems arise, however, when Dulcima falls in love with the gamekeeper from a neighbouring property, a young man of around her own age, and Parker identifies him with the supposed "Albert".
The title character Dulcima, as described by Bates, was rather plain, but here she is played by one of Britain's classic beauties of the era, Carol White. In the mid and late sixties she was hotly tipped as the next big star of the British cinema, although she never really achieved stardom, largely because of problems with drug and substance abuse. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles in three London-set social-realist films directed by Ken Loach, the Wednesday Plays "Up the Junction" and Cathy Come Home", and the feature film "Poor Cow" which won her the nickname "the Battersea Bardot". In "Dulcima" she showed that she could also do rural-based social realism, and gives one of her best performances. John Mills is equally good; he called the role of the eccentric curmudgeon Parker "a fabulous part, one of the best I've ever had".
I note that some reviewers describe this film as a "comedy". My first reaction was to wonder whether those reviewers had actually watched the film, or at least whether they had watched it all the way to its dramatic and tragic conclusion. My second reaction, however, was to concede that those reviewers might have had a point, or at least half a point, because "Dulcima" is essentially a tragicomedy. It is one of those stories- Moliere's "Tartuffe" is another- which could have either a happy or a tragic ending. In "Tartuffe" the movement of the play seems to be towards tragedy until a sudden deus ex machina ending restores the moral balance and all ends happily with the villain Tartuffe punished, the virtuous characters rewarded and the foolish Orgon made to see the error of his ways but not otherwise made to suffer.
Here the movement is in the other direction. The story of the mercenary Dulcima and the credulous Parker, who thinks himself smart but who is in reality her dupe, could easily have been played for laughs, and in some early scenes actually is. The mood darkens, however, with the introduction to the story of the gamekeeper, a rather innocent young man who does not realise the full truth of the situation he has blundered into. Bates's sudden ending, as shocking in the novella as it is here, brings us back to reality and makes us realise that in real life the infatuation of a foolish old man for a scheming young woman rarely ends happily for either party. I said earlier that both White and Mills give great performances. What makes them great is that both actors are able to bring out both the ridiculous side of their characters' behaviour, as well as its potentially dangerous side. 8/10.
Bates's novella "Dulcima" was written in 1953 and was probably set in Kent or Sussex; the film transfers the action to 1960s Gloucestershire. Dulcima Gaskain is a young woman from a working-class rural family who becomes housekeeper to a widowed middle-aged farmer named Mr Parker. He has plenty of money, but is a miserly, bad-tempered, drunken recluse, and lives in squalor until Dulcima starts to clean and tidy his house. Parker becomes besotted with the younger woman and the two become lovers; there is even talk of marriage. Dulcima invents a fictitious admirer, "Albert", to arouse Parker's jealousy, believing that this is the best way to keep him interested in her. Problems arise, however, when Dulcima falls in love with the gamekeeper from a neighbouring property, a young man of around her own age, and Parker identifies him with the supposed "Albert".
The title character Dulcima, as described by Bates, was rather plain, but here she is played by one of Britain's classic beauties of the era, Carol White. In the mid and late sixties she was hotly tipped as the next big star of the British cinema, although she never really achieved stardom, largely because of problems with drug and substance abuse. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles in three London-set social-realist films directed by Ken Loach, the Wednesday Plays "Up the Junction" and Cathy Come Home", and the feature film "Poor Cow" which won her the nickname "the Battersea Bardot". In "Dulcima" she showed that she could also do rural-based social realism, and gives one of her best performances. John Mills is equally good; he called the role of the eccentric curmudgeon Parker "a fabulous part, one of the best I've ever had".
I note that some reviewers describe this film as a "comedy". My first reaction was to wonder whether those reviewers had actually watched the film, or at least whether they had watched it all the way to its dramatic and tragic conclusion. My second reaction, however, was to concede that those reviewers might have had a point, or at least half a point, because "Dulcima" is essentially a tragicomedy. It is one of those stories- Moliere's "Tartuffe" is another- which could have either a happy or a tragic ending. In "Tartuffe" the movement of the play seems to be towards tragedy until a sudden deus ex machina ending restores the moral balance and all ends happily with the villain Tartuffe punished, the virtuous characters rewarded and the foolish Orgon made to see the error of his ways but not otherwise made to suffer.
Here the movement is in the other direction. The story of the mercenary Dulcima and the credulous Parker, who thinks himself smart but who is in reality her dupe, could easily have been played for laughs, and in some early scenes actually is. The mood darkens, however, with the introduction to the story of the gamekeeper, a rather innocent young man who does not realise the full truth of the situation he has blundered into. Bates's sudden ending, as shocking in the novella as it is here, brings us back to reality and makes us realise that in real life the infatuation of a foolish old man for a scheming young woman rarely ends happily for either party. I said earlier that both White and Mills give great performances. What makes them great is that both actors are able to bring out both the ridiculous side of their characters' behaviour, as well as its potentially dangerous side. 8/10.