“It is Stamp who raises The Collector to heights of parable, who brings significance to and sustains the suspense. His performance is brilliant in its gauge of the madness of a madman.”
Screened in tribute to Terence Stamp (1938 - 2025)
Terence Stamp stars as Freddie Clegg, shy bank clerk and avid butterfly collector, who kidnaps a young art student, Miranda (Samantha Egger) who he imprisons in his basement in the hope that sooner or later she will fall in love with him. What follows is a battle of wits between the wily Miranda and the dangerously obsessed Freddie. Legendary Hollywood director Wyler's adaptation of John Fowles' classic novel is an off-beat curio in a back catalogue that includes Ben-Hur, The Heiress and Roman Holiday, and the young Terence Stamp is brilliant playing against type as socially awkward the psychopath.