Tom Jones

The winner of the 1963 Best Picture Oscar was Tom Jones, and if it doesn't seem like a Best Picture winner, it's hard to see an obvious alternative from that year. A jokey, wink-at-the-camera sex comedy, it's not the worst picture ever to win, but it doesn't hold up very well, either.

Tom Jones had the distinction of being the only Best Picture winner I had never seen, so I was anxious to watch it. But right from the start I was put off, as it has that British, Benny Hill-like humor that is only good in small doses. It is based on the classic novel by Henry Fielding, and a script by "angry young man" playwright John Osborne, but the approach by director Tony Richardson is "we're not taking this seriously, and just having a bit of fun." A little of this goes a very long way.

The story is that the title character is foundling, left on the bed of a bachelor squire. He is assumed to the son of a servant, but the squire raises him as his own. But Tom, who grows up to look like Albert Finney, though raised as a gentleman, can't help but be a carouser, dipping his wick with the gamekeeper's daughter (Diane Cilento). His sanctimonious cousin (David Warner) plants doubts in the squire's head about Tom's character, so the poor lad is banished from the household. He makes his way to London, having adventures along the way.

The film has a number of striking things about it. For one, it's shot in natural light, which makes it look like the film really does place in the mid 1700s, and it is edited briskly, with quick cuts that make the pace almost breathless. There are several instances when the characters break the fourth wall and look to the camera, and the action is played at high speed. Some of this is funny, but at times one gets the impression that Richardson was doing this as a goof, so why should we care?

The cast is full of British actors acting broadly. Finney is quite charming, and Susannah York is winsome as his one true love, while Hugh Griffith hams it up mightily as her father. The film has the distinction of being the only movie to earn three Best Supporting Actress nominations: for Cilento, Edith Evans (as York's fussy aunt), and Joyce Redman, who shares a scene with Finney that has become the movie's most famous. They eat at a tavern, and eat their meals with a sexual gusto. You've never seen oysters slurped just like that.