Rent The Entertainer (1960)

Time machine - The Entertainer review by NI

If you want to see what everyday life was like in 1950s Britain take a look at this. It's accurate - I know, I was there. An excellent film of Osborne's play with super performances. Captures the sadness of a fading career in a fading genre - music hall.

Olivier acted his pants off - The Entertainer review by jw

Brilliant. Olivier should have got that Oscar, but it was the year Ben Hur was released. Or was Olivier just getting to be himself? This film makes a revealing historical document of the working class holiday places of the time that pointed to another era much older. And Alan Bates in his first movie!

End of the Pier - The Entertainer review by griggs

Archie Rice is dying on stage in every sense, and Olivier makes you feel every creak of the floorboards. The shabby charm, the hollow grin, the panic behind the patter — he plays Archie like a man incapable of stopping the act, even after the audience has stopped believing in it.

The Entertainer could easily have worked as a one-man showcase, but it’s the family left absorbing the damage that gives it weight. Brenda De Banzie is devastating as Phoebe, worn down by decades of disappointment; Joan Plowright is luminous; Roger Livesey quietly heartbreaking in his dignity. It’s not just about a man failing — it’s about everyone else having to stand there while he does it.

Tony Richardson directs with confidence, and Osborne and Kneale’s script bites hard. It doesn’t linger like the very greatest films do — you won’t leave haunted, but you will leave bruised.