Tom Jones

Plot synopsis:
The story begins with a silent film sequence during which the good Squire Allworthy (George Devine) returns home after a lengthy stay in London and discovers a baby (played by a girl, Lynn Goldsworthy) in his bed. Thinking that his barber, Mr. Partridge (Jack MacGowran), and one of his servants, Jenny Jones (Joyce Redman), have "birthed" the infant out of lust, the squire banishes them and chooses to raise little Tom Jones as if he were his own son.
Tom (Albert Finney) grows up to be a lively young man whose good looks and kind heart make him very popular with the opposite sex. However, he truly loves only one woman, the gentle Sophie Western (Susannah York), who returns his passion. Sadly, Tom is stigmatized as a "bastard" and cannot wed a young lady of her high station. Sophie, too, must hide her feelings while her aunt (Edith Evans) and her father, Squire Western (Hugh Griffith) try to coerce her to marry a more suitable man – a man whom she hates.
This young man is Blifil (David Warner, in his film debut), the son of the Squire's widowed sister Bridget (Rachel Kempson). Although he is of legitimate birth, he is an ill-natured fellow with plenty of hypocritical 'virtue' but none of Tom's warmth, honesty, or high spirits. When Bridget dies unexpectedly, Blifil intercepts a letter, which his mother intended for her brother's eyes only. What this letter contains is not revealed until the end of the movie; however, after his mother's funeral, Blifil and his two tutors, Mr. Thwackum (Peter Bull) and Mr. Square (John Moffatt), join forces to convince the squire that Tom is a villain. Allworthy gives Tom a small cash legacy and sorrowfully sends him out into the world to seek his fortune.
In his road-travelling odyssey, 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, engages in deadly sword fights, meets his alleged father and his alleged mother, a certain Mrs. Waters, whom he saves from an evil Redcoat Officer, and later beds the same Mrs. Waters. In a celebrated scene, Tom and Mrs. Waters sit opposite each other in the dining room of the Upton Inn, wordlessly consuming an enormous meal while gazing lustfully at each other.
Meanwhile, Sophie runs away from home soon after Tom's banishment 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 (Joan Greenwood), a promiscuous noblewoman over 40 years of age. She is rich, beautiful, and completely amoral, though it is worth noting that Tom goes to her bed willingly and is generously rewarded for his services. Eventually, Tom ends up at Tyburn Gaol, facing a boisterous hanging crowd after two blackguardly agents of Blifil frame him for robbery and attempted murder. Allworthy learns the contents of the mysterious letter: Tom is not Jenny Jones's child, but Bridget's illegitimate son and Allworthy's nephew. Furthermore, since Blifil knew this, concealed it, and tried to destroy his half-brother, he is now in disgrace and disinherited. Allworthy uses this knowledge to get Tom a pardon, but Tom has already been conveyed to the gallows; his hanging is begun, but is interrupted by Squire Western, who cuts him down and takes him to Sophie. Tom now has permission to court Sophie, and all ends well with Tom embracing Sophie with Squire Western's blessing.
In its original release, the film ran 2 hours and 7 minutes.

Tags: romantic, satire

Review:
The second was: "Tom Jones" with Albert Finney and Susannah York, shot with rented equipment and costumes on the streets of London with a supporting cast of brilliant British ensemble players and extras who stood-in just to get in a film.
(Though to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure we'd care for the smell of it.)"Tom Jones" is a low budget, low tech, high quality film that must win the award for the "Most with the Least."  The photography is beautiful, not because it used a dozen half million dollar cameras, it is beautiful because it is good photography.
"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 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.
But I would like to point out that Tom Jones did not sleep with his mother as erroneously alleged, and that Albert Finney, 26 or 27 years old at the time of shooting this film, clearly did not look too old for his part.I haven't read the book(s), but from the film it's obvious that Dickens was much indebted to Fielding, using his amazing invention as a convoluted plot model (and perhaps a character-naming model) for many of his works.Go rent this film after seeing Finney in the currently playing Big Fish -- it's great to see him do so well in such very different films made in different millenia, nearly a full professional lifetime apart..
Here we first meet the protagonist, Tom Jones, played by Albert Finney in his most youthful bloom, and his extended family representing every facet of post-Glorious Revolution England.An incorrigible ne'er-do-well, Tom's genuine love for his neighbor Squire Alworthy's daughter Sophie (a very lovely Susannah York), takes him to the heart of fashionable London society in a series of comedic wrong-turns and misunderstandings.
His true love is Sophie (Susannah York) , the daughter of a higher-class rich owner (Hugh Griffith).The picture is a lavish rendition of a classic novel written by Henry Fielding with lots of entertainment and fun .
The film obtained Academy Awards in 1963 to best film for United Artists , Director -Tony Richardson- , adapted screenplay -John Osborne- and original music -John Addison- and was nominated : Albert Finney , Hugh Griffith , Diane Cilento , Joyce Redman and Edith Evans by their robustly agreeable characterization .
Just two hundred years after Henry Fielding's novel appeared, the theatre-actor-turned-cinema-director Sir Tony Richardson rounded up a few Shakespearean-trained prodigees, got John Addison to compose hectic clavichord accompaniment a little in the style of Handel operas and set all this against lush photography to produce one of the most hilarious films of the last five hundred years.
There are also duels, a misunderstanding about the linage of the Jones baby, and an unwanted suitor for the lovely Sophie, Susan York.I saw this film as a teen in 1963 and it telegraphed a new sense of modernism and sexual freedom without pretense that is ironic since Fielding's story was hundreds of years old on the eve of the Beatles and the swinging London of the 60's..
Thus, the uncouth merges with sex and the presentation used here.That presentation form is at once hyperrealistic  hand-held verity, engagement with running horses, A specific film joke where Tom and Sophie follow each other riding animals, widely varying lighting schemes using found light, frequent direct dialog with the audience  and highly stylized "old" stuff: swordfights, wellworn plot closures, a typical love story but where the girl is halfway in the old and new worlds.Make no mistake: the star of this is Suzanna York as our surrogate.
But John Osborne's adapted screenplay for which he won an Oscar captures the right spirit of the ribald and rollicking novel of the mid eighteenth century in Great Britain.It was one bawdy age, the dissolute courts of the first two kings named George set the tone for British society at the time.
Even the neighboring squire Hugh Griffith likes him, but not as a suitable husband for his daughter Ms. York.The story in many ways sets the tone for the novels of Charles Dickens, many of which concerned young men like Tom Jones, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, Young Pip in Great Expectations, who seek the meaning of their origins.
I doubt Charles Dickens could have gotten his work published if they had been as naughty as Fielding's.Director Tony Richardson really captures the look of 18th century Great Britain, no doubt part of why he was named Best Director and Tom Jones awarded Best Picture of 1963.
TOM JONES may not be the worst movie to take home the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture, but it certainly is in the running for being the most ineptly directed.
Under Tony Richardson's amateurish direction, the film suffers from having little sense of comic timing, a lack of the astute use of editing or camera placement or even the slightest hint that the famed director had ever been behind a camera before.It is easy to see what Richardson was going for; he wanted to cut the historical epic as a genre down to size.
Amoral and callow, there is little reason to care for Jones' fate other than the fact that he is so gosh-darn pretty.Even granting that 1963 was a remarkably weak year for movies, TOM JONES' winning of the Oscar (among several other prestigious awards) is a puzzlement.
It is, simply, a masterpiece.A brilliant story at the heart of it, of course, but brought to life with fantastic, innovative direction, including affectionate nods to the silents, extraordinary action sequences, unsurpassed breaches of the fourth wall ("Did you see her take it?"), uncommon acknowledgements of some of the grimmer realities of the era, and tour de force performances from the entire cast (who clearly relished every minute), centred of course on the sublime Albert Finney - one of the greats, never better - and the heart-stoppingly gorgeous Susannah York.
The theatre was packed and the reaction of the audience to the movie gives new meaning to the words "guffawing" and "rolling in the aisles" and "rollicking"."Tom Jones" came out at the height of the British New Wave.
The direction makes it easy to laugh along and get caught up in the sheer sexual charisma of Tom Jones' personality.But personally, as an English major who really treasured the book, I find that this movie is not all it's cracked up to be.
This movie was "influential" for the rest of the Sixties, and in all the wrong ways.Tom was the first "anti-hero" in Sixties film, a guy who is good looking and sexy but not especially brave or clever or even kind.
How many times have we seen this bias?Finney was so young looking, I didn't recognize him when I watched this film in the 90s, about 30 years after seeing it in the theater when it came out.
All the actors are outstanding, Albert Finney actually doesn't have to do much except be active, while the character who makes the greatest impression is the rumbustious Hugh Griffith as Squire Western, while his daughetr Susannah York never was lovelier than in this film.
But if a viewer gives it a try with this scrumptiously restored Blu-Ray edition (retrofitted with Dolby Stereo), the consensus is, at the very least, a resplendent period treat enveloped with ample, lilting, euphonious selections to please one's ears and a carefree comedy-of-errors as much beholden to a unique faux-naïf whiff of British nobility as to its often vacuous, non-sensical happenings, which are transmuted from Henry Fielding's 18th century source novel THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING.Our young hero Tom Jones (Finney), whose parentage is the film's best kept secret, is a foundling adopted by Squire Allworthy (Devine), in due time he wins the heart of the young lady Sophie Western (York) with his chivalry, but also has no qualms about copping off with a luscious Molly Seagrim (Cilento), the daughter of a local peasant, and even gallantly defends her names on the back of his black horse, an atypical knight-in-the-shining-armor, the truth is, Tom is a magnetized draw toward the opposite site, which the film flogs to death through the mouths of his many a female admirer, but as fresh-faced as he is, Finney's dreamboat quotient is not potent enough, his appearance often betrays a tinge of sophistication which will mature tangibly with time, ergo, it becomes slightly vexing in this nominal "female gaze" outlook that tapers into frivolity, once Tom sets his foot on his own to explore the world.
On the one hand, it looks bizarre now, that the film holds an unmatched record by securing three Oscar nominations in BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS category (with no win though), granted that the film does present a menagerie of vivacious, delicious and colorful personages: a transmogrified Cilento is a brazen sight to behold; Dame Edith Evans is right on the nose as Sophie's spinster aunt, a moralistic do-gooder cannot be bothered even by a pistol-wielding footpad; Joyce Redman makes splashes with her infamous duet with Finney in their food partaking flirtation as Mrs. Waters, and is spared with an incestuous scandal in the final reveal, apart from those aforementioned three Oscar-nominated ladies, a Golden Globe-nominated Joan Greenwood doesn't cede her reign to anyone else as the amoral Lady Bellaston, but in the event, every character, including the bibulous luvvie Hugh Griffith as Sophie's fatuous father, David Warner's vicious turn in his screen debut and a scene-stealing David Tomlinson as Lord Fellamar who is blatantly ready to ravish his object of desire, even the two leads Tom and Sophie, is wanting of a magic potion which would lend them some substance other than a caricature or a skin-deep nonentity.
The movie takes place in England in the 18th century, and involves the many adventures (mostly sexual) of a young, handsome Tom Jones.
Especially good are Albert Finney as Tom, Susannah York as his love Sophie and Joyce Redman as Mrs. Waters.
I found it difficult to see what the point of the film.The vague story after the book by Henry Fielding follows Tom and his adventures across England making a life for himself after being run out of house by his uncle landlord.
The supporting cast is uniformly excellent with special mention going to Hugh Griffith's gruff Squire Western Edith Evans, Joyce Redmond and the venerable Jack MacGowan as Patridge.Honored in its day but mostly ignored for its importance today Tom Jones has aged far better than most.
Tom Jones, Albert Finney who has left us lately (sometimes in February 2019) , Has so much charm, Such a beauty on the screen, subtle humour, , and above all it gives you the feeling of watching a great theatre play due to film director Tony Richardson, and All actors fro A-z.
Although you may have seen some of the techniques copied (unfortunately, the only film which comes immediately to mind with regards to the editing is Start the Revolution Without Me (1970)), I feel fairly certain that freeze frames (with narrative voice- overs), characters playing (even talking) to the camera, and the lyrical wipes & fades ("zeroing" in on a specific object or face - like the singing mice in Babe (1995)) employed were first done in this Academy Award winning Best Picture.A very visually creative film which tells the bawdy tales of a bastard son raised by a wealthy squire.
my memory escapes me).The score, which also won the Academy Award, is whimsical and upbeat with its tempo perfectly matching the kinetic pace of many of the more comical exploits of the title character, played by Albert Finney (Oscar nominated in only his third film).One of the few comedies (15%?) to win BP, it also took home Best Director (Tony Richardson) and Writing (the story was adapted from the Henry Fielding novel).
Tom Jones is significant to me, personally, as it was the last film I needed to see to have seen all the Academy Award Best Picture winners.
The costuming and the sets were both extraordinary, and I was shocked that Tom Jones, a film that won 4 Oscar's, was not awarded for its sets nor period clothing.
It is easy to see why Tom Jones, halfway a very good film, won Best Picture in an otherwise underwhelming year.
Good, Clean, English Fun. In eighteenth century England, "first cousins" Tom Jones (Albert Finney) and Master Blifil grew up together in privilege in the western countryside, but could not be more different in nature.This is a truly odd film.
I have to tell you that I've seen a lot of lousy movies, but this one takes the price.The main character Tom Jones is a disgusting man that makes out with every woman he possibly can, while as he says that he's deeply in love with a young woman named Sophie.
To me, I actually would have enjoyed the film a bit more if it had chosen to emphasize the humor a bit more--sort of like the extremely funny START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME--a very madcap film made just a few years later and starring many of the same supporting actors in TOM JONES.As far as acting goes, everyone was fine in the film.
...sorry for the bad British imitation.but this film is truly one of the best of its time.strong cast.strong director.strong script.strong music.this film is a true and clever window into 18th century England, and some of its literature.the subtleties people miss when watching it are apparent in their reviews.the most bogus descriptor many reviewers here use is "dated." What a useless observation.this film also represents a very excellent adaptation of the story to film.it is no wonder that it won accolades from both the public and critics.those of you who say this film is raunchy and the beginning of the end of Hollywood and its so-called "submission to sex and cultural depravity," should go rent some of the films of early 1930s, the "pre-code" era.Hollywood, from it very beginnings in the silent era, quickly saw and realized the fruits of the relations between sensuality, bawdy stories and setting it all to film.Tom Jones is hardly the signal of cinema's downfall in the 1960s..
Luke-warm Best Picture Oscar winner from 1963 has Albert Finney (Oscar-nominated) as the titled character in this small little film that used smoke and mirrors to make the audience think it is a masterpiece.
I wonder if much the same thing happened with "Tom Jones." I saw this probably ten or so years ago and thought it was light-hearted and breezy, but I couldn't for the life of me understand how it could have been universally liked enough to win the Best Picture Oscar in 1963.
I guess it does have a kind of groovy style about it that was in line with the direction of pop culture during that time period -- it certainly makes two of its Best Picture contenders from that year, "Cleopatra" and "How the West Was Won" (the only two I've seen), look like hopeless dinosaurs staggering from the remains of an out-of-touch Hollywood.
Tom Jones is on the whole not a very good movie.
While it's perfectly true that a film whose cast includes such wonderful actors as Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, the divine Joan Greenwood, Edith Evans and, in minuscule roles Angela Baddeley, Rachel Kempson (as well as Kempson's daughter, Lynn Redgrave, in her film debut) can't be all bad, I can't say I enjoyed TOM JONES much better on a second viewing about 17 years after the first.
Based on Henry Fielding's classic, Tony Richardson's 'Tom Jones' has received quite a lot of acclaim and is still highly praised after almost half a century.
Albert Finney fits Tom Jones like a puzzle.
I don't mind when a movie shows disturbing elements (as long as its relevant to the story) and hunting was a big game during that time period but it just seemed pointless to really kill a deer over it.Anyway, 'Tom Jones' just didn't work for me.
Instead I get a romance novel with less interesting plot lines.Throughout my viewing of this film, I could not help but compare it to another famous "Young Englishman Makes His Way In The World" film, Stanley Kubrick's 'Barry Lyndon.' That movie is an order of magnitude superior to Tom Jones in just about every aspect, especially visually.
Tony Richardson's film reaches a high level of interest with appealing characterizations and somewhat unusual camera work, but fails ultimately to reach the extraordinarily high level of sophistication in Henry Fielding's original novel.The story is set a few hundred years ago, and begins with an interesting silent film homage which reveals the "bastard" parentage of our hero, Tom Jones (Albert Finney), who is adopted and raised by the kindly Squire Allworthy (George Devine).
The success of "Tom Jones" is an example of a film being released at the right time.
But the awful"Cleopatra", Elia Kazan's"America, America", the mediocre "How The West Was Won" and the mediocre "Lillies of the Field" were all nominated.Now while there are many good things to recommend (Albert Finney, camera-work, direction, costumes and setting), I can't say that I really enjoyed this film.