Entertaining Mr Sloane

ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE is certainly an uneven adaptation of the Joe Orton play, but it does create a few sparks with the performances of BERYL REID as Kath, PETER McENERY as Sloane and HARRY ANDREWS as Ed. The trio is involved in a three-way affair with Mr. Sloane who charms them both with his good looks and apparently bi-sexual leanings.

It's certainly not the usual fare one expects to see on screen, even in the '70s when the material was considered quite daring. But the script gives the three principals some rich material to work with and the film now has a cult status with fans of black comedy.

Orton is the gay playwright who was killed by his lover who then committed suicide and was dead before this film version of his hit London play was made. Whether he would have approved of some of the changes is debatable, but it still has the power to shock and cause ripples of laughter despite the darkness of the theme.

Summing up: As oddball as they come.

A Classic "English Black Comedy" You have to laugh Well Miss Reid.. who knew you were a tart. And she kills it. From scene ONE. We're off on a trip. It's an ageless, magnificent English comedy as only they can do. Farce, black comedy and more, so much more. The characters. How did Beryl and Harry Andrews have the guts to do it. This is Harry from Ice Cold In Alex. Played Upper Crusts all his career. Then this manic. But everyone's mad in Joe Orton world.

Confession time I watched this for the first time as a young boy with my mother as she laughed her head off. Me ... Embarrassed not a bit of it.

Back to Mr Sloan. Every word is a gem. Every word has so much meaning. Double, Multiples. It rips along and the brother/sister switch around in their affection/hate/dominant/submission/up .. down and anyway you want. The opening scene for each of the 4 lead's are brilliant. We get them. Get them in what ever works for you. McEnery, ok he's not a perfect Mr Sloan. But he is up against 2 fantastic actors revelling in what was the performance of their careers. He does have to be in almost every scene after all. Dada. Ok. He's annoying. But it's Reid and Andrews who are so funny, sad, Kath and Ed. As sad, weird, fuuny, needy pair as you'll ever find in cinema. But you have to laugh.

Watch this. You'll learn about England, the secretive, crazy people who lived in the home counties with their double lives, fantasy's and sadness.

An the theme song my Georgie Fame.

I first saw EMr.S as a teenager who had just come out of the closet. As a child I was a fan of '60s horror films (Carradine, Cushing, et.al.) and black comedies (e.g., "No Way to Treat a Lady") and suspense/murder ("Eye of the Cat" or "Wylie", "What Happened to Aunt Alice?", "Daddy's Gone a Hunting", "Who Killed Teddy Bear?"). EMr.S, at least as I remember it after 20 years, combined those genres. The title character, handsome and bi-sexual, added the homo-eroticism that made for a very happy young gay movie fan indeed. It also led me to learn that the Brits were years ahead of Hollywood in the treatment of gay characters in movies, and I now count "Who Killed Sister George?" and "The Leather Boys" as other personal favorites.

The adaptation of Joe Orton's play Entertaining Mr Sloane is a misfire. Beryl Reid is the middle aged nymphomaniac Kath who spots the amoral narcissistic drifter Mr Sloane (Peter McEnery) lying half naked sunbathing in the cemetery. Kath herself who lives by the cemetery is dressed seductively, a see thorough dress and we initially see her suggestively licking an ice lolly.

Kath invites Mr Sloane to become her lodger and quickly seduces him. Her elderly father, Dada recognizes Mr Sloane as the man who killed his employer and then disappeared.

Mr Sloane is having a fine time womanizing, tormenting Dada and being playful with Kath and her brother Ed (Harry Andrews) who drops by every now and then. Ed seems straight-laced but drives a pink Pontiac and makes Mr Sloane the chauffeur with a tight leather uniform.

The film is supposed to be a grotesque, sexual black farce but the film reveals its hand too early. McEnery is too old as Mr Sloane, he should had been held back as an innocent charmer than unveiled as a murderer as soon as he met Dada. As for Ed, that pink Pontiac gave him away not matter how much of a country gent he tried to pass off as.

The ending was also rather abrupt and disappointing although I suspect a gay marriage ceremony would had been seen as shocking at the time.

If you haven't seen this superb film - put it to the top of your "must view" list! Featuring two of Britain's best character actors, the late Beryl Reid and the late Harry Andrews, this scintillating black comedy is based on Joe Orton's wonderful play of the same name. Reid is marvellous as aging nymphomaniac Kath and Harry Andrews provides a superb foil as her roue brother Ed, who both attempt to secure the sexual services of their libidinous lodger, Sloane (played by Peter McEnery). Set in an eerie graveyard lodgehouse and with Alan Webb as their grubby father this brilliant film has gained cult status since its release over 30 years ago and is the only film I can watch - and enjoy - repeatedly.