Joseph Andrews (film)
Joseph Andrews is a 1977 British period comedy film directed by Tony Richardson. It is based on the 1742 novel Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding.
| Joseph Andrews | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster, artwork by Ted CoConis | |
| Directed by | Tony Richardson |
| Written by | Allan Scott |
| Screenplay by | Chris Bryant |
| Based on | Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding |
| Starring | Ann-Margret Peter Firth Michael Hordern Beryl Reid Jim Dale |
| Cinematography | David Watkin |
| Edited by | Thom Noble |
| Music by | John Addison |
Production company | Woodfall Film Productions |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date | April 1977 |
Running time | 104 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million |
With its rollicking comic plot, period costume and setting, ribald adventures and a dashing young hero, the film was an obvious attempt to follow in the line of such films as Tom Jones (1963), which was also directed by Tony Richardson.
Ann-Margret was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1978 for her performance in the film.
Vincent Canby of The New York Times explains the pretext of Henry Fielding's novel Joseph Andrews: The book "originated as Fielding's answer to what he saw as the hypocritical pieties of [British novelist] Samuel Richardson's Pamela. In Pamela, which was published in 1740, Richardson told the inspiring tale of Pamela Andrews, a serving girl who tenaciously held onto her virginity until her employer, the rich Mr. Booby, came across with a marriage license. Several years later, Mr. Fielding turned this story wildly upside down in a novel about Pamela's brother, Joseph, a serving boy who is as innocent as his sister but not nearly as calculating, who must fight off all sorts of lewd advances and whose triumph is one of true virtue rather than greed."