An odd recurring conversation I have had with various people over the years is a debate whether, if it was possible, one would want to live forever.  I am always solidly against it, as there is already enough disconnect between generations  Basically, so much of one’s psyche is inevitably shaped by their formative years that I can’t imagine somebody born in the 1800’s, for example, trying to adjust to today’s world.  Also, I have already had enough people in my life pass on, and I can’t imagine experiencing that over and over again for all eternity. Even if everybody else I know also had eternal life, it breaks my heart to think we would all eventually grow apart from each other. After all, continuing to live is to continue to change.

I think that somebody who cannot die would become hardened over time and regard other people as separate, inferior beings to themselves.  Such is Ava Gardner in 1970’s Tam Lin, in which she is a wealthy and apparently ageless socialite who surrounds herself with young people at all times.  One of those will be her lover for a while until she tires of them.  Woe to the guy who decides he is the one moving on. 

This is what latest boy toy Ian McShane keeps trying to do.  Much like the traditional folk tale of the same name as this picture, he has become smitten by a young woman in the village.  In this case, it is Stephanie Beecham.  She is, indeed, rather easy on the eyes, though she often looks confused as to what she is supposed to be thinking or feeling at any given point.  She frequently looks like she is experiencing a bout of indigestion. 

The scene where McShane and Beecham encounter each other before getting horizontal is quite odd, as it is presented entirely in a series of still images.  Honestly, he’s pretty creepy in this sequence, and I wondered if he would have come across better or worse if we watched the footage unaltered.  After they consummate their relationship, he asks her, “Why did you let me do it?”, which had to be a buzzkill.  When he returns to Gardner’s country mansion, she has been looking for him and I was surprised she didn’t ask him to let her smell his dick.

Her mysterious assistant (Richard Wattis) tries to warn McShane of what happened to Gardner’s other previous lovers who scored her.  It seems that traffic accidents are the chosen means of dispatching them.  Wattis shows him a photo of one of those fatalities and I’m glad we don’t see what he remarks upon with this question: “You wouldn’t believe, would you, that a face could spread so wide?”

This is a solidly folk horror film even if one needs to look a bit beneath the surface for the signs.  A version of the traditional ballad as performed by UK folk rockers The Pentangle is woven through the runtime, with a new verse occasionally soundtracking a moment on screen which matches those particular lyrics.  A bit near the end will have McShane hallucinating he is a bear being chased by people with torches, and this reminded me of Midsommar.

While the dialogue does not expressly specify Gardner is a faerie, let alone the queen of them, she is clearly something not entirely of this world.  She appears to be very, very old, saying of contemporary London, “Oh what very forgettable ruins this town will make”.  Then there’s her seduction of young people which, given she was around fifty at the time this was made, implies she has some sort of magic, or “glamour”, at her disposal.  This is also demonstrated through yellow sunglasses she frequently wears.  When somebody else puts them on, they seem to fall madly in love with her.

In addition to our leads, the young people in her orbit are interesting.  David Whitman clearly has a nasty streak and his elfin features make him look a bit otherworldly.  He looks like of like Spock but with an evil cunning.  Joanna Lumley looks uncannily similar to how she would about three decades later.  Madeline Smith is supposedly a ditzy pothead, but I suspect there was more to the character there than what we’re shown.  As she says when offered some pills, “I’ll do anything so long as it’s illegal.”  The suitor whom McShane has displaced is played by Bruce Robinson, who went on to direct Withnail & I.  I wonder if any experiences of his on this set became fuel for that script and the misadventures of its two young actors competing for roles.

Perhaps the most curious aspect of Tam Lin is it is the only directorial effort of Roddy McDowall.  Supposedly, he did it as a labor of love, as he was so enchanted by the real-life Gardner.  For her, it is a role of a lifetime, with her being the center of conversation and attention at nearly all times.  Unfortunately, it isn’t an entirely successful picture, but it will be of interest to folk horror fans and those are looking for something a bit unusual.

Dir: Roddy McDowall

Starring Ava Gardner, Ian McShane, Stephanie Beecham

Watched on Imprint Australia blu-ray (region-free)