A Taste of Honey (1961)

Director:

Tony Richardson

Writers:

Shelagh Delaney (play)
Shelagh Delaney (writer) ...

Release Date:

30 April 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The prize winning comedy-drama of a young girl's passionate love for life!...

Plot:

The moving story of a plain young girl who becomes pregnant by a black sailor, befriends a homosexual, and gradually becomes a woman.

Plot Keywords:

Homosexual | Pregnant Teenager | Class | Gay Interest | Black Boyfriend White Girlfriend

Awards:

Won 4 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Dora Bryan	...	Helen
Robert Stephens	...	Peter Smith
Rita Tushingham	...	Jo [Josephine]
Murray Melvin	...	Geoffrey Ingham
Paul Danquah	...	Jimmy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michael Bilton	...	Landlord
Eunice Black	...	Schoolteacher
David Boliver	...	Bert
Margo Cunningham	...	Landlady
A. Goodman	...	Rag and Bone Man
John Harrison	...	Cave Attendant
Veronica Howard	...	Gladys
Moira Kaye	...	Doris
Graham Roberts
Valerie Scarden	...	Woman in Shoe Shop
Rosalie Scase	...	Nurse
Herbert Smith	...	Shoe Store Proprietor
Jack Yarker	...	Ship's Mate

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Barton Swing Bridge, Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK

Company:

Woodfall Film Productions

Trivia:

The hit song "A Taste of Honey" written by Ric Marlow and Bobby Scott has nothing to do with the film whatsoever. It was simply trading in on the success of the film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the opening credits bus ride through Manchester the very large building on Portland street overlooking Piccadilly Gardens (now a Thistle hotel) has large letters across the top on each wing identifying it as "Hickson, Lloyd & King Ltd." But in the shot, the letters are all backwards in a mirror image.

Quotes:

Geoffrey: Do you like me more than you don't like me or do you not like me more than you do?
Jo: Now you're being Irish.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

Soundtrack:

On a Mountain Stands a Lady

A haunting masterpiece with sharp and true dialogue.

The 1960's brought about many of my favourite films about the English working class experience: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner; Saturday Night, Sunday Morning; This Sporting Life and - naturally - Kes. Coming from the North and being around - just - during the sixties helps naturally.

I dislike the term "kitchen sink" because it puts too many people off a film that while bleak remains so true it almost hurts. There isn't a word, phrase or scene in this movie that I don't believe and remember: I was there, although not in Salford!

A dimly lit world of booze, cups of tea, canals, seaside trips, bonfires, repressed emotions, unprotected sex (and what follows) and the limits and cheap thrills of the Northern English working class.

In 1961 this must have looked like the start of a new age of film. Real stories about real life. Almost a docu-drama in the modern parlance. However it never really happened. Why? Because there is more skill required than you might imagine and even this verges on going over the top. You could say it is tries to tick too many boxes. And isn't really true drama because it stops at a point in which so many threads remain loose.

(I suppose you could say it ends with the characters facing up to the realities that they have been so long running away from - but will they actually achieve it?)

Star of the show is Rita Tushington who never went on to do much with her career after being given the part of a lifetime to start it all off. Murray Melvin is also good as the homosexual boyfriend who wants to help out - although maybe in a misguided way.

A Taste of Honey has its limits and you could attack it for being snobbish. It is an artistic product born of the middle class - but it remains utterly true in a way that is mostly absent in cinema today.