Der Komödiant (1960)

Der Komödiant: Directed by Tony Richardson. With Laurence Olivier, Brenda de Banzie, Roger Livesey, Joan Plowright. Archie Rice, an old-time British music hall performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.

“Laurence Olivier is u0026quot;The Entertainer,u0026quot; in a 1960 film based on the John Osborne play in which Olivier played one of his greatest roles, Archie Rice. Heu0026#39;s surrounded by Joan Plowright as Archieu0026#39;s daughter Jean, and Brenda de Banzie as his emotionally fragile second wife, Phoebe. Olivier, Plowwright and de Banzie all repeat their stage roles, and it was while in the play that Olivier and Plowright met, fell in love, married, and stayed together until his death. Albert Finney is Mick and Alan Bates is Frank, Archieu0026#39;s sons, and Roger Livesey is Billy Rice, Archieu0026#39;s father and a beloved, well remembered music hall performer. Daniel Massey plays the role of Graham. Itu0026#39;s an auspicious cast of veterans and newcomers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eArchie has followed in his fatheru0026#39;s footsteps with a lot less success. Heu0026#39;s a second-rate entertainer – and thatu0026#39;s being kind – in a seaside resort – and his show is in trouble. Archieu0026#39;s in trouble, too, as heu0026#39;s an undischarged bankruptcy and everything is in his wifeu0026#39;s name. Heu0026#39;s a fairly overt womanizer, which makes his wife a wreck. Sheu0026#39;s afraid of dying alone and wants the family to move to Canada and join a successful relative in the hotel business. But Archie wonu0026#39;t give up following every dream in spite of some harsh realities. He takes up with a 20-year-old second prize beauty contestant – her fatheru0026#39;s rich and can back his new show.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs I read through the reviews on IMDb, I have to wonder where some peopleu0026#39;s hearts are. Thatu0026#39;s not a comment on the people, believe me, rather on the world we live in. I can tell you this – if you think what Olivier does isnu0026#39;t special and canu0026#39;t understand why he was nominated for an Oscar, if you canu0026#39;t see that he is Everyman, if you canu0026#39;t see the comment on Britain in general – you just havenu0026#39;t lived enough yet. Youu0026#39;ll see this film again one day and itu0026#39;ll hurt, believe me. There canu0026#39;t be anyone my age, especially with ambition and a creative mind, who canu0026#39;t understand what Archie Rice is going through. Though heu0026#39;s in no way a sympathetic character, one can empathize with his life and begrudgingly admire the fact that he refuses to take the easy way out.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJean, since she doesnu0026#39;t live full time with this bad road company version of u0026quot;Long Dayu0026#39;s Journey Into Nightu0026quot; – i.e., her family – is sympathetic to both Phoebeu0026#39;s hysteria and her fatheru0026#39;s delusions. The scene over the cake – one of the reviewers on the board found it disturbingly realistic – thereu0026#39;s someone who knows dysfunction when he sees it. A brilliant scene, but nothing beats Archieu0026#39;s monologue to his daughter when he asks her to look at his eyes. u0026quot;Iu0026#39;m dead,u0026quot; he says.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOlivier has said this is his favorite character as it contains so much of him. Itu0026#39;s obvious from interviews with Olivier that it does. Like many highly successful people, he began to see himself as Archie, a kind of fake who, as Archie says, can be warm and smiling and feel nothing. u0026quot;Itu0026#39;s all tricks,u0026quot; Olivier told writer Jack Kroll once. Itu0026#39;s not an uncommon feeling. It wasnu0026#39;t all tricks, of course, and as we see in Archieu0026#39;s final version of the song that ran through the film, u0026quot;Why Should I Care?u0026quot; he had finally reached the part of himself that makes a truly great artist, like the woman he heard sing the spiritual. Olivier, of course, hit those heights many times.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEngland is pronounced as a u0026quot;dying countryu0026quot; in the beginning of the film, which sets up the metaphor of Archie as a symbol of the country. Iu0026#39;m not British – itu0026#39;s for those who lived during that time period in 1960 to comment on it, and they have. There are some brilliant reviews on the board covering that subject.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Why Should I Care?u0026quot; Archie sings. I donu0026#39;t have an answer. But if anyone could make me care, it was always Lord Laurence Olivier, be he the ruined man in u0026quot;Carrie,u0026quot; the beautiful Heathcliff in u0026quot;Wuthering Heights,u0026quot; James Tyrone on stage in u0026quot;Long Dayu0026#39;s Journey,u0026quot; or Max de Winter in u0026quot;Rebecca.u0026quot; An amazing legacy, one in a million – donu0026#39;t miss him as Archie Rice in u0026quot;The Entertainer.u0026quot;”