blanche-2 Samantha Eggar gives a wonderful performance along with a very effective David Hemmings in "The Walking Stick," from 1970. The beautiful Eggar is Deborah, a young woman who suffered from polio as a child and now has a bad leg; for this reason, she has to use a cane. She believes she is damaged goods, unattractive, and unwanted. She works at an auction house as their porcelain expert and lives with her parents, who don't seem to understand her.One evening she ventures out to a party and meets Leigh Hartley, an aspiring artist, who is attractive but persistent, which puts Deborah off. Eventually she agrees to see him, and they become friends, at last lovers, and ultimately move in together, planning to start their own business. Deborah then begins to find out that Leigh has not been honest about his past, but the final blow has yet to be struck: He and his mates want to rob the auction house and need her to do it.This is a slow film, but the acting is very good, and the story is absorbing and sad. And it leaves one with a few questions, though ultimately I think, like Deborah, we know the answers.The most brutal part of the film is when Deborah does her part at the auction house and, in the way of the robbers, one grabs her and literally throws her out of the way.Thought-provoking, and one asks what it is about love that makes so darn blind all the time. We'll never know the answer.

Wizard-8 There may be some people who will object to the core premise of "The Walking Stick" by saying that they've seen the same basic premise in other movies before. I don't object to seeing the same premise again as long as the story is retold professionally and with a fresh light. Indeed, one strength the movie has is that the performances are very good - Eggar and Hemmings manage to make their characters believable. Unfortunately, the script and direction are another matter. The story takes way too much time to get from one major plot turn to another - a lot of fat could have been trimmed before shooting started. Also, the direction for the most part is a little too low key. I'm not asking for a great deal of flashiness, but a little more life should have been put into the movie. I am not saying this is an awful or bad movie, but it is kind of disappointing.

tedg Spoilers herein.Someone thought to produce a glossy art film, a lowbrow face on a highbrow idea. Early in the game, we are told as much in a discussion of `Wild Strawberries' early in the story. Unhappily, this suffers from Hollywooditis, a malady that hobbles every intelligent thing it attempts. One can see it mirrored in the story itself -- at least that is some pleasure. The enterprise of `stealing' the art is done by incompetents. Same in real life. The affair is botched, and the hobbled actress writes it up and sends it to us. The art is lost.

Tirelli Curtailing evil, criminal intentions, a dashing young man, Leigh, seduces and persuades the dreary, moderate polio victim Deborah Dainton into falling in love with him. Deborah leads a neatly organized life, and is obligated to see it being reduced to shreds when she discovers her boyfriend is part of a gang who intends to rob the auction house in which she works in. That's when Deborah has to come to grips with the fact that Leigh may have maintained a relationship with her solely for the benefit of the heist. This is an utterly unforgettable study on bitterness, hope and disappointment. We get to witness the magnificence of Eggar's performance as her character slowly discovers what Leigh - David Hemmings - truly had in mind when they began living together. And how Eggar manages to show that her bad leg does not stop her from being as tricky - if not trickier - than the good for nothing Leigh.'The Walking Stick' is an emotionally-charged melodrama that does not appeal to tacky tearjerker clichés. Everything is beautifully executed in a low-key, calm and yet gut-wrenchingly real manner, with an emotionally disarming ending that will leave you sobbing.