Rating: NR
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 06/19/2001
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: 5.1/1
Run Time: 104 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children
Distributor/Studio: MGM
Laurence Olivier recreates his stage role of Archie Rice in this in-your-face film adaptation of
John Osborne's play. The son of a legendary music hall comedian (
Roger Livesey), Archie is strictly a third-rater, headlining a tacky music hall revue in a seedy seaside resort town. Archie can't admit that he's a failure, and his grim insouciance destroys everyone around him. Archie finagles his dying father into financing one last revue; he cheats shamelessly on his alcoholic wife (
Brenda De Banzie); and he all but forces one of his sons (
Albert Finney) to run off to join the army, only to die in the Suez. Through all his personal crises, Archie jigs and jabbers before his ever-diminishing audience, but by the end of the film he isn't even entertaining himself.
Joan Plowright, who married
Olivier shortly after completing
The Entertainer, plays the film's one sympathetic character: Archie's daughter, whose love for her father blinds her to his flaws.
The Entertainer was remade for television in 1976, with
Jack Lemmon as Archie Rice and original songs by
Marvin Hamlisch.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
