Directed by Tony Richardson • 1960 • United Kingdom
Starring Laurence Olivier, Brenda de Banzie, Roger Livesey
“Life is a beastly mess,” states the great Laurence Olivier in this superb drama of the seedy music-hall life. He plays Archie Rice, a third-rate vaudevillian whose song-and-dance routines are crusty, unappealing, and decidedly boring. His wife (Brenda de Banzie) is a shrewish alcoholic who nags him constantly about his failures. His father (Roger Livesey), a once-famous entertainer, is dying, yet Archie prevails upon him to back just one more tawdry musical revue. Archie’s world comes tumbling down onto the garbage heap he has built up through a life of self-deception, sneaky schemes, and ruthless unconcern for those who love him. Based on the play by Angry Young Man John Osborne and directed by British New Wave trailblazer Tony Richardson, THE ENTERTAINER is built around one of Olivier’s most riveting performances.
Up Next in British New Wave
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A Taste of Honey
Directed by Tony Richardson • 1961 • United Kingdom
Starring Rita Tushingham, Murray Melvin, Paul DanquahThe revolutionary British New Wave films of the early 1960s were celebrated for their uncompromising depictions of working-class lives and relations between the sexes. Directed by Tony Richa...
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This Sporting Life
Directed by Lindsay Anderson • 1963 • United Kingdom
Starring Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan BadelOne of the finest British films ever made, this benchmark of kitchen-sink realism follows the self-defeating professional and romantic pursuits of a miner turned rugby player eking out an exi...
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Tom Jones
Directed by Tony Richardson • 1963 • United Kingdom
Starring Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh GriffithIn the early 1960s, at the height of the British New Wave, director Tony Richardson and playwright John Osborne set out for more fanciful territory than the gritty realism of the movement the...
