See if this sounds familiar: In a college town circa 1962 a group of students carouse from bar to bar, falling in and out of bed with coeds as well as married women and culminating in a prank that has disastrous consequences.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
This is a movie that I fell across as I was searching for something to watch on my favorite streaming channel Pub-D-Hub. I decided to watch it because I was curious about the “perform pranks with disastrous consequences” line in the synopsis. I had to know the nature of the pranks. I continued watching because of the cast which includes some of Britain’s biggest stars at the start of their careers.
The Wild and the Willing may bear several similarities in plot to 1978’s Animal House — there’s even a huge parade through town complete with floats — but the earlier film is not a comedy at all. It’s a drama and a fairly compelling one. I usually dismiss movies I’ve never heard of because I always thought if I were unaware of them, how good could they be? I’ve spent an inordinate amount of my life watching and reading about movies. I thought I knew everything. As I trawl around the inventories of these obscure streaming channels, I find I don’t know all that much. It seems I am making new discoveries all of the time.
Watch The Wild and the Willing for yourself embedded below or check it out at the fantastic Internet Archive.
