Villain (1971 film)

Villain
Villain
	DVD cover
Directed by	Michael Tuchner
Written by	Dick Clement; Ian La Frenais; Al Lettieri (adaptation)
Based on	The Burden of Proof by James Barlow
Produced by	Jay Kanter; Alan Ladd, Jr.; Elliott Kastner (executive producer)
Starring	Richard Burton; Ian McShane; Nigel Davenport; Donald Sinden; Fiona Lewis; T. P. McKenna; Joss Ackland; Cathleen Nesbitt; Colin Welland
Cinematography	Christopher Challis
Edited by	Ralph Sheldon
Music by	Jonathan Hodge
Production; company	Anglo-EMI
Distributed by	MGM-EMI
Release date	26 May 1971;
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£383,786
Box office	over £1 million (UK) (est.)

Villain is a 1971 British gangster film directed by Michael Tuchner and starring Richard Burton, Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport and Donald Sinden.^[3] It is based on James Barlow's 1968 novel The Burden of Proof. Villain was director Michael Tuchner's first feature film after directing in television.^[4]

As with other films of Villain's same era and genre (Get Carter (1971), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Performance (1970), for example), some of the violence is quite graphic, especially during the heist scene, and it foreshadows several 1970s cop TV shows such as The Sweeney, Target and Special Branch.^{[citation needed]}

^ Moody, Paul (19 October 2018). EMI Films and the Limits of British Cinema. Springer. p. 112. ISBN 9783319948034.
^ Burton, 17 August 1971
^ "Villain". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
^ Cite error: The named reference los was invoked but never defined (see the help page).