 |  | Great, somewhat neglected film, with superb Olivier performance |  |
Laurence Olivier stars as a sleazy, third-rate music hall performer in 1960's "The Entertainer", one of the first and best films of the so called Free Cinema movement, and a movie that is somewhat neglected today (it should be better known). Based on a play by John Osborne, Olivier plays Archie Rice, a mediocre performer in grim seaside town theaters. His shows attract few people (early in the film, we see passersby sneering at the theater marquee that falsely advertises Archie as a television comedian). His father, Billy, was once a talented and successful comedian, but now he is just a cranky old man living with him and Archie's wife, the unstable Phoebe. Archie has three grown children, played respectively by Alan Bates, Albert Finney and Joan Plowright, all very early in their careers. Jean (Plowright, who would become Olivier's wife soon after this film) comes to home from London and sees her family unraveling: one of her brothers have been sent to Suez, her stepmother is becoming more and more unstable, Archie is hounded by his creditors while he imprudently starts a romance with a beauty contestant, with the hope of obtaining financing for his shows from her rich parents. The film goes downhill from here, so is quite bleak, but it is very well done (and especially, performed). Some critics see Archie as a metaphor of postwar England, and this may indeed have been Osborne's intention, but the film plays better as a character study of a very flawed man.
January 11, 2008Sir Laurence Olivier performs 'Brilliantly', the role of Archie, "The Entertainer"! The cast including his future wife, Joan Plowwright, and Alan Bates, are equally 'Superb' in their roles. Thank You for this 'Wonderful Film'!
July 6, 2007Ironically the foremost symbol of traditional English theatre, Olivier showed off his astounding range with an anti-heroic, tour-de-force turn in Tony Richardson's 1960 drama, adapted from John Osborne's play. Reprising his celebrated stage role, Sir Larry has a field-day playing Rice, a somewhat ghoulish has-been who personifies his own nation's decay, and the effort earned him an Oscar nomination. De Banzie and newcomer Plowright (who'd go on to marry Olivier) excel in supporting roles.
June 28, 2007this is one of the great treasures of my collection... 'the entertainer' features Laurence olivier in perhaps his greatest screen performance as the detestable, washed up vaudevilian Archie Rice who just can't give up the stage.. It is, moreover, the portrait of a family that struggles to survive in post world war 2 england.. With a son off in the military, a slightly senile yet amiable old grandfather, his son the not so sly womanizer archie rice, archie's much neglected wife, and the daughter played by joan plowright in her first screen performance.. This is a movie which you will never forget... Olivier plays archie as a al jolson wannabe who is so addicted to his profession and young women that he neglects his family - yet in the end you cannot help but sympathise with his character who you know really does care a great deal...
March 4, 2007Laurence Olivier delivers a heartrending performance as failed music hall comic Archie Rice. The excellent supporting cast includes Joan Plowright, Roger Livesey, Brenda de Banzie and Alan Bates. I really enjoyed the location work. It was filmed mainly at the now-struggling British seaside town of Morecambe, Lancashire, and it is fascinating to get a glimpse of the resort in its heyday.
October 8, 2006More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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