Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick directed Classic Noirs Killers Kiss, and The Killing, also Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, and others).
Written by Stanley Kubrick and Anthony Burgess, and based on Burgess' book of the same title. Cinematography was by John Alcott (Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Vice Squad). Music was by numerous composers and artists with an emphasis on Beethoven's 9th.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge juvie delinquent leader of his gang of droogs, Patrick Magee as Frank Alexander a writer, Michael Bates as Chief Guard Barnes, Warren Clarke as droog Dim, John Clive as a Stage actor, Adrienne Corri as Mary Alexander, Carl Duering as Dr. Brodsky, Paul Farrell as Tramp, Clive Francis as Joe the Lodger, Michael Gover as Prison governor, Miriam Karlin as "Cat lady" Weathers, James Marcus as Georgie, Aubrey Morris as P. R. Deltoid a post-corrective adviser, Godfrey Quigley as Prison chaplain, Sheila Raynor as Alex's mother, Madge Ryan as Dr. Branom, John Savident as Conspirator Dolin, Anthony Sharp as Frederick, Minister of the Interior, Philip Stone as Alex's father, Pauline Taylor as Dr. Taylor, Margaret Tyzack as Conspirator Rubinstein, Michael Tarn as Pete.
Story
A black screen with Henry Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, played on a moog synthesizer the screen flashes to Orange, Warner Brothers presents in white, flash to blue A Stanley Kubrick Prodution, flash back to Orance and a tiltle in white. "A Clockwork Orange." This cuts to Alex DeLarge.
(below with titles removed)
Alex sports a black bowler hat over a mop top hair style. Only his right eye has false eyelashes. As we are contemplating that, we slowly start to zoom out, and see that Alex wears a white shirt, suspenders that hold up white pants and a cod piece. He slowly lifts a glass of Milk Plus to his lips.
His three droogs are similarly attired in white with black hats of various styles . The all are holding glasses of Milk Plus. As we continue to pull back further, we see more of the Korova Milkbar. It's a subterranean lounge. Decadently black walled, psychedelic letters spell out Moloko Vellocet (Milk + Vellocet, Moloko Drencrom, (Milk + Drencrom).
There are outré white plastic, anatomically correct women, that have technicolor hair and matching pubes, functioning as both a footstools / coffee tables, and others that sit squatting like gargoyles atop milk plus dispensers that also function as booth dividers. Spaced around the lounge are bouncers dressed in white.
So, thinking back now it looks as if Kubrick sort of takes the initial concept of The Bowery Boys / Dead End Kids, with their language mangling leader "Slip" Mahoney, and dopey "Sach" Jones, along with Bobby, Whitey, and Homer. The Boys, all hang out at Louie's Sweet Shop. Kubrick combines them, with their UK counterparts, sets it in the future, and twists it all into a dystopian nightmare where the "boys" all now hang out at The Korova Milkbar.
Of course the New York-ese is out and Alex speaks using an English / Russian vocab with a dash of Cockney rhyming slang called Nadsat.
[first lines in V.O. as the camera zooms out]
Alex: There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova Milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.
The old ultra-violence
Alex and his droogs first attack a drunk they find singing to himself laying on his back in a concrete drainage culvert.
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| Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge |
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Next in an abandoned casino, they come across Billyboy and his rival gang of five droogs. They are all dressed army surplus fatigues and WWII Nazi memorabilia, and are up on the old stage ripping the clothes off of and about to rape a young devotchka to Gioachino Rossini's The Thieving Magpie (Overture).
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| Richard Connaught as Billyboy |
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They have a rumble and the devotchka runs off to escape naked into the night. After the rumble Alex and his droogs steal a car, and they go for a joyride in a high performance Durango, playing "road hog" driving pedal to the metal, and running other vehicles off the road.
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Then they head out to "the country" for a little home invasion.
At the home of Frank Alexander a writer they gain entry by claiming that there was a terrible car accident and need to use a phone. They seriously beat Frank and Alex rapes his wife all the while singing "Singing in the Rain."
In Anthony Burgess's novel the title of the book that Frank Alexander is writing is "A Clockwork Orange." aha!
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| Patrick Magee as Frank Alexander |
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| Adrienne Corri as Mrs. Alexander |
All tuckered out from their rampages, they all pile back into the Korova Milk Bar at the end of their spree, for a nightcap.
Dim & LucyAlso in the Korova is a group of "sophistos" from the TV station that's just around the corner in one of the other booths. When the lounges piped in music dies down at the end of a tune, the devotchka in the group begins to sing Beethoven. It mesmerizes Alex.
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| Warren Clarke as Dim |
Later we watch Alex walk back through his neighborhood to arrive at the graffiti decorated edifice that contains the flat where he lives with his folks. He peals off his false eyelashes then drops the nights loot into a draw filled with watches, money, jewelry, and other pinched valuables.
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He puts in a cassette of Beethoven's 9th, and we get a nice montage of Alex's digs and it's whimsical, and hilariously sacrilegious decor, this sequence is edited to the music very effectively.
Ludwig Van
The next day the droogs pull a bit of a revolt on Alex, Pete and Dim want to move on to the big time and knock over wealthy "Cat lady" Weathers, who runs a health farm. Alex stews it over holding in his anger but then explodes and knocks some sense into them, he even slices a groove into the back of Dims hand with a knife.
Droog revolt
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| Michael Tarn as Pete |
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Alex, once on top again, throws the boys a bone by agreeing to the cat lady plan.
They use their same M.O. claiming and accident but the cat lady tells them to use the phone in the public house just down the road.
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Alex goes down and opens the door to let his droogs in, but it all goes Noirsville when Dim smacks Alex upside the head with a milk bottle and the droogs abandon Alex to the approaching police.
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Alex wakes up in a hospital, gets interrogated by the police, is charged with manslaughter. after the cat lady dies, goes on trial and is sentenced to 15 years.
Noirsville
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| Anthony Sharp as Minister |
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| Paul Farrell as Tramp |
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| Sheila Raynor as Alex's mother |
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| Aubrey Morris as P. R. Deltoid |
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| Carl Duering as Dr. Brodsky |
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| James Marcus as Georgie |
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| Madge Ryan as Dr. Branom |
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| Michael Bates as Chief Guard Barnes |
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Kubrick's second act is Alex's life as a con. It spoofs, politics, the prison system, and toys with the ideas of using experimental quick fixes, to reduce the costs of incarceration.. Here it involves a string of aversion therapy "torture" sessions. Alex is seated in a theater chain with his head clamped straight forward with his eye lids forced open by retainers on springs so he cannot shut his eyelids the hilarious expressions on his face are priceless.
Its the Ludovico technique, involving drugs that induce nausea anytime Alex is shown images of ultra violence or sex, and some of the vids are scored with Alex's beloved Beethoven.
In fact, all the musical choices emphasize the story.
The third act is Alex's return to society and there is another hilarious weepy sequence of Alex's homecoming set to "the prelude: Dawn" from William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini.
Kubrick, writing in Saturday Review, described the film: "A social satire dealing with the question of whether behavioral psychology and psychological conditioning are dangerous new weapons for a totalitarian government to use to impose vast controls on its citizens and turn them into little more than robots."
Malcolm McDowell knocks it out of the park, all the performances are very entertaining. Almost every scene also has something orange. A visual / aural masterpiece. Bravo!
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I hate this movie.
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