The Entertainer

John Osborne's quirky indictment of '50s stagnation still looks stagebound, despite extensive location shooting and the cool, inventive photography of Oswald Morris. Too many words, too many tantrums, too much kitchen-sink sentimentality; yet there are moments when this looks like a good film. The performances are remarkable: Plowright and de Banzie beating desperately against the bars of the mad male family; Livesey, a resurrected Colonel Blimp, inspiring the OAPs with 'Don't Let Them Scrap the British Navy'; and Olivier, throwing Shakespearean dignity to the winds to play Archie Rice, the epitome of '50s tattiness with his gratifyingly awful theme song, 'Thank God We're Normal'.