Joseph Andrews (film)

Joseph Andrews
Theatrical release poster, artwork by Ted CoConis
Directed byTony Richardson
Written byAllan Scott
Screenplay byChris Bryant
Based onJoseph Andrews
by Henry Fielding
StarringAnn-Margret
Peter Firth
Michael Hordern
Beryl Reid
Jim Dale
CinematographyDavid Watkin
Edited byThom Noble
Music byJohn Addison
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • April 1977 (1977-04)
Running time
104 min.
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3 million[1]

Joseph Andrews is a 1977 British period comedy film directed by Tony Richardson. It is based on the 1742 novel Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding.

With its rollicking comic plot, period costume and setting, ribald adventures and a dashing young hero, the film was an obvious attempt to follow in the line of such films as Tom Jones (1963), which was also directed by Tony Richardson.

Ann-Margret was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1978 for her performance in the film.[2]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times explains the pretext of Henry Fielding's novel Joseph Andrews: The book "originated as Fielding's answer to what he saw as the hypocritical pieties of [British novelist] Samuel Richardson's Pamela. In Pamela, which was published in 1740, Richardson told the inspiring tale of Pamela Andrews, a serving girl who tenaciously held onto her virginity until her employer, the rich Mr. Booby, came across with a marriage license. Several years later, Mr. Fielding turned this story wildly upside down in a novel about Pamela's brother, Joseph, a serving boy who is as innocent as his sister but not nearly as calculating, who must fight off all sorts of lewd advances and whose triumph is one of true virtue rather than greed."[3]

  1. ^ Richardson Gibes the Gentry Again in 'Joseph Andrews' Champlin, Charles. Los Angeles Times 13 June 1976: p1.
  2. ^ "Joseph Andrews". Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  3. ^ Canby, Vincent (14 April 1978). "Witty 'Joseph Andrews': Misadventures Galore".