O Lucky Man! (1973): Lindsay Anderson’s Satire, Second Panel in “Mick Travis Trilogy,” All Starring Malcolm McDowell

Lindsay Anderson directed O Lucky Man! a British satirical fantasy, starring Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, and Helen Mirren as his love interest.

O Lucky Man!
Theatrical release poster

McDowell had first played Travis as a disaffected public schoolboy in his first film in Anderson’s If…. (1968).

O Lucky Man! is the second film in the “Mick Travis trilogy,” all starring Malcolm McDowell as everyman Mick Travis, concluding with Britannia Hospital (1982).

The narration opens with a short story: A grainy, black-and-white and silent title appears, “Once Upon a Time,” presenting a land filled with peasant laborers. They pick coffee beans while armed foremen push rudely between them.

One worker (McDowell with black hair and mustache) pockets a few beans for himself (“Coffee for the Breakfast Table”) but is discovered by a foreman.

He is next seen before a fat Caucasian magistrate who slobbers as he removes his cigar to say “Guilty.” The foreman draws his machete and lays it across the unfortunate laborer’s wrists, bound to wooden block, revealing that he is to lose his hands for the theft of beans.

The machete rises and falls, and the laborer draws back in a silent scream. The scene blacks out and the title “NOW” appears onscreen and expands quickly to fill it.

Mirren played the central character’s love interest, Patricia, a quick-witted and quirky casting call receptionist (the role was originally intended for Fiona Lewis, best known for her horror films).

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