TOM JONES Original Theatrical Version
Tom Jones • 2h 8m
Directed by Tony Richardson • 1963 • United Kingdom
In the early 1960s, at the height of the British New Wave, director Tony Richardson and playwright John Osborne set out for more fanciful territory than the gritty realism of the movement they’d helped establish. TOM JONES brings a theatrical flair to Henry Fielding’s canonical eighteenth-century novel, boisterously chronicling the misadventures of the foundling of the title (Albert Finney, in a career-defining performance), whose easy charm seems to lead him astray at every turn from his beloved, the wellborn Sophie Western (Susannah York). This spirited picaresque, evocatively shot in England’s rambling countryside and featuring an extraordinary ensemble cast, went on to become a worldwide sensation, winning the Oscar for best picture on the way to securing its status as a classic of irreverent wit and playful cinematic expression.
Up Next in Tom Jones
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Walter Lassally on TOM JONES
Cinematographer Walter Lassally (1926–2017) worked with director Tony Richardson on three films in three years: A TASTE OF HONEY, THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, and TOM JONES. In this piece, including footage from conversations with the cinematographer from 2004 and 2017, Lassally di...
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The Influence of TOM JONES
In the following interview, recorded in York, England, in October 2017, film scholar Duncan Petrie explains how TOM JONES’s production, cinematic style, and enormous financial success changed the landscape of British filmmaking.
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Reediting TOM JONES
Tony Richardson’s director’s cut of TOM JONES, released in 1989, is seven minutes shorter than the original theatrical cut. In the following 2017 interview, editor Robert Lambert discusses working with Richardson on this version of the film.
