Tom Jones (1963)

Director:

Tony Richardson

Writers:

John Osborne (screenplay)
Henry Fielding (novel)

Release Date:

11 December 1963 (France)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Tom Jones! . . . loves and loves and loves and loves . . . [UK]

Plot:

Tom Jones, the adopted son of a British country squire, is a love-'em-and-leave-'em lady charmer who goes blithely from bed to bed, while managing to get into enough other mischief to come within moments of being hanged.

Plot Keywords:

Squire | Tutor | Sex | Love | Masked Ball

Awards:

Won 4 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 17 nominations

Cast

Albert Finney	...	Tom Jones
Susannah York	...	Sophie Western
Hugh Griffith	...	Squire Western
Edith Evans	...	Miss Western
Joan Greenwood	...	Lady Bellaston
Diane Cilento	...	Molly Seagrim
George Devine	...	Squire Allworthy
David Tomlinson	...	Lord Fellamar
Rosalind Atkinson	...	Mrs. Miller
George A. Cooper	...	Mr. Fitzpatrick
Angela Baddeley	...	Mrs. Wilkins
Mark Dignam	...	Lieutenant
Avis Bunnage	...	Landlady, George Inn
Julian Glover	...	Northernton
Peter Bull	...	Thwackum

Also Known As:

Tom Jones! (UK) (poster title)
As Aventuras de Tom Jones (Brazil) [pt]
Entre l'alcove et la potence (Belgium: French title) [fr]
Epiheirissis krevvatokamara (Greece) [el]
Tom Jones (Denmark) [da]
Tom Jones (Argentina) [es]
Tom Jones - Zwischen Bett und Galgen (West Germany) [de]
Tom Jones - hulivilihurmuri (Finland) [fi]
Tom Jones från sängen till galgen (Sweden) [sv]
Tom Jones: de l'alcôve à la potence (France) [fr]

Runtime:

128 min | USA:121 min (director's cut)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) | Dolby (restored version)

Certification:

UK:PG (video rating) (cut) | UK:AA (1970 rating) | Iceland:L | USA:TV-14 (cable rating) | Sweden:11 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Bridgwater, Somerset, England, UK

Company:

Woodfall Film Productions

Trivia:

Much of the scene in which Tom Jones and Mrs. Waters are eating together was improvised during the three hours it took to shoot, and the actors felt the effects from the food for days.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the hunt scene, you can clearly see that the riders are following on a path made by automobiles. The path has tire tracks all along.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: In the west of England there was once a Squire Allworthy. After several months in London he returns home.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 1 (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

If He Swings by the Strings

Thirty Seven years later.......it remains a splendid piece of art

Just two hundred years after Henry Fielding's novel appeared, the theatre-actor-turned-cinema-director Sir Tony Richardson rounded up a few Shakespearean-trained prodigees, got John Addison to compose hectic clavichord accompaniment a little in the style of Handel operas and set all this against lush photography to produce one of the most hilarious films of the last five hundred years. Fielding's novel – which is a most definite recommendation – rather cynically but good-humouredly exposed mid-eighteenth century British hypocrisy at its best and the landed gentry's obsession for fox-hunting at its worst. Richardson directed all this a bit like an elderly Sir Thomas Beecham ('the important thing is we all start and stop together; nobody notices what happens in between') raising his baton in front of the London Symphony Orchestra: the result in both cases is astounding. Richardson conducts his piece at a tremendous pace, Addison's clavichord tripping along gaily so as to keep up the illusion, and visual sequences such as a young trouserless Albert Finney escaping out of a window, shinning down a tree and running off into the nocturnal depths of a beech forest, all combine to keep you breathlessly awaiting the next scene. Susannah York is just delicious, with that innocent facial beauty that raises heartbeats, especially in the latter parts; and Angela Baddely as Mrs. Wilkins and Diane Cilento as Molly play some great scenes. And some of the great scenes are worth telling...... Tom and Mrs. Wilkins enjoy a good roast with fruit, eating lusciously and lascivously, eating each other up with their sparkling eyes: this scene is hugely delightful. The other great scene is the fox-hunt: this alone puts the whole film into a special category: brilliant film-making, almost comparable to the famous chariot race in Ben Hur........ I loved this film 37 years ago, and recently had the luck to see it again: having doubled my years, I was just as enthralled and enraptured as the first time. A splendid piece of art.