Tom Jones (1963 film): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{shortShort description|1963 British adventure comedy film directed by Tony Richardson}}

{{Use British English|date=May 2013}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}

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| image = Poster - Tom Jones 01.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Theatrical poster by [[Mitchell Hooks]]

| director = [[Tony Richardson]]

| producer = Tony Richardson

| screenplay = [[John Osborne]]

| based_on = {{Based on|''[[The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling]]''<br>(1749 novel)|[[Henry Fielding]]}}

| starring = {{Plainlist|

* [[Albert Finney]]

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| studio = [[Woodfall Film Productions]]

| distributor = [[United Artists]]

| released = {{Film date|df=yes|1963|09|29|[[Venice Film Festival|Venice]]06|26}}

| runtime = 128 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| budget = $1 million (£467,000)<ref>Film giants step into finance The Observer 19 April 1964: 8.</ref><ref name="petrie">{{cite journal|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/114988/1/Bryanston_Films_An_Experiment_in_Cooperative_Independent_Film_Production_and_Distribution.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719020633/http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/114988/1/Bryanston_Films_An_Experiment_in_Cooperative_Independent_Film_Production_and_Distribution.pdf |archive-date=2018-07-19 |url-status=live|last=Petrie|first= Duncan James |year=2017|title= Bryanston Films : An Experiment in Cooperative Independent Production and Distribution|journal= Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television| issn= 1465-3451|page=13 }}</ref><ref>Chapman, L. (2021). “They wanted a bigger, more ambitious film”: Film Finances and the American “Runaways” That Ran Away. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 18(2), 176–197. https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2021.0565</ref> or £480,000<ref name="money">Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 360</ref>

| gross = $17.07 million (U.S. and Canada rentals)

<ref name=variety1990>{{cite magazine|date=15 October 1990|title=All Time Film Rental Champs|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|issn=0042-2738|page=M-190|first=Lawrence|last=Cohn}}</ref>

}}

'''''Tom Jones''''' is a 1963 British [[Historical drama|period]] [[comedy film]], an adaptation of [[Henry Fielding]]'s classic 1749 novel ''[[The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling]]'', starring [[Albert Finney]] as the titular hero. It wasis onedirected ofby the[[Tony mostRichardson]] criticallyfrom acclaimeda andscreenplay popularwritten comediesby of[[John its timeOsborne]],<ref nameand =stars "nytimes50295">{{Cite[[Albert newsFinney]] |date=30as Septemberthe 2003titular |author=Bosleycharacter. CrowtherThe |title=Tomcast Jonesalso |newspaper=Thefeatures New[[Susannah York]], Times[[Hugh |url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=50295 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031001023857/http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=50295 |archive-date=2003-10-01 |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref> and won fourGriffith]], [[AcademyEdith AwardsEvans]], including [[AcademyJoan Award for Best Picture|Best PictureGreenwood]]. The film was produced and directed by, [[TonyDiane RichardsonCilento]], and the[[David screenplayWarner was(actor)|David adaptedWarner]] byin playwrighthis [[Johnfilm Osborne]]debut.

AThe [[periodfilm piece]]was seta insuccess 18th-centuryboth [[Somerset]]critically and [[London]],at ''Tomthe Jones''box office, and was aone successof boththe most critically acclaimed and atpopular thecomedies boxof officeits time.<ref name="nytimes50295">{{Cite news |author=Bosley Crowther |date=30 September 2003 |title=Tom Jones |url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=50295 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031001023857/http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=50295 |archive-date=2003-10-01 |access-date=25 May 2010 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> At the [[36th Academy Awards]], it was nominated for ten [[Academy Awards|Oscars]], winning four: [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]] for Richardson, [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Adapted Screenplay]] and [[Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score]]. It also won two [[Golden Globe Awards]], including [[Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy|Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy]], and three [[British Academy Film Awards|BAFTA Awards]], including [[BAFTA Award for Best Film|Best Film]] and [[BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film|Best British Film]].

In 1999, the [[British Film Institute]] ranked it as the [[BFI Top 100 British films|51st greatest British film of the 20th century]].

==Plot==

The film begins with a [[silent film]] sequence, with intertitles, during which Squire Allworthy returns to his estate after a lengthy stay in London and discovers a baby in his bed. Thinking that one of his maids, Jenny Jones, and his barber, Mr. Partridge, conceived the illegitimate baby out of lust, the squire banishes them. He names the infant Tom Jones and chooses to raise him as if he were his own son; Tom grows up loving him like a father.▼

{{Long plot|date=October 2021}}

▲The film begins with a [[silent film]] sequence, with intertitles, during which Squire Allworthy returns to his estate after a lengthy stay in London and discovers a baby in his bed. Thinking that one of his maids, Jenny Jones, and his barber, Mr. Partridge, conceived the illegitimate baby out of lust, the squire banishes them. He names the infant Tom Jones and chooses to raise him as if he were his own son; Tom grows up loving him like a father.

Tom becomes a lively young man whose good looks and kind heart make him very popular with girls and women. He truly loves only the gentle Sophie Western (Sophia, "Sophy", in the novel), daughter of a neighbour, who returns his love. Tom is stigmatized as a "[[Illegitimacy|bastard]]" and cannot wed a young lady of her class. Sophie, too, must hide her feelings while her aunt and her father, Squire Western, try to coerce her to marry someone they think more suitable, Mr. Blifil, the nephewson of Squire Allworthy's sister, Bridget.

This young man is Mr. Blifil, the son of Squire Allworthy's widowed sister Bridget. Although of legitimate birth and appropriate class, he is an ill-natured prig with plenty of hypocritical 'virtue.' When Bridget dies unexpectedly, Blifil intercepts a letter, whichthat his mother intended for his uncle's eyes only. The letter's contents are not revealed until late in the film. But after his mother's funeral, Blifil and his two tutors, Mr. Thwackum and Mr. Square (who had also tutored Tom), join forces to convince the squire that Tom is a villain. Allworthy gives Tom a substantial cash legacy (500 pounds, worth over $125,000 in 2021) and sorrowfully sends him out into the world to seek his fortune.

Tom is robbed of his fortune, but soon meets his supposed father, Mr. Partridge, who becomes his manservant. Tom rescues a Mrs. Waters/Fitzpatrick from a British soldier, but ends up in a duel and is later jailed and about to be hanged for murder before it is discovered that the letter that Bridget had written to Squire Allworthy confessed that she is Tom's mother. It is discovered also that Tom had not murdered Mr. Fitzpatrick in the duel.

In his odyssey on the roads, Tom is knocked unconscious while defending the good name of his beloved Sophie and robbed of his legacy. He also flees from a jealous Irishman who falsely accuses him of having an affair with his wife, Sophie's cousin; engages in deadly sword fights, rescues a Mrs. Waters from a British Army officer, and later beds her. Before that occurs, Tom and Mrs. Waters have a celebrated scene in which they wordlessly and voraciously consume a hearty meal while gazing lustfully at each other. Later, Tom meets Partridge, his alleged biological father, and engages him as a servant.

They are able to reach the jail in time to save Tom from hanging. Tom and Sophie are able to marry with everyone's blessing.

Meanwhile, Sophie runs away from home soon after Tom is banished, in order to escape the attentions of the loathed Blifil. After narrowly missing each other at the Upton Inn, Tom and Sophie arrive separately in London. There, Tom attracts the attention of Lady Bellaston, a noblewoman over 40 years of age who is attracted to the "pretty boy". She is rich, beautiful, and completely [[Amoralism|amoral]]. She invites Tom to a masked ball at [[Vauxhall Gardens]] and seduces him. Tom goes to her bed willingly and is generously rewarded for his services with a suit of fine clothes.

Lady Bellaston tries to force Sophia into marriage to a lord by having her raped by him so that she can have Jones to herself. Sophia is saved when her father bursts in.

Hoping to disentangle himself from the affair with Lady Bellaston, Tom writes to her proposing marriage, knowing she will reject the proposal and him. She does, but she also shows the proposal letter to Sophia, who writes to Tom breaking off all contact with him.

Tom visits Sophia's cousin, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, to ask her to speak on his behalf to Sophia. Mr. Fitzpatrick sees him leaving and, assuming his earlier suspicions of an affair between Tom and Mrs. Fitzpatrick were correct, engages him in a duel. The sword fight ends in the wounding of Mr. Fitzpatrick and the crowd thinks Tom was robbing him. Tom ends up at [[Tyburn, London|Tyburn Gaol]], sentenced to hang for robbery and murder.

Partridge runs into Mrs. Waters and recognises her as the former Jenny Jones, Tom's alleged mother. He tells her that the man she 'met' is her alleged son and that he is awaiting execution. Squire Allworthy is troubled to hear that Tom has apparently been involved in incest. However, Mrs. Waters visits Mr. Allworthy and tells him the truth: Tom is not Jenny Jones's child, but his sister Bridget's illegitimate son and thus Allworthy's nephew. Allworthy also learns of the mysterious letter that was supposed to reveal this. Since Blifil knew of the letter, concealed it, and tried to destroy his half-brother, Allworthy disinherits him.

Allworthy also learns that Mr. Fitzpatrick has recovered and withdrawn the charge against Tom. Allworthy uses this knowledge to get Tom a pardon, but it arrives too late: Tom has been conveyed to the gallows; the noose is around his neck. Squire Western, who has been apprised of Tom's new status as Allworthy's only heir, cuts him down as he begins to hang and takes him to Sophie.

Tom has permission to court Sophie, and all ends well with Tom embracing Sophie with both Squire Western's and his uncle's blessings. Squire Western predicts a child will be born "tomorrow and ninemonth".

Tom "lives to love another day".

==Cast==

{{Cast listing|

* [[Albert Finney]] as Tom Jones

** Lynn Goldsworthy as infant Tom

* [[Susannah York]] as Sophie Western

* [[Hugh Griffith]] as Squire Western

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* [[Mark Dignam]] as Lieutenant

* [[Michael Brennan (actor)|Michael Brennan]] as Jailer at Newgate

* [[Lynn Redgrave]] as Susan (Her film debut)

* [[Redmond Phillips]] as Lawyer Dowling

* [[Julian Glover]] as Northerton

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While the British production company [[Bryanston Films (UK)|Bryanston Films]] was hesitating over whether to make the film in colour, it went bankrupt. [[United Artists]] stepped in to finance the film and make it a colour production.<ref>{{cite book|page=xiv|last= Mayer|first= Geoff|title=Guide to British Cinema|publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group|year= 2003}}</ref>

Overall the production faced challenges of disasters, near-disasters and squabbles caused by films being shot on location in the spotty English weather. The film has an unusual comic style: Thethe opening sequence has subtitles and brisk action in the manner of a [[silent film]]. Later in the film, characters sometimes break the [[fourth wall]], often by looking directly into the camera and addressing the audience. In one scene the character of Tom Jones suddenly appears to notice the camera and covers the lens with his hat. Another unusual feature is an unseen narrator, voiced by [[Micheál Mac Liammóir]]. His mock-serious commentaries between certain scenes deplore the action of several characters as well as the weaknesses in human character, and he provides a poetic [[Dramatic structure|denouement]] for the film.

Despite its success, director [[Tony Richardson]] said that he was dissatisfied with the final product. In his autobiography, Richardson wrote that he "felt the movie to be incomplete and botched in much of its execution. I am not knocking that kind of success – everyone should have it – but whenever someone gushes to me about ''Tom Jones'', I always cringe a little inside."<ref>{{Cite book | last = Richardson | first = Tony | title = Long Distance Runner – A memoir | publisher = Faber & Faber | year = 1993 | location = London | page = 136 | isbn = 0-571-16852-3 }}</ref>

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===Filming===

[[Castle Street, Bridgwater|Castle Street]] in [[Bridgwater]], [[Somerset]] was used as a location in several scenes. [[Cerne Abbey]], Abbey Street and The Royal Oak in [[Cerne Abbas]] were used as major locations during the film. Cinematographer [[Walter Lassally]] has said that he thought the location unit got on very well together under the circumstances and that the experience was satisfying. He thought Richardson rather lost his way in post-production, endlessly fixing what was not really broken.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.webofstories.com/play/14061?o=MS|title=Tom Jones: the editing and Tony Richardson's generosity|website=webofstories.com}}</ref>

==Release==

The film was reissued in 1989 by [[The Samuel Goldwyn Company]]. For this release, Richardson trimmed the film by seven minutes.<ref name = "nytimes50295"/> It is available through the Criterion Collection, paired with the original version.

==Reception==

===Critical reception===

''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine's review stated "The film is a way-out, walleyed, wonderful exercise in cinema. It is also a social satire written in blood with a broadaxe. It is bawdy as the British were bawdy when a wench had to wear five petticoats to barricade her virtue".<ref>{{cite magazine |date= 18 October 1963 |title= Cinema: John Bull in His Barnyard |url= http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873797,00.html |magazine= Time }}{{PaywallSubscription required}}</ref>

Rich Gold of ''Variety'' wrote "Though ''Tom Jones'' is a period piece and very different it has the same lustiness and boisterous content with which to project the star. It should breeze its way cheerfully through the box office figures. It has sex, [[Eastmancolor]], some prime performers and plenty of action. Tony Richardson has directed John Osborne's screenplay with verve, though, occasionally, he falls back on camera tricks and editing which are disconcerting".<ref>{{cite web |date= 2221 December 1998 |author= Variety Staff |title= Tom Jones |url= https://variety.com/1998/film/reviews/tom-jones-5-1200456187/ |website= [[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] }}</ref>

On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has an approval rating of 8081% based on retrospective reviews from 4142 critics, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's consensus states: "A frantic, irreverent adaptation of the novel, bolstered by Albert Finney's courageous performance and arresting visuals."<ref>{{cite web |title= Tom Jones (1963) |url= https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tom_jones |website= [[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date= 102 MayJuly 20222023 }}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], it has a score of 77 out of 100, based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews. Ray Austin, stunt Coordinator and Master of horse excelled, he also doubled Albert Finney and others throughout the film and played Ruffian number one uncredited".<ref>{{cite web |title= Tom Jones |url= https://www.metacritic.com/movie/tom-jones |publisher= [[Metacritic]] |access-date= 4 February 2020 }}</ref>

===Box office===

The film was financially successful on its initial release in 1963. It came third for the year in British box-office receipts,<ref>{{cite news|title=Most Popular Films of 1963|newspaper=[[The Times]]|location=London, England|date=3 January 1964|page=4}}</ref> and was the fourth most popular in the United States. Produced on a budget of $1 million, it earned over $17 million in [[Theatrical rental|theater rentals]] from the United States and Canada,<ref name=variety1990/><ref name="tino">{{cite book|first=Tino|last=Balio|title=United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|year=1987|pages=230, 239–240}}</ref> and another $4 million in markets other than the UK and U.S.<ref name="tino"/> Finney received 10% of the film's earnings.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=21 October 1964|page=1|title=Finney's % of 'Tom Jones' Goes Over $1 Million}}</ref>

===Accolades===

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|-

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* {{IMDb title}}

* {{TCMDb title}}

* {{AllMovie movietitle}}

* [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5427-tom-jones-tomorrow-do-thy-worst "Tom Jones: Tomorrow Do Thy Worst"], essay by Neil Sinyard at the [[Criterion Collection]]

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[[Category:1960s English-language films]]

[[Category:1960s British films]]

[[Category:English-language historical comedy films]]

[[Category:English-language adventure comedy films]]