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)

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:

Albert Finney felt the lead role wasn't serious enough, and agreed to star only if he got a producing credit; he later traded the credit for profit participation.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Lady Bellaston reads Tom's letter proposing marriage, she wads it into a small ball, clearly wrinkling it. In the next scene, Lady Bellaston shows the letter to Sophie's aunt, but now it is smooth and uncrumpled.

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 The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004)

Soundtrack:

Such Trying Times

it gives the sense of the joy of living through the movie media at the highest level

"Tom Jones" is a movie adaptation of the classic Eighteenth century novel masterpiece of Henry Fielding made up by the greatest contemporary British playwriter John Osborne and directed by one of the main film directors of English Free Cinema, Tony Richardson. This film came at end of this golden period of the English Cinema in the sixties and it is the highest moment of this cinema. "Tom Jones" shows in the person of Tom Jones (the masterly Albert Finney) the point of view of the angry young man looking to the stupidity and the hypocrisies of the Eighteenth century society, which resembles our times. It is not at all just a funny film, even if some scenes are extremely funny and are some classics in the history of cinema, famous like the one in which Tom eating a rich supper with his woman is really looking like eating her with the eyes. "Tom Jones" is the adventurous hystory of a modern hero, who finally conquers his true love, after any kind of trouble. This is an highly cinematographic film, e.g. the movement of the camera gives itself the idea of happiness in the scenes of love in the country of Tom and Sophie (the beautiful and greatest Susannah York), the drama of the situation in which Tom risk to be hanged or the funniness in the bawdy scenes in the inn. In the beginning the film even outlines the beginning of the complex story using even the style of the silent cinema...Tom Jones/Albert Finney even also speaks directly to the public of the film reaching with his greatest originality an extreme level of funniness and pleasantness. The photography of the film resembles with its colours and views the landscapes of English painting of the Eighteenth century, like in Hogarth's pictures. The fox hunting scene is pictorially beautiful. The actors are all the best of the English theatre of that period and playing at their best, where theatre is so important and lively in England. Concluding, a film that gives the sense of the joy of living through the movie media at the highest level, it's a must to see even only this film, a masterpiece of the forgotten but greatest English film director, Tony Richardson. As Giancarlo Grazzini, the greatest Italian cinematographic critic of that time, wrote, it was the best film presented at the Film Festival of Venice, worthy of winning also the Golden Lion there and not just the Oscars!