--- title: "Tom Jones" year: 1963 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/tom-jones" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 78 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-20T04:11:49.143160+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T04:11:49.511972+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Tom Jones (1963) Directed by Tony Richardson · 2h 08m · MPA NR · Comedy, Romance, History **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 78 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Eighteenth-century bed-hopping filmed by people who had just discovered the jump cut and were pleased about it > Tony Richardson takes Fielding’s 1749 novel and films it as though the eighteenth century were a party he had just crashed. It is lively, often funny and beautifully lit by Walter Lassally, and it runs out of puff in London. ## Synopsis Somerset, in the middle of the eighteenth century. A baby is found in the bed of a kindly country squire, who names him Tom and raises him as his own beside his sour legitimate nephew, Blifil (David Warner). Tom (Albert Finney) grows into a handsome, good-natured young man who cannot keep his hands off anyone, least of all Molly Seagrim (Diane Cilento), the gamekeeper’s daughter. The one he loves is Sophie Western (Susannah York), daughter of the neighbouring Squire Western (Hugh Griffith), a red-faced drunk who lives for the hunt and wants her married to Blifil. Sophie’s aunt, Miss Western (Edith Evans), has plans for her too. When Tom’s enemies turn the squire against him, he is thrown out with nothing and takes to the road. ## Review Tony Richardson had spent four years filming bedsits: *Look Back in Anger*, *A Taste of Honey*, *The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner*. Then he and John Osborne, who wrote the angriest of those plays, took Henry Fielding’s 1749 novel about a foundling who cannot keep out of other people’s beds and made the noisiest costume film of its decade. It is a good one. It is funny, handsome and full of life for ninety minutes, and then it goes to London and slows to a walk, so that 128 minutes feel like rather more. The idea is to film the eighteenth century as if nobody had told the cast it was over. Richardson opens with a silent-comedy prologue, intertitles and all, with John Addison’s harpsichord rattling underneath. After that come wipes, freeze frames, chases run at double speed and a narrator who keeps interrupting. Albert Finney turns to the camera to complain about a woman, and at one point puts his hat over the lens. Antony Gibbs cuts it fast and loose. For an hour this is a pleasure, because the book is a shaggy, digressive thing and the film has found a way to be shaggy back. After that it is a habit. Walter Lassally is the reason it is not merely a stunt. He shoots real Somerset houses in what looks like real daylight, so the rooms are dim, the fields are muddy and the colour sits somewhere between a watercolour and a wet dog. Ralph W. Brinton’s production design leaves the dirt in, and John McCorry’s wigs sit crooked on hot heads. Then comes the hunt, shot from horseback with a hand-held camera, hounds and horses and men going flat out across the country and a stag brought down at the end of it. We were shaken, and we did not see it coming. The comedy stops for five minutes and the century looks like what it was, cruel and loud and enjoying itself. Finney plays Tom as a man who means well every single time, and he is so likeable that the film never has to argue his case. His best scene is at the inn at Upton, where he and Joyce Redman’s Mrs. Waters sit across a table and eat at each other: oysters, a chicken leg, a pear, no dialogue, faces doing all of it. Richardson, for once, stops cutting and lets it run. We laughed out loud, then laughed again at how long it went on. Diane Cilento’s Molly Seagrim is warm and dirty-kneed early on, and Lynn Redgrave gets a good few minutes as a maid at the same inn. Around Finney the cast know exactly how big to play. Hugh Griffith’s Squire Western is the largest: purple, drunk, roaring at his dogs and falling off things. Edith Evans, as his sister, purses her lips at the whole county and gets a laugh every time she opens her mouth. Susannah York has the hardest job, playing the one sane person, and does it with a straight back and a good deal of patience. David Warner’s Blifil is a thin, pious sneak, and Joan Greenwood arrives late as Lady Bellaston and purrs every line. London is where it goes wrong. Fielding’s last third is thick with plot, and Osborne keeps most of it: Lady Bellaston, David Tomlinson’s Lord Fellamar, a masquerade and a duel. A film that had been leaping from field to field now has to explain things, and the tricks that carried the country scenes cannot carry exposition. Some critics writing since have called the film dated. We would put it another way: the jokes have held up and the camera has not. A speeded-up chase was daring once; now it is the part you sit through. Beside Richardson’s own kitchen-sink films this is the one with the most life in it, and beside most costume pictures it is one of the few where anyone looks as if they might sweat. Watch it for the first hour and a half and forgive what follows. And do not eat first. *Fi1m score 74, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say All seven reviews are positive, and most of the praise goes the same way: Albert Finney’s Tom, the high spirits of Richardson’s direction, and the film’s willingness to be bawdy. Critics return to the ensemble, the Somerset settings and the colour photography, and to particular set pieces, the eating scene between Finney and Joyce Redman above all. The reviews from 1963 are the warmest, treating the film as a daring leap rather than a costume drama. The reservations cluster around technique. Variety finds the camera tricks and editing occasionally disconcerting, and Empire, writing decades later, thinks the nouvelle vague borrowings now date the film. The later reviews are generally cooler, calling it watchable and entertaining rather than remarkable, though Eye for Film is an exception, still taken with its chaotic energy. The spread is narrow: nobody dislikes it, and the argument is only about how much of the boisterousness still lands. ### Reviews we read (7) - **The New Yorker**, Brendan Gill (90/100, inferred): Richardson's Tom Jones is hailed as a near-perfect comedy that triumphantly leaps into an imaginary 18th-century springtime with bold risks and high spirits. The critic praises the authentic Somerset settings, the marvelous ensemble cast led by Albert Finney, and the superb color photography and music. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/10/12/country-pleasures) - **The New York Times**, Bosley Crowther (90/100, inferred): The critic finds Richardson and Osborne's adaptation a major creative achievement that captures the ribald wit of the novel through inventive cinematic structure and rhythm. He singles out the lusty performances, especially Albert Finney as Tom and the memorable eating scene between Finney and Joyce Redman. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1963/10/08/archives/screen-tom-jones-a-lusty-comedyalbert-finney-is-seen-in-the-title.html) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (70/100, inferred): Richardson's bawdy adaptation of Fielding's novel mixes Free Cinema roots with nouvelle vague techniques and period detail, resulting in a lively picaresque that captures the permissive spirit of its era. The ensemble cast excels in cameos, though the film now feels somewhat dated. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/tom-jones-review/) - **Los Angeles Times** (70/100, inferred): The review calls the film a bawdy, bellicose, and photographically arresting dark horse of 1963 that is both a fine period piece and a paradox of animal appetites. It singles out Albert Finney's irresistible portrayal of Tom as a rogue-saint figure while noting the film's mix of British humor traditions and filmic tricks. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/story/2022-09-01/from-the-archives-a-merrie-romp-with-one-of-the-jones-boys) - **Variety**, Rich Gold (70/100, inferred): The film is seen as a lusty, boisterous period piece with sex, color, prime performers, and plenty of action that should do strong business. Richardson directs with verve though occasional camera tricks and editing are noted as disconcerting. [Read](https://variety.com/1963/film/reviews/tom-jones-2-1200420461/) - **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's raucous, original energy and chaotic fun as a sex comedy that stands alone, highlighting its tumultuous enjoyment and standout scenes like those with Edith Evans. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/tom-jones-1963-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) - **Collider**, Liam Gaughan (70/100, inferred): The critic views the 1963 Best Picture winner as one of the stranger recipients of the award but finds it watchable and entertaining. Finney’s lead performance and the film’s set design are singled out for praise. [Read](https://collider.com/tom-jones-oscar-best-picture-winner/) ## Details - **Director:** Tony Richardson - **Director:** Tony Richardson - **Screenplay:** John Osborne - **Novel:** Henry Fielding - **Cinematography:** Walter Lassally - **Editor:** Antony Gibbs - **Music:** John Addison - **Production design:** Ralph W. Brinton - **Costume design:** John McCorry - **Producer:** Tony Richardson - **Cast:** Albert Finney as Tom Jones; Susannah York as Sophie Western; Hugh Griffith as Squire Western; Edith Evans as Miss Western; Joan Greenwood as Lady Bellaston; Diane Cilento as Molly Seagrim; David Tomlinson as Lord Fellamar; Freda Jackson as Mrs. Seagrim - **Runtime:** 2h 08m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 6 October 1963 - **Genres:** Comedy, Romance, History ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming, leaving 2026-09-30 - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $5.99, sd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: BG, CA, CZ, EE, ES, GR, IE, IL, IN, MY, NZ, PH, PL, PT, SE, UA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1964: Best Actor (nominated); Best Art Direction, Color (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated); Best Director (won); Best Original Score (won); Best Picture (won); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (won) ## If you liked this - *Barry Lyndon* (1975), Fi1m 85: The same century, held perfectly still; Kubrick’s answer to Richardson’s fidgeting. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/barry-lyndon.md) - *The Favourite* (2018), Fi1m 87: Lanthimos treats the Georgian court with the same disrespect and a wider lens. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-favourite.md) - *Saturday Night and Sunday Morning* (1960): Finney three years earlier, in Nottingham, with the same grin and fewer wigs. - *The Draughtsman's Contract* (1982), Fi1m 82: Greenaway’s country-house intrigue, colder and cleverer, with murder among the topiary. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-draughtsmans-contract.md) - *Jules et Jim* (1962): Truffaut’s wipes, freeze frames and narrator, the year before Richardson borrowed them. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/tom-jones