WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 @ 012:45 AM (ET)
Albert Finney is Tom Jones, a young man of unknown parentage who grows up to be an irresistible rogue in Tony Richardson’s 1963 adaptation of the 18th Century Henry Fielding novel. He’s especially irresistible to women, which leads to many of the comic misadventures in this movie rollercoaster. Richardson successfully transfers the energy and wry wit of the Fielding classic to the big screen. He employs a bunch of self-referential techniques common to New Wave cinema that remind the viewer that he or she is watching a film: slow-motion, fast-motion, silent movie looks, characters acknowledging and addressing the camera, ironic or sarcastic voice-over by an omniscient narrator, discontinuous editing.
Tom Jones was nominated for ten academy awards, winning Best Picture and Best Director as well as Best Substantially Original Score (John Addison) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (John Osborne). The film was produced by Woodfall Film Productions, the company formed in 1959 by Richardson, Osborne and producer Harry Saltzman to adapt Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger for the big screen.