I'll Never Forget What's'isname
| I'll Never Forget What's'isname | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Michael Winner |
| Produced by | Michael Winner |
| Written by | Peter Draper |
| Starring |
Oliver Reed Carol White Orson Welles Harry Andrews Marianne Faithfull |
| Music by | Francis Lai |
| Cinematography | Otto Heller |
| Edited by | Bernard Gribble |
| Distributed by |
J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (theatre) Anchor Bay Entertainment (DVD) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
I'll Never Forget What's'isname (DVD box title: I'll Never Forget What's 'Isname) is a 1967 British film directed and produced by Michael Winner. It stars Oliver Reed as disillusioned London advertising executive Andrew Quint, who revolts against his boss, Jonathan Lute (Orson Welles), and escapes into Swinging London.
Synopsis
The film deals with creativity and commercialism. Quint attempts to get back at his boss by making a negative commercial reusing themes from earlier in the film, including Lute saying "The number one product of all human endeavor is waste...waste." The commercial, advertising a Super-8 camera, talks about capturing events while you still can before everything is destroyed and discarded. It ends with Quint operating a car crusher and destroying numerous cameras. The commercial is hailed as a masterpiece, and wins an award, but Quint hurls the award into the Thames.
Cast
- Orson Welles as Jonathan Lute
- Oliver Reed as Andrew Quint
- Carol White as Georgina Elben
- Harry Andrews as Gerald Sater
- Michael Hordern as Headmaster
- Wendy Craig as Louise Quint
- Norman Rodway as Nicholas
- Marianne Faithfull as Josie
- Frank Finlay as Chaplain
- Ann Lynn as Carla
- Harvey Hall as Charles Maccabee
- Lyn Ashley as Susannah
- Edward Fox as Walter
- Mark Burns as Michael Cornwall
- Mark Eden as Kelloway
- Stuart Cooper as Lewis Force
- Roland Curram as Eldrich
Controversy
In the United States, the film was denied a MPAA seal of approval due to a scene between Oliver Reed and Carol White which implied (but did not actually show) oral sex. (Winner, in his audio commentary, said he considered the scene to show masturbation. The Catholic League inaccurately described it as "fellatio," even though it is the woman who is receiving.) Universal distributed the film through a subsidiary that was not a member of the MPAA. Along with a similar scene in Charlie Bubbles (1967), this helped to bring about the end of the Production Code in the USA and its replacement with a ratings system.
The film is often named as the first mainstream film to use the word fuck in its dialogue. Another contender is Ulysses, which was released earlier the same year. The contention seems to have arisen because of a longtime absence of either film's release date in any easily obtainable sources, such as the Internet Movie Database. The BBFC certified the film in June 1967 (after demanding the removal, or at least obscuring, of the word fucking), whereas Ulysses, which suffered heavier cuts, had been certified three months earlier in March.