The Pumpkin Eater

source: The Pumpkin Eater

The Pumpkin Eater, which for many years was my favorite movie, is a neglected masterpiece of the British New Wave. I'm not sure whether its lack of recognition is attributable more to its misanthropic point of view or to Jack Clayton's sparse filmography (he never developed the immediately recognizable personal style required for elevation to the auteur pantheon). It didn't help that initial reviewers badly misunderstood the film -- Dwight Macdonald thought it was a typical "women's film", meant to provide erotic titillation! On the other hand, feminist critics probably weren't eager to defend a film that could be interpreted as anti-abortion propaganda (also a misreading). Perhaps a more mature feminism will reclaim this film. Admittedly, the movie is difficult to understand on a first viewing -- both because of its intricate flashback structure and its complexities of tone and attitude. It took me several viewings to fully sort out the plot, and several more to realize what I was actually seeing -- a very, very black comedy. In this respect it's worth placing with the darkest works of Evelyn Waugh or Henry Green. The film catches its participants at the top of their form: Pinter never wrote a better screenplay, Anne Bancroft (arguably) never gave a better performance, Peter Finch certainly didn't, and Maggie Smith and James Mason are deliciously evil in supporting roles. There are too many marvelous moments to list them all, but watch especially for the zoo scene between Bancroft and Mason (who are clearly having a great time) and for the slyly-written scene where Finch learns that his wife is pregnant -- again. So why is it no longer my favorite movie? My admiration for its technique is unabated, but as I get older I find the film's nasty tone harder and harder to take. There's not an admirable human being in the whole movie -- they're all foolish, duplicitous, or vindictive. I can't live with these people, much as I've enjoyed eavesdropping on them over the years.

"The Pumpkin Eater" is a depressing film. Like "Darling" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," it's one of those bleak, black & white 1960's dramas about self-absorbed "High Society" twits who are their own worst enemies. Jo Armitage (Anne Bancroft) is an English housewife and mother. For her third marriage, Jo divorces her second husband and marries Jake Armitage (Peter Finch), a screenwriter. Jo and her four kids move into a house in London with Jake, and they have one or two more kids. (It's never made clear just how many children Jo has, but it's a lot.) Although Jake is a doting father to Jo's children, and seems to like kids, he makes Jo have an abortion when she becomes pregnant yet again. Over time, Jo descends into depression, as her rotten, stinkin' husband has numerous extra-marital affairs. Jo suffers a nervous breakdown in Harrod's Department Store. She sees a psychiatrist for a time, then unreasonably dismisses him when he tells her he's taking a short vacation. She has an affair of her own with her ex-husband, and beats up Jake after he makes another girl pregnant. And they both keep smoking cigarettes -- and smoking, and smoking, and smoking. These characters are making *themselves* miserable! It isn't simply that Jake is a rotten husband; Jo doesn't make it easy for him. She complains that he's ruining their marriage, but when Jake offers to take her along to Morocco, where one of his films is being shot, in hopes that they can save their marriage, Jo refuses to go with him. But she won't tell him *why* she refuses! The movie is based on a novel by Patricia Mortimer, wife of John Mortimer (author of the "Rumpole" series). By all accounts, both Patricia and John had numerous affairs during their stormy marriage. The screenplay is by Harold Pinter, himself a notorious womanizer. It features the usual "Pinter" touches – the hellish cocktail party, flashbacks, betrayals, cruelty, domination, an encounter with a caustic stranger (Jo meets a deranged woman at the beauty parlor who rips into her for having such a "perfect life"), and long slow passages of dialogue where people yammer on and on about nothing! Pinter was so good at this claptrap that they gave him the Nobel Prize for it. James Mason plays a windbag movie director, whom Jake unwisely crosses by having an affair with his wife, and who then launches a vendetta against Jake. Maggie Smith makes an early appearance as a blabbering Cockney house guest who also has an affair with Jake. And Cedric Hardwicke (in his last role) plays Jo's father, who warns Jake and Jo that their marriage will be a disaster, but cheerfully pays for the wedding and gives them a house to live in anyway. One element of the story that I found particularly unbelievable was Jake and Jo's children. They seem unnaturally happy, eternally pippy, always smiling and laughing. Jo's oldest daughter is a bubbly teen who cheerfully visits Jo in the hospital, and doesn't seem to realize her mother has just had an abortion. Even the two oldest sons, whom Jo ships off to boarding school, bear her no ill will, and smile when they are finally reunited, even though their mother has selfishly cast them aside. Do these kids have *any idea* that their parents are at each other throats? Don't they hear the screaming and fighting that is coming from the bedroom down the hall? The kids seem blissfully unaware of the marital infidelities and emotional cruelty their parents inflict on each other! Real kids would be traumatized and upset by what is going on in this house (not to mention asthmatic, because of all the smoking their parents do)! Yes, Anne Bancroft gives a good performance. But the movie is so dismal, it's no wonder Julie Andrews got the Oscar for "Mary Poppins." If you were an Academy voter, which would you choose? "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" or *this* depressing downer?

This is an interesting "adult" film that must have seemed quite provocative when it came out in 1964, the year of MARY POPPINS and MY FAIR LADY. The abortion element alone today makes it worth a view. Anne Bancroft is a good actress but seems slightly miscast; no matter how hard she tries she does not convince as a British woman. She does not have the look, the carriage, the accent. Maggie Smith, in a tartly amusing cameo, steals her scenes with Bancroft by perfectly inhabiting her part. There is never a doubt that Smith is in character whereas Bancroft's Bronx accent comes to the surface quite often. The editing is rather jarring which does not make it easy to follow the plot at times. Viewers are encouraged to pay close attention to avoid missing changes in plot and time sequence. One wonders how it would have been with Maggie Smith, Audrey Hepburn, or Julie Andrews. The music, set design, and cinematography are striking; it is a shame that the film is not on DVD to give Ms. Bancroft a chance to add comments before her death a few years ago. As of 7-2007 the film is still not on DVD. Moviegoers who want to see something adult should give this a try but be warned you might be a little bored, a little confused.

If "The Pumpkin Eater" has a fault it is that it's so glacial, so cocooned in its world of upper-middle class ennui it may leave you feeling a little drained. Otherwise, this is quite close to perfection. Adapted, superbly and to the extent that he makes it his own, from Penelope Mortimer's novel, by Harold Pinter it tells the story of Jo, (Anne Bancroft), a thrice married mother of several children, (by all three husbands), whose life has started to spectacularly unravel. Jo seems to be the kind of woman who can't stop having children but who doesn't seem cut out for motherhood. Inflicting her existing brood on Jake, (Peter Finch), husband No. 3, does little for their marriage. Jake is an incorrigible philanderer or maybe he just can't stand being at home with a pack of screaming, spoiled brats. Then again he's 'a screen-writer' so his profession offers both glamour and the opportunity for multiple infidelities. Things come to a head when Jo has a mental breakdown 'in Harrods of all places' to quote Jake. Being Pinter, the film is both elliptical and chilly. It's magnificently made, (the director is Jack Clayton), but you struggle to feel anything for Jo or Jake. It's a world that Pinter and company know well but the rest of us may well feel we are being kept at a distance. But don't let that put you off; if you want your mind engaged at the expense of your emotions you will have a high old time. This is classy, intelligent stuff. It is superbly cast and played. Some performances don't amount to more than cameos, (Cedric Hardwicke and Alan Webb as Jo and Jake's fathers, Maggie Smith smilingly stealing Jo's husband right from under her nose and best of all, Yootha Joyce as the vindictive and unstable woman in the hairdressers). At the centre there is Bancroft and Finch as the couple struggling through their marriage and they are both marvelous. Finch, in particular, gives Jake an air of likability that may be absent from the script and Bancroft gets Jo's vulnerability spot on. As the husband of Jake's most recent conquest, James Mason is magnificently venomous and his scenes with Bancroft at the zoo and his final scene with Finch, ('You made me wet'), are master-classes in the art of acting. The movie came out in 1964 and quickly disappeared. Watching it recently with a friend he described it as 'a miserable film' and while I think it a superb film, a near-masterpiece, I know exactly what he means. It is a film distinctly lacking in 'nice' characters and it generates very little warmth. Audiences who, back in the sixties might have admired the film, were unlikely to feel anything towards it and consequently it is seldom revived. A pity because, cold as it is, it is also one of the finest films of its decade.

I came upon this movie on late night t.v. a few years back. I really love Anne Bancroft and I think that she is, not underrated, but more correctly, overlooked as a great actress. This film is a wonderful study of a marriage in trouble and Ms. Bancroft and the great Peter Finch are so believable as lovers and as a married couple that I wondered why I had never even heard of the film before. I felt their pain - wait, sorry . . . I think someone else named Clinton coined that phrase. But seriously, Anne Bancroft is able to really convey heartbreaking loneliness that you just want to cry or help her in some way. I love movies that engage you thoroughly. If you enjoy movies that make you think and also have a viewpoint about human relations, please try to find this film. An added bonus is a wonderful appearance in a small role by Maggie Smith - certainly a very early one in her career. I really like finding gems like this!

I love Mortimer's book and Pinter's script follows it closely. Bancroft has always been my favorite actress and I think this is her greatest performance. I'm glad she flew to England and convinced Jack Clayton to hire her. It is no wonder her talent has been compared to Magnani! Finch and Mason are flawless but it is definitely Bancroft's film. She is so convincing it is as though you can read her character's every thought through her facial expressions. She was robbed of the Academy Award. Yootha Joyce is excellent in a bit part during a beauty parlor scene. The actors in this film are all so good that I feel like I am peering into the lives of real people. Anyone who has been in a relationship with someone who has been unfaithful can relate to this film. I love Clayton's use of flashback to tell Jo's story. I think he was an underrated director. The score by Georges Delerue is beautiful and I wish it were available in his cd catalog.

This is my absolute favorite film of all time, and Anne Bancroft's performance is her best. Made in 1964 and set in London, this film tells the story of a woman who is in the middle of her third marriage, to a screenwriter, played by Peter Finch. Her character, Jo Armitage, is a woman who truly seems to find her self-worth and happiness only when she is pregnant and raising children. Once her children become even only slightly older, she seems to lose her sense of purpose, and allows herself to become quite isolated in the world. Her current husband, the screenwriter, doesn't make matters any better for her either. This is definitely Anne Bancroft's film all the way, and she is breathtakingly beautiful in it as well. Her portrayal of Jo Armitage paints a very lonely, depressed, lost, and in many ways pathetic character...but it is also strangely my favorite performance of Bancroft. Look also for wonderful supporting performances by James Mason and Maggie Smith. This film weaves a disturbing yet very realistic portrait of a bad marriage (some might just say "marriage"), and it should be studied for its acting and its writing. In addition, Georges Delerue's musical score is superb, and I am always searching for the film's soundtrack, but have had no luck. Thanks to beautiful art direction by Edward Marshall, their home interior is also gorgeous...'60's chic. I've seen this film at least 60 times, and never tire of it. It's a quiet little masterpiece.

Great movies remain great movies some of them, like "The Pumpkin Eater" acquire an extra something with the passing of time. Harold Pinter does really extravagant things with Penelope Mortimer's novel and the extraordinary Jack Clayton gives it just the right mixture of human drama and sharp satire. Anne Bancroft is indescribable moving, beautiful, powerful, frightening. Peter Finch is also superb as is James Mason. I particularly enjoyed the brief moments with Yootha Joyce, Maggie Smith and Cederic Hardwicke. I advise all movie lovers in the Los Angeles area to check the American Cinematheque listings. I saw "The Pumpkin Eater" there, a beautifully restored print and reminded me when one went to the movies to see adult themes treated by intelligent adult artist with enormous regard for their audiences. Oh, those were the days.

Always enjoy all the films that Anne Bancroft appears in and I consider this one of her best films where she plays the role as Jo Armitage who bounces around with husbands and can't seem to find the right guy. Jo is married to husband number two and she meets up with a writer named Jake Armitage, ( Peter Finch ) and marries him. Joe also has five children. Things go along very well in their new home in the country until Jo becomes pregnant and Jake does not want her to have this child so she goes ahead and aborts. Jo becomes depressed and has a mental breakdown and their marriage takes various changes. There are plenty of flashbacks that recall various scenes from Jo's past. This film is rather depressing at times which shows the realism of a family as you watch like a fly on the walls of the home. If you have been in love and become heart broken you will be able to relate to this films. James Mason, (Bob Conway) gives a great supporting role along with many other famous actors. Enjoy