Butley (1974)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Harold Pinter

Writers:

Simon Gray (play)
Simon Gray (screenplay)

Release Date:

April 1976 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

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. |

Plot Keywords:

Professor | Infidelity | Threesome | Singer | Sneezing

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

Also Known As:

Simon Gray's Butley (Australia) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

USA:94 min | USA:129 min

Country:

UK | Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 | Spain:18 | USA:R

Company:

Cinévision Ltée

Trivia:

The original Broadway production of "Butley" written by Simon Gray opened at the Morosco Theater in New York on October 31, 1972, ran for 135 performances and was nominated for the 1973 Tony Award for the Best Play. Alan Bates recreated his 1973 Tony Award winning performance Best Actor in Play in this filmed production based on the Simon Gray play and on the Simon Gray screenplay.

Quotes:

[regarding student unrest]
Ben Butley: Perhaps they were protesting about the Aristotle collection.
Edna Shaft: It wouldn't surprise me. I had one or two last year who were mutinous about "The Faerie Queen".
Ben Butley: You mean the principal? He really must learn discretion.

Bates at his best

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.