Film Links  Bates Film & Television Checklist Bates 101 Internet Movie Database (IMDb) British Film Institute (BFI) Not On BATES ARCHIVE News In Memoriam SPOTLIGHTS Knighthood American Film Theatre Fifties TV Al Hirschfeld FEATURES Biography Timeline Photo Gallery Actors Centre Piffle Ephemera ARCHIVE Theatre Film Television Audio Interviews Writing       "I think he was seeking out something new with The Entertainer; he had sought out the new dramatists and had made a very conscious effort to place himself at the forefront of all that. But apart from that sort of conscious choice on his part, I think everyone merged pretty well. He did too, but we were just conscious that he had chosen to do something specifically of the day, as it were, rather a break from his classical mold." - Bates on Olivier as Archie Rice

f i l m The Entertainer THE ENTERTAINER is a controversial film and the only X-rated one in which Laurence Olivier has appeared. Its representation of the death and decay of vaudeville in the person of Archie Rice (Laurence Olivier) can be seen as an allegory for the decay of Great Britain in the 1950's. Set in a seedy coastal resort in the south of England, the film opens with Archie's daughter Jean (Joan Plowright) down from London on a visit to her father, a down-and-out vaudeville performer, her stepmother Phoebe (Brenda de Banzie), who is losing herself in movies and gin, and her grandfather Billy Rice (Roger Livesay), a has-been who was once a famous and talented vaudevillian. A fight with her fiance Graham (Daniel Massey) has prompted Jean's sudden visit. Jean's stepbrother Mick (Albert Finney), away at war, had been taken prisoner but is now being released. This incident sets up an emotional crisis in the family, but also brings them all together for a few days. The nightly parties celebrating Mick's release and pending return turn into ugly, drunken rows, reminiscences of better times, and bitter reprisals for the current state of affairs. Each member of the family has his or her memories and disappointments. Phoebe, who is bored and frustrated by Archie's continual affairs and escapes the drudgery of daily life through drink, desires nothing more than to be treated kindly and live among people who are not destitute and disillusioned. Billy, the ex-vaudevillian, spends his time reading the evening paper, smoking cigarettes, sighing for "the good old days," and suffering the patronage of his son, Archie. Archie, perhaps, is the most frustrated one of them all. A mediocre talent living under the shadow of his famous father, Archie is desperately trying to subsist in a third-rate show entitled ROCK AND ROLL NEW'D LOOK. In the numerous variety-hall numbers, we are allowed to see that Archie has no rapport with his working-class audience. What he desires most is to get up on stage and make a beautiful, spontaneous, joyful "fuss," just like a blues singer he had once seen. He feels that if he could do something that good just once in his life, it would make everything else worthwhile. Meanwhile he spends his days drinking, having affairs, and feeling degraded. At one of the nightly parties, one of the most heartrending scenes occurs. Billy, feeling hungry, heads into the kitchen and eats a piece of cake. Unfortunately, that cake was one which Phoebe had bought with her scanty savings for Mick's return, and the verbal abuse and pain which follow are typical of the entire movie. | Archie crumbles | With the unexpected death of Mick overseas, Archie crumbles. This, however, provides the emotional release which enables him finally to sing the blues, to make a beautiful "fuss." Mick's death and the approaching threat of the tax man becomes too much for him, however, and in a desperate attempt to escape, Archie becomes involved with a young local girl named Tina (Shirley Anne Field), the second-prize winner in a beauty contest for which he is master of ceremonies. Thoughts of marriage even enter Archie's head, but his feelings of hope are shattered when Billy informs the girl's family of Archie's wife and three children. As atonement, Billy provides an alternative means of escape. He agrees to go back into show business, with the hope that his name will provide the necessary draw to bolster Archie's sagging show and ward off the creditors. Billy's return proves too much for him, however, and he dies in the wings without ever making an appearance. Archie is left to face the tax man alone. Although he has an opportunity to manage a hotel in Canada, Archie feels that Canada would be too far removed from everything he has ever known and chooses to remain an entertainer and perhaps retain a little honor. | Considerable courage | THE ENTERTAINER was first a stage play written by John Osborne, one of England's "angry young men" and a very anti-Establishment writer. THE ENTERTAINER was chosen by the English Stage Company (founded in 1956 and housed in the Royal Court Theatre) as one of the new plays it wanted to produce. George Devine, a founder of the company, was a good friend of Olivier, and it was through him that Olivier approached the idea of appearing in Osborne's play. This move required considerable courage on Olivier's part because it caused a good deal of furor. Olivier's appearance in a non-Establishment play might have cost him the approval of his influential and highly placed friends. Although he was warned of the risk of placing his reputation in the care of relatively inexperienced talents, however, Olivier was nevertheless ready to gamble on a dramatic change of direction. It is Olivier's involvement which gives an air of respectability to Osborne's play. In addition to the disapproval he had to face, Olivier had to counter doubts as to whether an actor of his power and prestige could convincingly play a broken-down, third-rate vaudevillian. To dispel these doubts, Olivier, who already had a keen sense of identification with the character, frequented the old Collins Music Hall in Islington, watching the variety show of nudes and rock-and-roll and quizzing the showgirls. The owners were so honored that they put up a commemorative plaque. At one point, Olivier's wife Vivien Leigh was considered for the part of Phoebe (she was to wear a rubber mask to disguise her good looks), but the idea was abandoned, perhaps because of Olivier's crumbling marriage. In 1961, the year after the film was released, they were divorced, and Olivier married Joan Plowright, who plays Jean in the film. De Banzie was eventually chosen to play Phoebe, reviving her role from the original stage version. | A poetic and literate script | The film's director, Tony Richardson, also directed the play THE ENTERTAINER, which opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1957. A comparatively young, inexperienced, and unknown talent, Richardson had previously directed the stage version of Osborne's LOOK BACK IN ANGER and would go on to direct the 1969 stage version of HAMLET and such films as THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER (1962) and TOM JONES (1963). The latter film again teamed Richardson with the composer John Addison and with actor Albert Finney, who had a bit part as young Mick Rice in THE ENTERTAINER. Osborne's play was considerably expanded for the film version. The part of Jean was developed more, while the addition of the character Tina, created cinematic allure. The fact that Osborne wrote the script for the film assured that the film's changes would be in keeping with the original tone of the play. The result was an incredibly poetic and literate script which is one of the outstanding features of the movie. Production values for THE ENTERTAINER are excellent; meticulous care was taken with every aspect of the film. The music, cinematography, sets, and costumes all combine to produce a very real atmosphere of seediness, despair, and decay. Olivier's makeup, as usual, is impressive. The character becomes a leering, sad, broken-down old man in a tacky checked suit and bow tie. Olivier, it was rumored, even went to the extreme of having his own teeth filed down to achieve the very odd set of teeth belonging to Archie. The makeup and physical aspect of Archie was so important to the story that even twenty years later, a photograph of Olivier in costume for the film is immediately identifiable. It is Olivier's acting, however, which above all dominates and carries the film. It is a widely held opinion that Archie Rice is one of Olivier's greatest performances outside of the classics. Olivier himself has named it one of his favorites. Certainly, he manages to capture the essence of Archie, making him a credible, understandable, and sympathetic character, even if a pitiable one. Olivier even captures the mediocrity of the music-hall numbers, the possibility of talent numbed by fatigue and disillusionment, and he gives the audience the real man behind the entertainer, a man frustrated, disappointed, tired, and broken-hearted. | Talented young newcomers | Standing up under Olivier's almost overpowering presence is an outstanding supporting cast. Headed by such well-known British character actors as De Banzie and Livesey, excellent as Phoebe and Billy, the cast also boasts an array of talented young newcomers who were to go on to become stars in their own right, including Plowright, Alan Bates (as Jean's stepbrother Frank), and Finney. It was Olivier, nevertheless, who received most of the attention of the critics. Reaction was very strong; critics either loved Olivier and hated the film, or the reverse. Olivier's performance was powerful enough to earn him an Academy Award nomination, although he lost to Burt Lancaster for ELMER GANTRY. A later televised version of THE ENTERTAINER starring Jack Lemmon as Archie Rice, Ray Bolger as Billy, Sada Thompson as Phoebe, and Tyne Daly and Michael Christopher as the children is excellent on its own but does not stand up to the level of the 1960 film, which is undeniably a classic, owing to Olivier's monumental performance. © Magill's Survey of Cinema, 06-15-1995

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