The Entertainer (film)

The Entertainer
Directed byTony Richardson
Screenplay byJohn Osborne
Nigel Kneale
Based onThe Entertainer
1957 play
by John Osborne
Produced byHarry Saltzman
StarringLaurence Olivier
Brenda de Banzie
Roger Livesey
Joan Plowright
Daniel Massey
CinematographyOswald Morris
Edited byAlan Osbiston
Music byJohn Addison
Production
company
Distributed byBryanston Films
Release date
  • 25 July 1960 (1960-07-25)
Running time
107 min[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£247,716[2] or £240,170[3] or £205,870[4]
Box office£57,323 (UK) (as at 31 Dec 1962)[5][6]

The Entertainer is a 1960 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Tony Richardson, produced by Harry Saltzman and adapted by John Osborne and Nigel Kneale from Osborne's stage play of the same name.[7] The film stars Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice, a failing third-rate music-hall stage performer who tries to keep his career going even as the music-hall tradition fades into history and his personal life falls apart.[8] Olivier was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role.[9]

  1. ^ "THE ENTERTAINER | British Board of Film Classification". British Board of Film Classification.
  2. ^ Petrie, Duncan James (2017). "Bryanston Films : An Experiment in Cooperative Independent Production and Distribution" (PDF). Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television: 7. ISSN 1465-3451.
  3. ^ Chapman, L. (2021). “They wanted a bigger, more ambitious film”: Film Finances and the American “Runaways” That Ran Away. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 18(2), 176–197 p 182. https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2021.0565
  4. ^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 359
  5. ^ Petrie p9
  6. ^ Sarah Street (2014) Film Finances and the British New Wave, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 34:1, 23-42 p27, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2014.879000
  7. ^ "The Entertainer (1960)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016.
  8. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Entertainer, The (1960)". BFI Screenonline.
  9. ^ "The 33rd Academy Awards | 1961". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.