The Pumpkin Eater
Reviewed in March 2010
Director: Jack Clayton. Cast: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, . Screenplay: Harold Pinter (based on the novel by Penelope Mortimer).

Photo © 1964 Royal Films/Romulus Films/Columbia Pictures
First dialogue, after AB skulks around in diagonal hat: "What are you doing?" in driveway, she doesn't immdiately answer; AB's father paying to have older children sent away to school, after first failed marriage, he thinks hse's got too many kids; still manages to laugh and drink beer while pregnant for - 6th, 7th time?; Maggie Smith stealing a scene, adulating PF as most wonderful husband over and over, probing how many of the children are PF's (one); shots of AB leaving house too severe, all that grim Looking Around with slanting hat; "What do you mean it was nothing? What do you mean?" / "She fainted" Pinter reps; PF: "That I'm capable of fancying of somebody else, I'm a perfectly normal man and I'm capable of fancying someoby else"; legs looking a little chunky from skirt hem;

Academy Award Nominations:
Best Actress: Anne Bancroft

Golden Globe Nominations and Winners:
★Best Actress (Drama): Anne Bancroft

Other Awards:
Cannes Film Festival: Best Actress (Bancroft; tie)
British Academy Awards (BAFTAs): Best Foreign Actress (Bancroft); Best British Screenplay; Best British Cinematography, Black & White (Oswald Morris); Best British Costume Design, Black & White (Sophie Devine)
Permalink Home 1964 ABC Blog E-Mail