Joseph Andrews (film)

Joseph Andrews
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tony Richardson
Written by	Allan Scott Chris Bryant (Screenplay) Henry Fielding (Novel)
Starring	Ann-Margret Peter Firth Michael Hordern Beryl Reid Jim Dale
Music by	John Addison
Cinematography	David Watkin
Editing by	Thom Noble
Studio	Woodfall Film Productions
Distributed by	United Artists (UK)
Release dates	April 1977
Running time	104 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

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

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

Ann-Margret was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1978 for her performance in the film.^[1]

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."^[2]

Plot

Lady Booby alias "Belle", the lively wife of the fat landed squire Sir Thomas Booby, has a lusty eye on the attractive, intelligent villager Joseph Andrews, a Latin pupil and protégé of parson Adams, and makes him their footman. Joseph's heart belongs to a country girl, foundling Fanny Goodwill, but his masters take him on a fashionable trip to Bath, where the spoiled society comes mainly to see and be seen, yet Sir Thomas really seeks relief for his sick foot, but drowns in the famous Roman baths. When the all but grieving lady finds Joseph's Christian virtue and true love resist her lusting passes just as well as the many ladies who fancy her footman, she fires the boy. On his way back on foot, he falls prey to highwaymen who rob him of everything, even the clothes on his back. He is found and nursed by an innkeeper's maid, which stirs lusts there, again besides his honorable conduct, but is found by the good parson. Meanwhile the lady consents to her cousin marrying below their station when learning the fiancée is Joseph's sister, Pamela. The parson barely escapes a wicked gentleman's totally unjust, all but gentle justice after being accused of the attempted rape committed by a squire he actually prevented and comes to learn ever more about a relevant child-theft by gypsies, but meanwhile he, Joseph and Fanny fall prey again to the rapist's utter debauchery...^[3]

Cast

• Ann-Margret as Lady Booby
• Peter Firth as Joseph Andrews
• Michael Hordern as Parson Adams
• Jim Dale as the Pelkar
• Beryl Reid as Mrs. Slipslop
• Natalie Ogle as Fanny Goodwill
• John Gielgud as the Doctor
• Hugh Griffith as Squire Western

Production

The movie was filmed on location at Broughton Castle, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, at the Roman Baths in Bath, Somerset, England, and at the Royal Crescent in Bath, Somerset, England, and in other locations in England. The ballads were sung by Jim Dale who plays the gypsy in the movie.

Reception

Vincent Canby of the New York Times was notably impressed with the film: "Joseph Andrews contains more great (and more greatly funny) character performances than any film I've seen in years. It's one of the few movies around now that truly lifts the spirits, not only because it is so good-humored but also because the humor is laced with so much wit and wisdom. ...(Ann-Margret) looks great and she is enchantingly funny, but so is almost everyone else in a cast so big I really don't know where to begin, since I'm sure to leave out someone important. It's one of those films in which even the smaller roles are as beautifully and as memorably done as the larger ones. ...The film is ... an almost perfect blending of beauty, romance and adventure, of landscapes too lovely to believe alternating with the kind of gritty period detail that prompts one character (Squire Thomas) to say of a street jam in the resort city of Batti, 'The only things that move here are the bowels of the horses.'" ^[4]

John Addison's score was well received. The period costumes by Michael Annals are extraordinarily flamboyant. David Watkin's cinematography was praised as clever and particularly reflective of the period depicted, demonstrating a "painterly quality" and an artistic use of lighting.

Awards

• Nominee Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe award (Ann-Margret)
• Nominee Best Costume Design BAFTA award (Michael Annals, Patrick Wheatley)

References

External links

• Joseph Andrews at the Internet Movie Database
• Joseph Andrews at Rotten Tomatoes