The History of Production of the Works of Harold Pinter
The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
The Pumpkin Eater (1963)
| Budget (GBP) | 0 |
| Distribution Company |
Columbia Pictures Corporation (Film Studio | Est. Unknown) |
| Release Date | 15 July 1964 |
| Black and White | Yes |
| Regional Release | Yes |
| Release Notes | France 9 May 1964 (Cannes Film Festival); France 15 May 1964; UK June 1964; Italy 24 September 1964; Finland 16 October 1964; Denmark 20 October 1964; USA 9 November 1964; Sweden 25 November 1964; Netherlands 18 February 1965; Japan 15 May 1965; Mexico 26 August 1965; Argentina 22 September 1965; Greece 15 October 2006 (Panorama of European Cinema). |
| Description | The Pumpkin Eater follows the turbulent marriage of Jo and Jake Armitage. Jo (Anne Bancroft) leaves the banality of her marriage to second husband Giles (Richard Johnson) to wed her screenwriter lover, Jake (Peter Finch), but insists her new husband adhere to her strict marital ideals. Though their relationship is passionate, Jo, now a mother of six, begins to feel stifled in her role as a doting homemaker -- and increasingly isolated from Peter, who is filming on location in Morocco. Jo's sanity is shaken when it seems Peter is not being faithful. Pinter adapted the film from Penelope Mortimer's 1963 novel of the same name. Mortimer's original novel is animated by a sense of frustration and anger at patriarchal values, while Harold Pinter's adaptation has the effect of making the film less about Jo (the novel had been written in the first person from her point of view) and more about the relationship between Jo and her husband Jake: it offers a complete portrait of a marriage from first meeting and initial romantic idyll through betrayals and bitter disputes to a tentative reconciliation between the estranged couple. As the director Jack Clayton put it, the film investigates "the infinitely simple idea of the difficulties in any married relationship while at the same time showing the tremendously strong relationship that grows almost inevitably." |
| Language | English |
Linked Productions
No linked Production have been added to this production record yet.
Linked People
Jack Clayton (1921 - 1995)
Creative | Director
James Ware
Production | Associate Producer
James Woolf (1920 - 1966)
Production | Producer
Georges Delerue (1925 - 1992)
Creative | Soundtrack
Oswald Morris (1915 - 2014)
Creative | Cinematographer
James Clark (1931 - 2016)
Creative | Film Editor
Jenia Reissar
Creative | Casting
Edward Marshall
Creative | Art Director
Sophie Devine
Creative | Costume Designer
Gordon Bond
Creative | Hairdresser
George Frost
Creative | Makeup Artist
Charles Blair
Production | Production Manager
Claude Watson (1923 - 1968)
Creative | Assistant Director
David Ffolkes
Creative | Art department liaison
Peter James (1924 - 1997)
Creative | Set Dresser
John Aldred
Technical | Sound Recordist
Peter Handford
Technical | Sound Recordist
Peter Musgrave
Technical | Dubbing editor
Ken Ritchie
Technical | Boom operator
Maurice Gillett
Technical | Supervising Floor Electrician
Ray Jones
Technical | Camera grip
Brian West
Technical | Camera operator
Sophie Devine
Creative | Costumes
Pamela Davies
Production | Continuity
John Holmes
Technical | Animal Trainer
Jeanie Sims
Creative | Script Editor
Harold Pinter (1930 - 2008)
Creative | Screenplay
Penelope Mortimer (1918 - 1999)
Creative | Author (original novel)
Robert Watts
Creative | Second Assistant Director
Uncredited
Georges Delerue (1925 - 1992)
Orchestrator | Conductor
Uncredited
Linked Organisations
Columbia Pictures Corporation (Film Studio | Est. Unknown)
Characters
Jo (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Anne Bancroft (1931 - 2005)
Jake (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Peter Finch (1916 - 1977)
Giles (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Richard Johnson (1927 - 2015)
Dinah (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Frances White (1938)
Dinah (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Kate Nicholls
Fergus (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Fergus McClelland (1950)
Fergus (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Christopher Ellis
Sharon (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Mimosa Annis (1960)
Sharon (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Sharon Maxwell
Mark (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Kash Dewar (1959)
Elizabeth (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Sarah Nicholls (1957)
Elizabeth (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Elizabeth Dear
Pete (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Gregory Phillips (1948)
Pete (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Rupert Osborn
Jack (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Michael Ridgeway
Jack (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Martin Norton
Mr Armitage (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Alan Webb (1906 - 1982)
Mrs James (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Rosalind Atkinson (1900 - 1977)
Philpot (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Maggie Smith (1934)
Youngest Child (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Mark Crader (1962)
Nanny (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Faith Kent (1925 - 2008)
Doctor (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Cyril Luckham (1907 - 1989)
Ingram (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Eric Porter (1928 - 1995)
Woman In Hairdressers (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Yootha Joyce (1927 - 1980)
Conway (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: James Mason (1909 - 1984)
Man At Party (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Gerald Sim (1925 - 2014)
Beth (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Janine Gray (1942)
Mr James (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Cedric Hardwicke (1893 - 1964)
Undertaker (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: John Junkin (1930 - 2006)
Surgeon (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Anthony Nicholls (1902 - 1977)
Waitress At Zoo (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Leslie Nunnerley (1935)
King Of Israel, The (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Frank Singuineau (1913 - 1992)
Parson (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: John Franklyn-Robbins (1924 - 2009)
Harrods shopper (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Paul Beradi
Piano tuner (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Leslie Garrad
First Man in Bar (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: David Langton (1912 - 1994)
Second Man in Bar (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Ronald Leigh-Hunt (1920 - 2005)
Man (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Garfield Morgan (1931 - 2009)
Removal Man (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Ron Pember (1934)
Party Guest (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Male)
Performer: Geoffrey Rose (1932)
Waiter (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified)
Performer: Emile Stemmler (1911)
Lady In Shop (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Not Specified, Female)
Performer: Pearl Walters
Linked Awards
British Film Academy Award
1964
Won: Best Screenplay
British Film Academy Award
1964
Won: Acting: Bancroft
British Academy Award
1964
Won: Best Black and White Cinematography
British Academy Award
1964
Won: Best Foreign Actress: Bancroft
British Academy Award
1964
Nominated: Best Film
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award
1964
Nominated: Best Actress: Bancroft
British Academy Award
1964
Nominated: Best British Film
Cannes International Film Festival Award
1964
Nominated: Best Female Performance
Linked Places
Shepperton Studios, Shepperton
Studio
Resources
Sight and Sound (summer 1964), p. 168 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
Time, 13 November 1964, p. 125 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
Life, 13 November 1964, p. 15 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
New Yorker, 14 November 1964, p. 148 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
New York Times, 15 November 1964, sec. 2, p. 1 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
Newsweek, 16 November 1964, p. 102 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
Saturday Review, 21 November 1964, p. 332 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
Commonweal, 27 November 1964, p. 332 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
New Republic, 19 December 1964, pp. 28-29 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
Vogue, 1 January 1965, p. 66 (Paper-based)
Type: Review
The Pumpkin Eater Trailer, 1964 (URL)
Type: Trailer
External Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCD2382CTN4
Original trailer.
Sources
BFI Screenonline
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/478062/index.html
URL
Description adapted from BFI Screenonline entry.
IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058500/
URL
Sharp Cut: Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process
Steven H. Gale, Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003)
Academic book
Contains chapters on each of Harold Pinter's filmed screenplays and includes a bibliography of reviews of films up to 1999.