Tom Jones (1963)
More like "Tom Bones."
I dreaded watching this one. “Tom Jones,” I thought, “isn’t that based on some dusty old boring book that’s boring and old?” Well, yes, Tom Jones is based on a book from 1749, but watch the first five minutes of the film and feel your preconceptions fall away. Tom Jones is a goofy comedy!
Baby bastard Tom Jones (Albert Finney) is abandoned by his parents and raised by the goodhearted Squire Allworthy (George Devine). Jones grows up to be incredibly good looking and develops healthy appetites for both alcohol and women.1 He whores his way through Allworthy’s manor, but his true love is neighbor Sophie (Susannah York). Sophie’s father, Squire Western (Hugh Griffith2), won’t let his daughter marry a bastard, instead favoring a match with Allworthy’s nephew Blifil (David Warner).3
Tom Jones’s villainous tutors (the gloriously named Thwackum and Square) eventually convince Allworthy to banish Tom from the manor. Mischief ensues as Tom whores his way across the English countryside. On the road, Tom also meets the two people believed to be his parents: Partridge (Jack MacGowran) and Mrs. Waters (Joyce Redman).4
A series of comical misunderstandings and some treachery from Blifil leads to Tom’s arrest in London. As he’s taken to the gallows, Squire Allworthy learns that Tom is actually his sister’s child and that Blifil withheld that information so he’d be the only inheritor of Allworthy’s estate. And at the moment Tom is to be executed, he’s saved by—SOPHIE’S FATHER?!—the man who fought so valiantly to prevent Tom and Sophie from marrying! Now that Tom’s rich, he’s a perfect match for Sophie!
Life Lessons from Tom Jones
Handsome is as handsome does.
Heroes are mortal, not divine.
Women are convinced by reason, not by force.
If you take one’s heart by surprise, the rest of their body has the right to follow.
Rating: 8/10, more Monty Python than Merchant-Ivory.
Cast and Crew
A lady asserts that Tom Jones is “the most handsome man I ever saw in my life,” and it’s actor Albert Finney who has to be this handsome.
Finney got his start in kitchen sink realism films, first with a small part in The Entertainer and later with the lead in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960).5 Tom Jones is a welcome departure from those bummer films, giving Finney the opportunity to flex his comedy chops. We’ll see Finney many more times in this column.
Tom Jones garnered three Best Supporting Actress nominations:
Edith Evans, for playing Sophie’s haughty aunt.
Diane Cilento, who played Molly, one of Tom’s paramours.
Joyce Redman, as Tom’s presumed mother Mrs. Waters.
Great actresses, great performances, pretty deep trivia cuts.
“The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling” was written by Henry Fielding (1707-1754). Fielding’s work is considered instrumental in the creation of the English novel.6 While some, like Fielding’s contemporary Samuel Richardson, used the burgeoning form to write about morality and virtue, Fielding instead continued the comic tradition and wrote about flawed characters.7 Besides “Tom Jones,” you should have a passing knowledge of some other Fielding titles, like “Joseph Andrews” and “Amelia.” Fielding’s sister, Sarah Fielding, was also an author of note.
The Trivia
Okay, enough about Tom Jones. Let’s instead talk about the Tiger of Wales, singer Thomas John Woodward, who uses the stage name…Tom Jones. (Yes, he named himself after the film character.) Here are some of his songs:
“It’s Not Unusual,” from 1965. This song got its start on pirate radio since the BBC wouldn’t play it because of Jones’ sexual image. Times were different. Later, it soundtracked the iconic “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” scene where Carlton dances the Carlton dance.
“What’s New Pussycat?” also from 1965. WHOA-OH-WHOA. This one was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and was the theme song to Woody Allen’s first produced screenplay.8 In one of John Mulaney’s best bits, he recounts playing the song 21 times on a jukebox.
The low-tier James Bond theme song from Thunderball (1965).9
Three more tracks: “Delilah,” from 1967, which makes murdering your girl sound so, so boring; the embarrassing “Daughter of Darkness,” from 1970; and the kinda-okay 1971 cover of Paul Anka’s “She’s A Lady.”
You might have hoped Tom Jones was confined to 1965-1971, but he’s a music biz survivor. He had a hit in 1988 with a cover of Prince’s “Kiss” and scored another in 1999 (!) with the track “Sex Bomb.”
But look: Tom Jones doesn’t pack lounges because he’s a great singer. He packs lounges because he’s an all-time sex icon, the kind women throw underwear and hotel room keys at.
Tom Jones was also one of the original coaches on “The Voice UK,” rounding out an all-star [sic] panel that featured will.i.am, Jessie J, and Danny O’Donoghue.10 “The Voice” franchise started with a 2010 Dutch singing show called “The Voice of Holland,” which was co-created by John De Mol. De Mol also created “Big Brother,” “Deal or No Deal,” and “Fear Factor” (like “The Voice,” all were originally Dutch).
The hook of “The Voice” is that the singers are judged blind and are later mentored by famous coaches. The U.S. judges initially were Christina Aguilera, CeeLo Green, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton.11 The first winner of “The Voice” was Javier Colon, while the most successful winner was probably Cassadee Pope (whose duet “Think of You” with Chris Young hit #1 on the Billboard Country chart).
Odds and Ends
Henry Fielding wrote “Tom Jones” but Helen Fielding wrote “Bridget Jones’s Diary”…John Osborne, the playwright most associated with kitchen sink realism, adapted “Tom Jones” and won an Oscar for his work…Tony Richardson, who we saw direct The Entertainer, was behind the camera for Tom Jones12…“Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper” is a quote from philosopher Francis Bacon…the film portrays a masked ball at Vauxhall Gardens, a pleasure garden in London with 4.3 stars on Google.
And hey, one more life lesson from Tom Jones, this one the final line of the film: “Happy the man and happy he alone, he who can call today his own, he who, secure within, can say ‘tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.’ ” So go live today and we’ll be back next week with This Sporting Life.
Allworthy describes Tom Jones’ character thusly: “I am convinced, my boy, that you have much goodness, generosity and honor in your nature. If you will add prudence and religion to these, you must be happy.” Don’t worry—he adds neither prudence nor religion and ends up happy anyway.
We saw Hugh Griffith in Ben-Hur, where he played Sheik Ilderim. His manic performance in Tom Jones netted him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod.
Two great lines from Squire Western that describe his predicament: “[Sophie] can love whom she pleases, but she’ll marry the man I choose!” And, later: “What a misery it is to have daughters, when a man has a good mare and dogs.” See? Comedy!
In an Oedipal turn, Tom sleeps with Mrs. Waters. This scene of the seduction is well beyond my powers of description (though it is SFW). To pique your curiosity further, I’ll provide this tidbit from IMDB: the scene took three hours to film and the actors threw up repeatedly during it.
We discussed the genre in our post on The Entertainer, but in a nutshell, kitchen sink realism rejected light, escapist fare and instead focused on the lives of the working class.
This article from the Guardian covers some of the history of the novel, including the incorrect dogma that it was invented in 1740.
Samuel Richardson is known for his novel “Pamela,” which happens to be the 1740 novel that some say invented the genre. It’s about a servant girl who must use her virtue to parry her master’s attempts at seduction. Henry Fielding wrote a parody of it called “Shamela.” Richardson is also known for “Clarissa,” which, like “Pamela,” was an epistolary novel, or a novel written as letters.
That became the movie What’s New Pussycat? (1965), which starred Peter Sellers, Peter O’Toole, and Woody himself.
Another Bond connection for this post: Albert Finney was in 2012’s Skyfall, where he played the gamekeeper at James Bond’s childhood home.
will.i.am is one of the Black Eyed Peas; the other two are apl.de.ap and Taboo (though Fergie was also part of their biggest lineup). Jessie J is an English pop star known for “Price Tag,” “Domino,” and “Bang Bang.” Danny O’Donoghue is the Irish lead singer of The Script, who have that song “Breakeven.”
While the newest season will have Gwen Stefani, Reba McEntire, Michael Bublé, and the water polo-loving Snoop Dogg.
Richardson is known for directing canonical kitchen sink realism films, including Look Back in Anger (1959. which was adapted from a play by the aforementioned John Osborne), A Taste of Honey (1961), and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962). He was also married to Vanessa Redgrave. Two Redgraves are actually in Tom Jones: matriarch Rachel Kempson played Bridget Allworthy while Vanessa’s sister Lynn had a bit part as a maid.