Billy Liar (1963)

Director:

John Schlesinger

Writers:

Keith Waterhouse (novel)
Willis Hall (play) ...
(more)

Release Date:

16 December 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

A lazy, irresponsible young clerk in provincial Northern England lives in his own fantasy world and makes emotionally immature decisions as he alienates friends and family.

Plot Keywords:

Ambrosia | Imagination | Train | Milk | Vending Machine

Awards:

Nominated for 6 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Tom Courtenay	...	William Terrence 'Billy' Fisher
Wilfred Pickles	...	Geoffrey Fisher
Mona Washbourne	...	Alice Fisher
Ethel Griffies	...	Florence, Billy's grandmother
Finlay Currie	...	Duxbury
Gwendolyn Watts	...	Rita
Helen Fraser	...	Barbara
Julie Christie	...	Liz
Leonard Rossiter	...	Emanuel Shadrack
Rodney Bewes	...	Arthur Crabtree
George Innes	...	Stamp
Leslie Randall	...	Danny Boon
Patrick Barr	...	Insp. MacDonald
Ernest Clark	...	Prison governor
Godfrey Winn	...	Disc jockey
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alexander Browne	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
Jack Cunningham	...	Ticket Examiner (uncredited)
Sheila Fearn	...	Telephonist (uncredited)
George Ghent	...	Danny's PRO (uncredited)
Reginald Green	...	Mr. Matthieson (uncredited)
Natalie Kent	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
Margaret Lacey	...	Mrs. Matthieson (uncredited)
Harry Landis	...	Man on train (uncredited)
Leslie Lawton	...	Youth (uncredited)
Ted Morris	...	Funeral Driver (uncredited)
Bryan Mosley	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
Elizabeth Murray	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
Robin Parkinson	...	Jeweller's assistant (uncredited)
James Payne	...	Man in station cafe (uncredited)
Graham Rigby	...	Supermarket Manager (uncredited)
Jessie Robins	...	Large Woman in Hospital (uncredited)
David Scase	...	Man in the record shop (uncredited)
John Schlesinger	...	Officer in Dream (uncredited)
Neville Smith	...	Youth (uncredited)
Elaine Stevens	...	Danny's secretary (uncredited)
John Tordoff	...	Youth in wimpey bar (uncredited)
Anna Wing	...	Mrs. Crabtree (uncredited)
William Wymar	...	Army Man (uncredited)

Directed by
John Schlesinger

Writing credits
Keith Waterhouse		(novel)
Willis Hall		(play) and
Keith Waterhouse		(play)
Willis Hall		(screenplay) and
Keith Waterhouse		(screenplay)

Produced by
Joseph Janni	....	producer
Jack Rix	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Richard Rodney Bennett

Cinematography by
Denys N. Coop		(as Denys Coop)

Film Editing by
Roger Cherrill

Art Direction by
Ray Simm

Makeup Department
Joyce James	....	hair stylist
Bob Lawrance	....	makeup artist (as Robert Lawrence)

Production Management
Charles Blair	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Frank Ernst	....	assistant director

Art Department
Ken Bridgeman	....	set dresser

Sound Department
Malcolm Cooke	....	sound editor
John Cox	....	sound recordist
Peter Handford	....	sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Jack Atcheler	....	camera operator
Neil Binney	....	focus puller (uncredited)
Harry Gillard	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Ron Beck	....	wardrobe mistress
Laura Nightingale	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Jack Gardner	....	first assistant editor (uncredited)

Other crew
Don Higgins	....	advisor: fantasy sequences
Pamela Mann	....	continuity
Pamela Mann	....	script supervisor
Ann Skinner	....	continuity

Production Companies

• Vic Films Productions

Distributors

• Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (1963) (UK) (theatrical)
• Warner-Pathé Distributors (1963) (UK) (theatrical)
• Continental Distributing (1963) (USA) (theatrical)
• Lumiere Pictures (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Rialto Pictures (2000) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

France:U | Portugal:17 | Sweden:11 | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

37 Hinchcliffe Avenue, Baildon, West Yorkshire, England, UK

Company:

Vic Films Productions

Trivia:

Just prior to his arrival on the set Finlay Currie lost his last surviving daughter. He was understandably distraught and asked for a day off to attend the funeral. According to director Schlesinger, Currie was distracted and had trouble with his lines.

Quotes:

William Terrence 'Billy' Fisher: Today's a day of big decisions - going to start writing me novel - 2000 words every day, going to start getting up in the morning.
[Looks at his overgrown thumb nail]
William Terrence 'Billy' Fisher: I'll cut that for a start. Yes... today's a day of big decisions.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "EastEnders: (2006-05-30)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Twisterella

Maturing like good wine (and no lie!)

Tragi-comic misadventures of a young man who invents a fantasy world as cover for his troubles and dreary middle-class existence in sixties Yorkshire.

Billy Liar was always a terrific film, but like so many of its kitchen-sink contemporaries (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Kind of Loving) it has actually grown in substance and depth since its release. Part of the reason is the extensive use of on-location filming all these movies utilised: a post-war industrial landscape long since lost and therefore all the more vivid in its posterity. But where Billy Liar gets a bigger march on its predecessors - whether by intent or accident - is that it captures this landscape on the cusp of the swinging sixties, when architecture, culture, leisure and morality were all rapidly changing. In doing so it heralds many of the themes and issues that were to dominate western culture for the remainder of the 20th Century: pop culture, advertising, media obsession, celebrity, race relations and fantasy lifestyles.

Billy seemed an endearing but essentially lost soul in his day; an immature weakling unable to face up to the realities and responsibilities of adulthood. But looked at from the hindsight of 40 years he now seems symptomatic of what is today regarded as normal, almost aspirational, behaviour: self-absorption; avoidance of responsibility; glorification of celebrity; escape culture.

Whether director John Schelsinger and writers Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall foresaw all the cultural and sociological changes they captured is something only they would know (they surely couldn't have seen the significance of casting Julie Christie - one of the ultimate swinging sixties icons). Whatever the case, what makes Billy Liar such a fascinating film is the casual, uncritical and unselfconscious way its many themes are observed. Its lack of preachiness or self-righteousness help keep it a fresh and funny entertainment that can be enjoyed at that level. Its historical importance as a perfect snapshot of a country at a time of rapid and fundamental change is nothing less than priceless.