A key one for me (being 18 and new in London) was Winner's THE SYSTEM from 1964 about a gang of youngs in an English seaside town -
Torquay I think [Weymouth was the seaside town where Reed and his gang hung out in, in Losey's THE DAMNED, 1961]. David Hemmings here is quite nondescript as one of the boys - but 2 years later he would be starring one of the key roles of the '60s: the photographer in Antonioni's BLOW-UP - talk about catching the zeitgeist!

Also in THE SYSTEM is Jane Merrow, as the girl who breaks Reed's heart - she was actually Hemmings' girl at the time, and he writes nicely about her in his autobiography which he luckily finished before he died in 2003. I had a nice conversation with Jane myself in 1966 when she was doing a play in London - she went on to co-star in THE LION IN WINTER, another key 60s movie, before doing television in the States. THE SYSTEM though is well worth seeking out ... 




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