BUTLEY (1974)

The only complete success from the handful of faithfully filmed ‘serious’ plays given limited release in the mid-‘70s as The American Film Theatre subscription series.*  Initially advertized as never to be shown again (Yikes! - was that supposed to be a threat?), ironically, BUTLEY was 100% British: play; cast; cinematographer; director; locations & studio.  A coruscating comedy on the literally self-lacerating Butley, an English Lit. Prof at some dingy London university, played by Alan Bates in a daringly big, non-stop full-throttle mode of acting that’s not supposed to work on screen unless you’re James Cagney . . . or Alan Bates.  Proving his own worst enemy over one long day, Butley finds all his professional & personal relationships (intertwined as they are) coming undone.  His former star pupil & present lover/office-mate is moving on (again professionally and personally); his estranged wife is moving in (plus their little girl whose name he can’t always remember) with the most boring man in London; his one-on-one student tutorials a torture to be avoided at all costs; and a promising new T.S. Eliot student-candidate not so appetizing when sober (that is, when Butley’s sober); even his safety-razor (well, somebody’s safety-razor) lets him down.  And it’s not merely ‘one of those days;’ more the new normal.  Covering misery with ironic arrogance, Bates manages to make a disagreeably smart fellow laugh-out-loud audacious.  Perfectly cast (Jessica Tandy does wonders with her wounded retirement-age Prof.), it was the sole feature film directing gig for Nobel Laureate playwright Harold Pinter who’d staged the play in London & on B’way.  (Tony Award for Bates.)  Likely as not, Pinter stood with the actors & left the technical side to cinematographer Gerry Fisher.  And if BUTLEY’s not for the fainthearted, Bates spectacular self-combustion act (with but the merest touch of balm at the end) makes it essential viewing.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  One elaborate set piece, between Butley and his b’friend’s as yet unannounced new partner, concerning current British gay nomenclature, totally unexpected in a 1974 film.  ‘Gay’ and ‘Nancy Boy’ not in the mix; ‘Queer’ and ‘Fairy’ all but exclusively used by Gray in a play first staged in 1971.

DOUBLE-BILL:  *The other recommendable title in the AFT series was John Frankenheimer’s honest attempt at Eugene O’Neill’s THE ICEMAN COMETH/’73.  (A 'symbolic' double-bill since ICEMAN runs 4 hours.)