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IMDb > Butley (1974)
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Overview

User Rating:
7.3/10   238 votes
Director:
Harold Pinter
Writers:
Simon Gray (play)
Simon Gray (screenplay)
Release Date:
April 1976 (UK) more
Genre:
Drama more
Tagline:
His wife just left him for another man. And so did his boy friend.
Plot:
An English professor finds his life crumbling around him. | add synopsis
NewsDesk:
Playwright Gray Dies (From WENN. 8 August 2008, 12:06 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Bates at his best more

Cast

 (Credited cast)

Alan Bates ... Ben Butley
Jessica Tandy ... Edna Shaft
Richard O'Callaghan ... Joey Keyston
Susan Engel ... Anne Butley
Michael Byrne ... Reg Nuttall
Georgina Hale ... Miss Heasman
Simon Rouse ... Mr. Gardner
John Savident ... James
Oliver Maguire ... Train Passenger
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Darien Angadi ... Male Student
Colin Haigh ... Male Student
Lindsay Ingram ... Female Student
Patti Love ... Female Student
Belinda Low ... Female Student

Derrick O'Connor ... Irishman in pub
Susan Wooldridge ... Female Student
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Simon Gray's Butley (Australia) (DVD box title)
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Runtime:
USA:94 min | USA:129 min
Country:
UK | Canada
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Eastmancolor)
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
UK:15 | Spain:18 | USA:R
MOVIEmeter: ?
^ 23% since last week why?

Fun Stuff

Quotes:
Ben Butley: I'm a one-woman man, and I've had mine, thank God. more

FAQ

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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful:-
Bates at his best, 30 December 2004
10/10
Author: B24 from Arizona

The late Alan Bates had many "bests" (if one may be permitted to say so)because of the constant intensity he brought to every role. He made acting something of a physical sport. In this case, his neurotic Butley uses language as a fencer's epee, yielding nothing to putative antagonists in the tight confines of an English department office in a major university as the camera follows him doggedly thrusting and parrying without pause. I especially liked the puns and double entendres (obviously). This sort of thing is not for everyone, of course, and I do not blame the viewer who is easily bored by such verbal jousting.

Did I mention the superb camera work? It is a tour de force to take a stage play like this one and make it come alive on film. Great acting and great direction would be lost without due attention to the medium, and this one has it par excellence. As depressing as the theme may be, and as unlikeable the fictional characters, this production succeeds in demonstrating just how powerful a film can be in spite of itself. It reminded me instantly of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" in that regard. And it is uncanny in its recognition of all the unhappy details found in any college English department office.

The nicest touch, of course, was in making Butley a T. S. Eliot specialist, with a photo of the lugubrious poet pinned to the wall. Much comic relief if one knows how to spot it.

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