Film Pantheon

1964
D: Jack Clayton
C: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Janine Gray, Cedric Hardwicke, Rosalind Atkinson, Alan Webb, Richard Johnson, Maggie Smith, Eric Porter, Cyril Luckham, Anthony Nicholls, John Franklyn-Robbins, John Junkin, Yootha Joyce, Leslie Nunnerley, Gerald Sim, Frank Singuineau, Faith Kent
W: Penelope Mortimer (novel); Harold Pinter
Original Music: Georges Delerue
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Editing: James Clark
Runtime: 118 min
Country: UK
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Sound Mix: Mono
Certification: Unrated

Jack Clayton is not someone whose name often comes up when talking about great directors, but he was responsible for some of the greatest films ever made, most notably that masterpiece of Gothic horror The Innocents, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, and this neglected black comedy/drama.

The Pumpkin Eater, adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter, tells the story of a perpetually pregnant, deeply unhappy woman in her third marriage who experiences feelings of dramatic isolation and depression. It sounds like one of those insufferable Lifetime flicks, but it’s a great character study of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It’s also a great study in faces, with Oswald Morris’s careful cinematography and lingering camera catching every nuance of emotion from the characters.

A great cast (Finch and Bancroft have never been better–even though I think Bancroft’s role would probably have been better served with an English actress), marvelous jazz-tinged score by Delerue, and — if Clayton has any clear signature at all — flawlessly crafted from beginning to end. James Mason gives a wickedly hammy supporting performance as a fuming cuckold.