Stop the World: I Want to Get Off (1966)
The Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse London and Broadway musical hit Stop the World, I Want to Get Off is given literal treatment in this filmization. Newley stars as Littlechap, whose allegorical rise to success is countered by the instability of his private life. Like the play, the film is staged impressionistically, with Newley decked out in mime makeup and periodically stopping the action to address the audience, and with all the women in his life -- German, American and "Typically English" -- played by a single actress (Millicent Martin, taking over from the stage version's Anna Quayle). In Wizard of Oz fashion, the play itself is lensed in color, while the brief prologue, showing the actors preparing for their performance, is in black-and-white. The production includes such standards (and perennial audition pieces) as What Kind of Fool Am I? and Gonna Build a Mountain.
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Too much of everything
Better Late Then Never
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
This was the worst movie I ever went to. It had one scene like a stage, which never changed... which the mostly just one main singer jumping around the stage as he sang. Similar to a one-person stage play with no scenes and no story. Just jumping around the stage from one end to the other while singing.I don't mind singing. I've seen some decent musicals. Funny Girl had come out not too long before this and there were quite a few musicals during that era. I wouldn't even mind watching someone sing on stage. But this was awful. Painfully horrible. But I would rather buy a record than watch this film.45 minutes into the movie after waiting for it to do something, it actually made me physically ill. Having to sit in the theater watching the one stage scene for so long... I had to run to the restroom to throw up. That's how bad this movie was... and I wasn't ill before I went in there... and I recovered after leaving.I was unable to stay in the theater another minute. I had to leave because it was literally making me physically ill. It was supposed to be a double header with "Oliver" but we never made it. I sat there as long as I could but I became so ill from watching it, I had to leave.It was the movie which made me ill. To this day, it is still the only movie which ever made me physically ill... and remains one of only 3 movies which I hated so much I could not watch them to the end. "Hardware" was another.Just getting outside the theater was a huge improvement, but it was at least an hour before the nausea from that movie subsided. I've never had motion sickness... but this movie was the closest thing I can think of to describe that. But every minute of this movie was so miserable and so painful that it turned my stomach upside down... literally.I have never, ever forgotten how much I detested this movie. I was hoping they had destroyed the negative and every copy of the film.
My wife and I put on our old VHS copy the other night (having not seen it for many years) and once more became totally absorbed in the production and Tony Tanner's performance. Some have called it outdated but it's pure theater with a theater-type experience as best as could be reproduced on screen. "World's" brilliance is that it's simple story combined with a magnificent score can hold audience captivated, no small achievement considering it is done in mime and soliloquy and performed within the confines of a small circular one-ring circus-type stage with no elaborate settings.Just magnificent, not matter what generation.
When the film was made it was shot multi camera as it appears Bill Sargent the producer had a thing about this. He had made a bit of a name shooting onto video tape and transferring to film via Technicolor tape to film process. All the playback was done via equipment which was not locked to the cameras, Great fun was had in trying to sync it all up. I myself enjoyed the overtime this film generated in the projection department. When the film exscaped to the cinemas, which those days it was shown own the ABC circuit, the film did not last the week and by the Wednesday was pulled.
You simply cannot put a couple of cameras in an orchestra pit and film "Stop the World", yet this is exactly what they have done. Starring Newley's stand-in and later replacement when he took the show to Broadway. Tanner tries hard but Tony Newley he ain't! Millie Martin does a little better as Evie but the whole thing makes you yearn for the brilliance that was Anthony Newley. Paul Goodhead - President of the Anthony Newley Appreciation Society Worldwide. (Officially recognised by the family/estate of Anthony Newley).