The Pumpkin Eater (1964)

So much average

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Anne Bancroft gives a shattering performance as a woman on the verge in The Pumpkin Eater. In arguably her finest role Bancroft through the shear power of expression slowly disintegrates from the pressures of raising an army of kids and the betrayal of her philandering husband in this melancholy marathon written by Harold Pinter and directed by Jack Clayton. Prolific breeder Jo marries up and coming screenwriter Jake Armitage and adds another child to the brood along the way. She luxuriates in the chaotic household but Jake chafes at the constant barrage of activity. He is also prone to straying. Watching Bancroft go over the edge is both disturbing and mesmerizing made even more uncomfortable by Jack Clayton and cinematographer Oswald Morris's insistence on making us see things from her point of view most of the film. Her haunting blank stares speak volumes making her rages all the more volcanic. The adult world she deals with is deceitful and cruel and we are left to witness her wall of denial crumbling. It's a grim but absorbing watch.Finch along with a superb supporting cast do an excellent job of illuminating Jo's hostile world. In a mere three scenes and one phone call James Mason goes about as low as one can get as a cuckolded husband with unctuous magnificence. Maggie Smith is exasperatingly callous as a mooch and lover to Jake while Yootha Joyce as a stranger in a benign hair salon is chilling.Over two hours in length this lugubrious work never wanes due to Pinter and Mortimer's fine tuned script that keeps you guessing as to the extent of Jo's instability along with Clayton's tension creating tight framing and Miss Bancroft's truly riveting performances that has to rank with some of the best of the decade.

Fantastic acting by Anne Bancroft in the lead role (and, as usual, fantastic support by James Mason in the far too few scenes in which he appears) but otherwise quite a haul as the central character descends yet again into a trough of misery and depression (once "in Harrods, of all places!") in the course of two hours (which only seem like ten for the viewer). Good job she had such a good nanny to look after the horde of kiddies and wealthy hubbies busily converting old barns and windmills to please her, otherwise things could really have looked bleak! Well up for a Monty Python-style spoof as the years have passed (not least in terms of the HATS which British ladies were still wearing in the mid ("Swinging" (ha!)) Sixties!)(One aspect of Maggie Thatcher's rule which did leave a lasting positive benefit as she killed off such head coverings for good after looking a complete ------- on television while she still wore them). Worth seeing (once) for Bancroft's great acting or to do some social historical research on Britain in the mid-1960s, but you are not going to emerge from watching this one with a smile on your face, I imagine.

This 1964 film is a perfect definition of a brooding piece. In many scenes, Anne Bancroft looks like she is getting ready to play Mrs. Robinson 3 years later. When she sits with that cigarette in her hand and brooding, I thought of sexual liaisons with Benjamin.The picture is a very dull one. It should have had the title of "The Baby Maker." When Bancroft, on her 3rd marriage, is not manufacturing children, she is emotionally out of it and ready to bust a gut.The story-line here is very little. Women-Lib groups could use this movie to press their demands for women getting out of the house in the 1960s and be economically and sexually liberated.As husband number 3, Peter Finch has little to do except have dalliances with other women.The film desperately needs a burst of excitement and this does not occur.As the emotionally drained woman, Bancroft gives her all in the film and received a well deserved Oscar nomination. Special kudos to James Mason, who briefly appears but etches a character, a snitch whose wife is involved with Finch, totally convincing.

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