Sloane, a young, good-looking psychopath
Entertaining Mr Sloane
Canterbury Film Productions, 1970
Directed by Douglas Hickox
Written by Joe Orton (play)
Clive Exton (screenplay)
Cast:
Beryl Reid: Kath
Peter McEnery: Sloane
Harry Andrews: Ed
Alan Webb: Kemp
A salute to Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane wouldn't be complete without a nod to the 1970 film adaptation. I initially wasn't really expecting much, especially from actor Peter McEnery as Mr Sloane. I really didn't know much about the English actor, but in the promotional photos I saw, he looked too me almost too blonde and Ken doll like, I didn't visually get the edge I expected from the character.
I was wrong. McEnery, who trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company was perfect as Mr Sloane. I enjoyed all of the performance, with Beryl Reid as Kath an enjoyable standout. Reid's Kath can barely contain her lust for Sloane, wasting no time in getting his pants off and herself turned on. Andrew's Ed is equally drawn to Mr Sloane, especially after their first meeting, with Sloane only in his tighty whities. Andrew's lust is equal to his sister, but he works a little harder to keep it in check.
'The "Entertaining Mr. Sloane" I have read (I did not see the short-lived New York production) is a somewhat more brittle, surfacy affair than the movie I have seen—and I think that the play's real interest lies precisely in its grotesque avoidance of the depths with which the movie is so vividly familiar.'
'But in most of its particulars the film succeeds—with a superb cast, Douglas Hickox's inventive and generally restrained direction, and a screenplay by Clive Exton that (apart from the matters I have mentioned) opens up the action mainly to enlarge the characterization of Ed, a real virtue if only for allowing more time and scope to the wonderful Harry Andrews.'
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