Britt Ekland is a memorable presence in films that too often treat glamour as sufficient character. We value her work in British horror and crime, but the parts can leave frustratingly little room for an actress.
Fi1m perspective
In Get Carter (1971), Britt Ekland’s Anna matters chiefly because of what men want from her. Mike Hodges gives male viciousness far more attention than the women who receive it, and Ekland cannot make up for that lack of interest on her own. We were frustrated by the treatment of Anna and Geraldine Moffat’s Glenda, because neither is given enough room for her own thoughts and desires. We still recommend the film, but that is a substantial reservation.
Her earlier work offers a less familiar place to start. After small Swedish and international parts in the early 1960s, she played the lead as an Amish girl turned burlesque dancer in William Friedkin’s The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968). That lead role matters when so much of the subsequent casting seems interested chiefly in how she looks. Get Carter and The Wicker Man helped establish her as a sex symbol in British cinema during the early 1970s. They also show how differently a director can use that image.
In Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973), Willow’s seductiveness belongs in a police enquiry that makes attraction itself unsettling. Edward Woodward gives the religious conflict its stubborn human presence, while Ekland makes the seduction credible. We find her better used here than in Get Carter, though the film has some stiff passages. Annie Ross dubbed her voice to mask her Swedish accent, and a body double was used for some nude scenes. Any appreciation of Willow needs to leave room for those contributions rather than crediting Ekland with everything we hear and see.
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) gave her Mary Goodnight opposite Roger Moore, with scope for the light comedy she could do well. It also kept her within the glamorous casting that had become familiar, rather than giving her much opportunity to do something different. Lower-profile film work followed after the mid-1970s, before a shift towards stage and television from the 1990s. Start with The Wicker Man; come to Get Carter prepared to find a fine crime film that has disappointingly little interest in her.
Biography
Britt Ekland is a Swedish actress. Born Britt-Marie Eklund on 6 October 1942 in Stockholm, she trained at a drama school and joined a travelling theatre group before entering films.
She appeared in British crime film Get Carter (1971) as Anna and the cult horror The Wicker Man (1973) as Willow MacGregor. Other credits include The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) as Mary Goodnight.
Ekland was married to actor Peter Sellers from 1964 to 1968.
