Tony Richardson on DVD

[Ives]

I am wondering who out there has seen a movie from the 50's or 60's called "The Loved One", after the novel by Evelyn Waugh. It starred Rod Steiger and Jonathan Winters, I believe, was in black and white, and was quite bizarre/humorous. Any thoughts, information, discussion would be fascinating for me to read. I saw a fraction of it many years ago very late at night and was captivated. It is not currently available on DVD.

Thank you for whatever you remember about this film.

[ecschmidt]

I saw this in class last year. It's not fresh in my mind, but I'll comment on what I remember.
It was written by Terry Southern (cowriter of Dr. Strangelove), and while it doesn't quite (or by a longshot, really) reach the heights of humor in Strangelove, there are many hilariously bizarre and disturbing moments that overwhelm the mediocre whole in my memory. There's Liberace's turn as the casket salesman, which more than hints (well, more than usual, maybe) at his homosexuality. Rod Steiger is the effeminate Joy Boy, who goes home from the funeral parlor at night to his morbidly obese mother (Ayllene Gibbons), who groans with desire watching food commercials on TV. Moments like this one are scattered throughout the film and carry it through some feeble attempts at satire. Most definitely worth seeing though.

[Anonymous]

I saw it a few years ago. I love the book, ever since I wrote a term paper on it in high school, so I was not that thrilled by the movie. Back in 1965 it was released as "the film with something to offend everyone," and the writers/filmmakers do seem to be trying a little too hard to offend. The movie dates badly in a way that the book does not, because the movie strives to be all hip and 1960s.

I think it is worth seeing as a curiosity and as a movie very much of its time, but it wasn't as entertaining as I'd hoped. I would enjoy reading about the making of the movie (anyone know of a good resource?) more than I would seeing the film again.

[Derek Estes]

I believe that George Feltenstien mentioned this film as a personal favorite that was going to be released by Warners in his interveiw with Robert Harris last year. I don't know anything else about this film, but I thought I would mention that.

[Gordon]

Séance on a Wet Afternoon was previously released by Carlton/Granada in 2004, but went OOP soon afterwards, before I knew it was even available. The transfer was/is said to be better than the HVE edition and also features a 20-minute interview with director, Bryan Forbes.

Brilliant story, with overpowering black and white cinematography and superb performances by Dickie and Kim Stanley. One of the best British films, I feel. Glad to see it back in print over here.

[HerrSchreck]

NOW WE'RE TALKING! I always had the quite nice Janus/HVe DVD of this incredible film. Reviewed by doC here.

Disc produced by the usual suspects over at CC... just think because of some periodic damage in some spots, it was klunked down to HVe.

Nobody ever talks about this film... but Kim Stanley's performance is simply one of the best ever captured on celluloid (plus this story anticipates WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLFE?.. in fact if I remember correctly Stanley was slated to play the Liz Taylor part in the stage premeire of WAoVW?, pre-film of course, but, being withdrawn and a bit of a hermit, she backed out and the part went to Uta Hagen). It's too bad (for us) she didn't do more films. Plus Attenborough's performance is right up there alongside her's for greatness-- so moving. The very restrained strangeness of this film keeps it teetertottering on the borderline of so many styles yet hovering above all of them-- part noir, psychological drama, horror movie, suspense thriller, even, deep down, a romance. The last shot of the puddle, with the music box chiming, is one of the most moving & discplined (film never goes overboard, such a mature filmmaking style) I've ever seen. Beautiful, beautiful movie. Were you aware of the Janus R1 Gordo?

[Gordon]

Yeah, I was aware of the R1 from HVE. But I had a feeling that the UK disc would be re-released at some point, so I just bided my time.

Bryan Forbes is a pretty underappreciated, really. Whistle Down the Wind (1961), The L-Shaped Room (1962), King Rat (1965) and Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) are all exquisitely crafted films. The Wrong Box (1966) doesn't quite reach the level of these films, but it's still a lot of fun. Of course, he's more famous as a 'reliable' supporting actor to the average bloke, but he was also a fine writer and scenarist and Seance proves that in spades.

HVE also released the 2001 Japanese adaptation of Mark McShane's novel
on DVD. I wonder how it plays?

[HerrSchreck]

I heard about that Japanese film. Apparently they deep six the ambiguity & nuance, turning her into a legitimate psychic/seer with supernatural scenes concerning her visions/visions coming true. I haven't heard many good things about it. It's very difficult to find films nowadays that don't yell & scream blood & spin & make the lights blink on & off as a result of petrified producers & investors believing anything less will result in a loss on investment. Very sad. Oh the bygone days when horror films & thrillers were directed & acted by the very finest talent on the continent and Hollywood. How many horror films do we get nowadays populated by A-list thespians of the classical stage?

On the SE you provided the link for on the UK ed, I couldn't bring up the "special features". Do you know what they are? I ust kept getting "People who bought this disc also bought _____" type links.

[Gordon]

This site lists the following features:

Director Interviews, Cast Profiles, Featurettes

(That's the previous cover art, btw)

The previous disc had an interview with Bryan Forbes; I'm not sure what the "featurettes" may be.

Indeed, it is one of the great loses to Cinema that the 'horror' genre has been drained of almost all intelligence and artisitic credibility. Alejandro Amenábar's, The Others was very good, I thought, although he seems to have been too heavily influenced by Jack Clayton's, The Innocents, but it's still an accomplished film, very eerie.

The Fog (1980)
The Omen (1976)
The Exorcist (1973)
Don't Look Now (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
The Other (1972)
The Devils (1971)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Repulsion (1965)
The Haunting (1963)
The Uninvited (1944)

British and American supernatural films used to be concieved, approached executed in such an intelligent way, just as any other genre or type of story, but once the 80s rolled around, that all changed and mutants, gore, sex and heavy metal music were thrown into the mix and the whole 'horror' genre rightly became a joke. We then saw a post-modern, wink-wink period in the genre with the Scream series and the slew of obnoxious spoof films. But man cannot live without his ghost stories! Things seem to be slowly changing and the cruder supernatural films are begining to be shunned. I am actually looking forward to The Omen in June; I love the original, it's brilliantly crafted and had real actors, but it's a story that surely should be hard to bungle. We'll soon find out.

I'm off to check out that banging in the basement...

[kazantzakis]

Kurosawa's Seance has nothing to do with traditional horror films. It reminded me of his Doppelganger: a horror plot with a lot of tongue-in-cheek irony.

[tryavna]

This is going to be yet another interesting release from the very promising UK label Network. Here is their forthcoming list, which I posted elsewhere a few weeks ago. No extras listed, but it does show the new cover. (Scroll down to 5 June.)

Network's release of The Quiller Memorandum is due to be released tomorrow. I'm looking forward to some positive reviews of this superb spy thriller.

[solent]

Kim Stanley was also supposed to play Clair in the AFT film version of Albee's A DELICATE BALANCE [directed by Tony Richardson, 1973] but due to a restricted budget and filming schedule a reliable effort was required so she was sacked due to her alcoholic habit - hence unreliable. Her part was taken by Kate Reid at the last minute [she learnt her lines on the flight to London]. Interestingly the character Clair is an alcoholic. No method actors need apply???

[Gordon]

SPECIAL FEATURES:

New, exclusive commentary by Bryan Forbes and Nanette Newman
Memories on a Wet Afternoon – an interview with Bryan Forbes
Original theatrical trailer
Image gallery, including some rare, behind-the-scenes stills
Bryan Forbes' shooting script in PDF format.

Commentary by Forbes - awesome! Nice one, Network.

June 5th street date. £9.49 from Benson's World, HERE.

[HerrSchreck]

Hmmm... potential double dip here. I love love love this film. Commentary sounds like a dealmaker.

[Gordon]

Well, I received the DVD last week and it's superb. The transfer is good, though never great, with slight softness and partiallly crushed blacks, but overall, it is good. Forbes' 20-minute interview is interesting, as is the commentary with his lovely wife, Nanette Newman, which is highly informative and both are perceptive in their reflections on the film.

This really is a masterpiece of 60s British Cinema with strikingly powerful performances by Dickie and Kim Stanley. Ingeniusm deeply focused lighting and camerawork by the late Gerry Turpin (camera operator on Peeping Tom and Night of the Eagle) with bare bulbs on fishing rods and all sorts of savvy techniques. John Barry's score, as ever, never gets in the way (unlike most shite by other composers) and is actually quite sublime, certainly very interesting.

Director, Bryan Forbes has suffered from multiple sclerosis since 1975 and he has fought it hard over the years, but since the early 90s, he has found it hard to work on a set, but he has said he wants to make another film. I'd love to see his TV movie, The Endless Game (1990) a spy thriller starring Albert Finney, Ian Holm and George Segal and with a score by Morricone.

[HerrSchreck]

I could go on & on & on about this film. On the brink of so many things, nuance galore, the subtlety and restraint are about as magnificent as exists. So many zones of this film could have gone over into genreville but it never happens. Is it a horror film? suspense film? film noir? psychological drama? one of the strangest (yet moving as moving gets) love stories ever written?

Actually all of the above. The performances are just mind-bendingly incredible. The relationship between the two is so touching, the performances are so disciplined, your imagination goes to town on this film. The subway payoff sequence is a masterpiece of cutting, rhythm, and hence suspence-- a lesson of unbearable tension in film tempo. Mood for weeks, the rainy, bleak foggy England, with much unrenovated postwar ruin speckling the landscape. Beautifully rendered cinematography which never shouts it's presence, ever in support of the characters (yes Gordo I love NIGHT OF THE EAGLE, another Brit film-- like CITY OF THE DEAD as well as S.O.A.W.A.-- with a mixed Anglo-American staff, be it under that title or BURN WITCH BURN. Question, is that film on DVD? I have the old MGM Midnite Movies BURN WITCH VHS which is cropped to 1/1.37).

Again, the closing shot of the reflected house in the puddle catching teardrop like drops of rain here & there, with the delicate music box tinkling-- after the tour de force of Stanley and the ending in general-- is one of the most beautiful closing moments of any film at any time. Somebody should get Gary both discs for a comparison between this & the Janus/HVe R1, which I have now. (Gary-- amazingly-- says he does not like this film in his review for HVe edition of Kurosawa's SEANCE).

[Gordon]

Night of the Eagle was available as part of a UK boxed set from Studio Canal via Warner with a good anamorphic transfer, but is now going OOP. Available HERE, but not for long.

Somebody should get Gary both discs for a comparison between this & the Janus/HVe R1, which I have now. (Gary-- amazingly-- says he does not like this film in his review for HVe edition of Kurosawa's SEANCE).

Really? That's quite surprising. Come to think of it, he doesn't review many classic British films.

[HerrSchreck]

Appreciate the heads up on EAGLE.. I'll see what I can manage.

How anyone with a seasoned eye for the exceptional-- especially in low(er) budget-ville-- could watch SOAWA and not be impressed by the achievements in all departments, let alone be utterly moved to the very core and marrow, is beyond me.

[Ives]

Full circle achieved: The Loved One will be released June 20. This one caught me napping, I'm ashamed to admit.

Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
New featurette: "Trying to Offend Everyone"
Theatrical trailer

For those who care!

[David Ehrenstein]

The Loved One is an insane gem. Directed by Tony Richardson -- hot off his smash success Tom Jones -- it was co-scripted by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood. And you can tell the Isherwood from the Southern without a scorecard. Quite easily.

The whole idea of casting Robert Morse, an American, to play and Englishman is insane. But then this a film whose all-star cast includes John Gielgud, Roddy mcDowell, Rod Steiger, Dana Andrews, Tab Hunter, Paul Williams, Jonathan Winters (twice), Milton Berle, Lionel Stander, Liberace, Barbara Nichols and margaretLeighton.

Haskell Wexler shot it in hard-edged black and white. Anjanette Comer (a marvelous acress who never had the career she deserved) is wondrous as "The first lady embalmer of Whispering Glades."

Gielgud is marvelous and Roddy McDowell exceptionally knowing. Among other things it's a great film about L.A. No one who has ever seen it can possible forget Ma Joyboy. But my favorite scene is Milton Berle and Margaret Leighton as the married couple from hell arguing over her recently deceased pet dog.

[unclehulot]

Certainly Liberace's advocacy of the top of the line "The Eternal Flame" casket is the highlight of his cinematic career!

[Barmy]

Great film, VERY underrated. A lot of crix seem to hate it and I can't fathom why.

[vertovfan]

Just watched this the other day - if there's a prototype for Edith Massey in Pink Flamingos, mama Joyboy is definitely it!

[Stefan Andersson]

Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) UK TV 12/07 runtime?

The Times TV supplement lists a showing of Richardson's Charge of the Light Brigade Dec. 07 at 139 mins. This runtime should be after PAL speed-up, which in turn should mean it's longer than the R1 and R2 DVDs. Both these DVDs are missing a few minutes of footage edited out before (?) original US opening. Those who want to see this footage should chase down the UK VHS from Connoisseur Video/BFI.

Speculation: if the 139 min. runtime doesn't include commercials etc., it could be the reportedly trade-screened 145 min. cut.

Worth an investigation!

[MichaelB]

The Times TV supplement lists a showing of Richardson's Charge of the Light Brigade Dec. 07 at 139 mins. This runtime should be after PAL speed-up, which in turn should mean it's longer than the R1 and R2 DVDs.

Which channel is it on?

If it's not one of the BBC channels, it probably will have commercials, though you're right about PAL speedup (and 145 does indeed translate to roughly 139 once it's applied). But I can't find it listed on BBC1/2/3 or 4 for that date.