Look Back in Anger is about a love triangle involving an intelligent but disaffected young man Jimmy Porter (Malcolm McDowell), his upper-middle-class, impassive wife Alison Porter (Lisa Banes), and her snooty best friend Helena Charles (Fran Brill). Cliff (Raymond Hardie), an amiable Welsh lodger, attempts to keep the peace.
Lindsay Anderson, who had previously worked with Malcolm McDowell on if.... and O Lucky Man!, translated Ted Craig's Roundabout Theatre Company production (in which McDowell was starring) to the screen, and taped results in three days.[2]