The Collector

Play trailer

The Collector

1965,

1h 59m,

Mystery & Thriller

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

81%

16 Reviews

Tomatometer

84%

2,500+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

81%

Tomatometer

16 Reviews

84%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Clerk Freddie Clegg, an avid butterfly collector, wins a football pool and buys a country house with a large basement. He then kidnaps art student Miranda Grey, a longtime crush of his, after trailing her in a van. Freddie locks Miranda in the basement, and buys her clothes and books, so that she can get to know him. They initially agree that she will stay at the house for a month, but Miranda fears what will happen when the time comes for her to leave.

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

May 9, 2005

Mr. Wyler has turned in a tempting and frequently startling, bewitching film, but he has failed to make it any more than a low-key chiller that melts in a conventional puddle of warm blood towards the end.

Go to Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Jan 1, 2000

Perhaps the most interesting element of John Fowles’s novel is its alternation between two narrator... By jettisoning this structure, this 1965 film has precious little to hold one’s interest, apart from Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar as the leads.

Go to Full Review

Elizabeth Hardwick

Vogue

Jun 20, 2023

William Wyler's gloss is everywhere on the film. It is sure, professional, satisfactory as a production, and yet the whole feeling is one of gloss. The grainy, worn surface of this pitiless drama hardly ever exposes itself to us.

Go to Full Review

Judith Crist

New York Herald Tribune

Aug 15, 2022

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.

Go to Full Review

Don Strachan

Los Angeles Free Press

Feb 4, 2020

The Collector's weaknesses are not enough to destroy an essentially good film. It passes the ultimate critical test in that it compels a fair degree of involvement.

Go to Full Review

Rob Aldam

Backseat Mafia

Oct 30, 2018

There's malice there, but it's cold and unpredictable.

Go to Full Review

Read all reviews

Albus S

Jan 8, 2019

A forgotten gem. A very intriguing dark thriller. Forget Silence Of The Lambs, this is the real deal!

Rey W

Jul 28, 2018

What a strange movie. Everything about it is slightly off-kilter: starting with the director - William Wyler?! Five years after the epic Ben-Hur he chooses a claustrophobic two-hander, mostly set inside a country cottage, a psychosexual thriller with a counter-intuitively cast Terence Stamp (looking uncannily like a young Anthony Hopkins as Pee-wee Herman) and a pre-Doctor Dolittle Samantha Eggar as his victim. Nothing much happens, but it's oddly compelling and something of a cult collector's item.

See more

Poe W

Jul 7, 2018

A rather unique psychological thriller that's one part psycho and two parts of a really misguided Alfie wannabe. Freddie just wants to be loved. Is that too much to ask? So he kidnaps a girl that he wants to love... or rather, he wants HER to love him, and agrees to her that he'll be a proper gentleman to her, providing that, you know, yes, she loves him at the end of it. She thinks he's nuts. He probably is. This was not really uncomfortable to watch.. Because you really do feel for Freddy. Not really a BAD guy, just mixed up, terribly. Oh god. In truth he's probably a monster lol

See more

Theodore S

Apr 19, 2017

The Collector is an excellent film. Wyler, finally not aiming so high and returning to material more human, delivers an incredibly taut thriller that appeals to all emotions. The performance of Terence Stamp is so unbelievably genius that I don't know where to start. He proves, once and for all, that the greatest special effect is a face and what it can portray. He is what they call a "wallflower." He is rejected by all of humanity, and the last bit of humanity he has in him can only be saved by doing something awful. He kidnaps a women, played by Mrs. Samantha Eggar. She starts off like your typical damsel in distress. But quite quickly one realizes that she is not your typical object of desire. She is a human. Of course, all I can really say about the film is how profoundly human it is. However, this small masterpiece exposes every bit of darkness and sadness one can possibly unearth. See it, please. You will not be disappointed.

See more

Read all reviews

William Wyler

Director

Terence Stamp

Freddie Clegg

Samantha Eggar

Miranda Grey

Maurice Dallimore

Neighbor

Mona Washbourne

Aunt Annie

William Beckley

Actor

Nowhere to Go

70%

Nowhere to Go

Watchlist

The Victors

20%

76%

The Victors

Watchlist

The Blue Lamp

83%

69%

The Blue Lamp

Watchlist

Experiment in Terror

100%

78%

Experiment in Terror

Watchlist

Hell Is a City

67%

79%

Hell Is a City

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

Clerk Freddie Clegg, an avid butterfly collector, wins a football pool and buys a country house with a large basement. He then kidnaps art student Miranda Grey, a longtime crush of his, after trailing her in a van. Freddie locks Miranda in the basement, and buys her clothes and books, so that she can get to know him. They initially agree that she will stay at the house for a month, but Miranda fears what will happen when the time comes for her to leave.

Director: William Wyler
Producer: Jud Kinberg
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 17, 1965, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 15, 2010
Runtime: 1h 59m

Join The Newsletter

Join The Newsletter

Cookie Settings