TOM JONES (1963)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Tony Richardson

SCREENWRITER: John Osborne

FILM STARS: Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, Edith Evans, Joan Greenwood, Diane Cilento, George Devine, David Tomlinson, Rosalind Atkinson, Wilfrid Lawson, Jack MacGowran, David Warner, Lynn Redgrave, Julian Glover

COUNTRY: England

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Henry Fielding

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Signet

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1964

COUNTRY: USA

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: Henry

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1749

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

NOTES

GENRE: Adventure

WORDS: Henry Fielding’s novel may be a classic but I doubt if I’m going to read this. Pre 20th century fiction I read very selectively … Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, James Fenimore Cooper, H.G. Wells, Shakespeare (well, we were all forced to read Shakespeare at school, weren’t we?), Edgar Allen Poe, and a handful of others. And even then I came late to appreciate them. I was in Croatia for the better part of a year back in the 1990s. The place, at least along the coast where I was, lives for summer. The autumn and winter, have their vitality but the atmosphere of an abandoned  fairground permeates. And it was cold. I was stuck indoors. The television shows did not have enough variety and movies where infrequent (no cable back then). My spoken Croatian was fine, but my reading was too slow. What to do in the down time stuck indoors (no internet back then either) waiting for the winter drinking festivals and the eventual warmth of Spring? For the most part I was staying with an elderly Aunt who was wonderful. The oral history, stories and family anecdotes were as good as anything I could read but I couldn’t badger her all the time.  She was elderly. That leaves a lot of day to fill, even with walks, coffee shops, and general wandering. I had to read. And to avoid the struggle it had to be in English.  And, in any event reading a novel in English at some coffee shop in off season Croatian is nothing if not a conversation starter. Now, to find literature in English. Luckily, there was English literature to be found … all Penguin classics, and all pre 20th century. So, without choice (sometimes lack of choice is a blessing), I dove in, and never looked back … I read a good chunk of Dickens and James Fenimore Cooper, and loved them. This is the long way of saying I like pre 20th century literature, but, Fielding and his 18th century social satire may be a bridge too far.

The film I have seen and I’m surprised, given its Englishness,  that it was a success world wide, even in the US (where it also won Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay). I assume its satirical bawdiness (which the novel has as well (apparently)) is what made it popular … and one reason I watched the film and one reason I would think about reading the novel. One reason.

Tom Jones, the central character is slightly rakish or a rake with good intentions (a noble rake?) and the English did rakes well, and did many in the 60s … James Bond, Michael Caine’s Alfie (1966), Alan Bates’ Jimmy Brewster in Nothing But the Best (1964), Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty in Lolita (1962), Laurence Harvey’s Miles Brand in Darling (1965 ) and any number of Terry-Thomas and Leslie Phillips characters. But they are all contemporary characters and that is perhaps the appeal of Finney’s Tom Jones, his carrying on (it may as well be a Carry On film … oh, the sacrilege) like a likely lad in the 60s.

Albert Finney is perfect here. He has fun on his adventures, trying to clear his name, get ahead in life, and marry the right woman and there is a a certain nobility is his desire to succeed with his true love. The film I recall  was fun though long. Most noticeable I recall was the film broke the fourth wall, with characters addressing or looking at the camera which I hadn’t seen before, well not in period films.

The novel has been filmed  a number of times (films Tom Jones Rides Again (1971), The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones (1976), mini series The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1997 ), and most recently as a TV series in 2023 with some of the lead characters blackwashed (totally ridiculous in a period piece in this social setting but that’s the world we live in …. I’m waiting for that social satire to be made).

LINKS

TRAILER