All the Right Noises (1970) User Reviews

All the Right Hussey Noises

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 13 November 2012]

Taking a look at the IMDb cast listing page for Bob Clark's 1974 Slasher Black Christmas,I suddenly remembered that I had heard about Black Christmas's lead actress Olivia Hussey before,in connection to a title which had been brought out on the BFI's Flipside DVD series.Re- watching a fun doc made by Kim Newman about the BFI Flipside DVD's,I was thrilled to discover,that Hussey had a leading role in a recently "rediscovered" Kitchen Sink Drama.

The plot:

Finding himself numb to the day to day activates of his life,due to most of it being spent either trying to help his dad get out of debt's that he constantly falls into,or spending time with his wife (a wannabe actress) and 2 kids,in a marriage which has seen its spark completely fade from view.

Lighting technician Len Lewin catches a glimpse of a beautiful,new actress called Val.Nervously going up to talk to her,Len finds Val's sweet,cheerful personality completely irresistible,which leads to their relationship quickly blossoming into a full blown romance.Feeling that it is time to "open up" to Val about his wife and children,Len is unexpectedly caught by surprise,when Val tells him that she is only 15 years old…

View on the film:

Inspired by the ending of an affair that he had had with a younger actress in the past,the screenplay by writer/director Gerry O'Hara keeps the character's away from falling into any one dimensional clichés, (such as being a woman hater,or parents who don't care at all about their kids) to instead show people who are decent and well meaning,but struggle to get a grip on any of the whirlwind changes that take place in their lives.

Backed by a wonderful supporting cast that includes the terrific TV Sitcom star Yootha Joyce and future "queen of US Soaps" Lesley Ann- Dawn,Olivia Hussey and Tom Bell both give brilliant performances that compliment each of the character's personality's,with Bell keeping Len Lewin away from simply being a "dirty old man" by giving him an unexpected rugged edge,and also showing Len to be uncomfortable over handling the sudden excitement that has entered his life.

For her fifth role in a TV show/movie,the 17 year old (the film got delayed for 2 years,before it was finally brought out) Olivia Hussey gives a beautifully delicate performance as Val,that along with having a strong,natural chemistry with Tom Bell,also has Hussey give Val a real breezy charm,as she begins to lead Len to hearing all the right noises for the first time in years.

Easy viewing kitchen sink drama.

[parry_na · 7/10 · 19 August 2022]

This is a fairly uneventful 'kitchen sink' drama in which a married man has an affair with a 15-year-old girl. Very much of its time, it is still a surprise to see how his relationship with the young girl is treated so wholesomely as a romance between two very likeable people, while the unsuspecting (?) wife is equally appealing. Personable, funny, charming and generous - even the two young children are lovely - and as a viewer, you don't want anyone to get hurt, which is inevitable considering the man's pretty shocking behaviour.

The affair comes close to being discovered from time to time - whether it does or not, I'm not telling - but there's no huge drama here as every eventuality occurs gently, which is rare for such a usually gritty '70s genre.

The acting is what shines mostly here. Tom Bell is Len, the most flawed character, alongside his dad (Robert Keegan); Judy Carne is Len's wife Joy, a happy and charming actress, and Olivia Hussey plays young Val, whose clear-skinned, wide-eyed appeal is far from the wanton temptress you may expect.

With no real villains to hiss, things could get a little dull from time to time were it not for the characters, but I enjoyed this. My score is 7 out of 10.

All the Right Noises

[d_m_s · 7/10 · 8 February 2016]

I really enjoyed this obscure British drama. I was surprised to see a young Olivia Hussey playing the fifteen year old girl that the man gets involved with. She was excellent in the role and I have never previously noticed what a good actress she is.

This was a low-key film with a very simple plot and very simple directing style. I love these kind of films when I can find a good one and this was a enjoyable watch with good dialogue, acting and directing and a lovely, old, grainy, gritty film look to it.

It doesn't have a massive amount of re-watch potential but maybe in a good few years I might want to revisit it.

It is what it is

[lazarillo · 19 April 2011]

This is a late 60's/early 70's example of British "kitchen-sink realism" that began in the late 50's with films like "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning" and really continues up into the present day with the films of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. Strangely, the late 60's/early 70's Swinging London era was an especially fertile period for these films, even though many of them--"Up the Junction", "Deep End", "I Start Counting"--were so provincial and working-class British, you'd never guess that anything extraordinary was happening in London at the time.

For whatever reason (perhaps there was a law?) every appealing young Brit actress of that era seemed to have to make at least one movie where she has a romance with a man old enough to be her father. Judy Geeson got stuck with Rod Steiger in "Three Into Two won't Go" and her younger sister Sally Geeson REALLY got stuck with Norman Wisdom (the UK's answer to Jerry Lewis) in "What's Good for the Goose". Susan George got romantically paired with the somewhat older Michael York in "The Strange Affair" and the much older Charles Bronson in "Twinky". Haley Mills avoided this IN MOVIES, but in real-life married her much older director Roy Boulting. And art actually imitated life for Jane Birkin as she went to France to have an on-screen AND off-screen romance with middle-aged French singer Serg Gainsbourg in "Slogan". This movie was apparently the May-December quota film for Olivia Hussey, the teenage star of Zeffereli's "Romeo and Juliet". It's more believable than most because she's paired with the 30-ish Tom Bell, who's conceivably still youthful and handsome enough to attract the interest of a teenager. And Hussey's character is a very precocious fifteen-going-on-sixteen and from an upper social class. She's an aspiring actress and he's a married theatrical electrician with two kids and an elderly gambling-addict father.

This is one of the most realistic of the British realist films perhaps because nothing really melodramatic ever happens. Unfortunately, that's also makes it rather boring, aside from the excellent performances by leads Hussey and Bell, and to a lesser Judy Carnes as the Bell character's unsuspecting(?)wife. I suppose that might also make it MORE of a male fantasy in that it doesn't necessarily end in divorce, scandal, and a lengthy jail sentence, but there actually isn't much of a sexual element to this either as most of the physical romance occurs off screen. It's not a bad film by any means, but it's one of those films that just kind of is what it is.

Sound but little fury

[Bribaba · 6/10 · 15 August 2012]

The last segment of Gerry O'Hara's social drama trilogy deals with the affair of Len (Tom Bell), a happily married man and Val (Olivia Hussey), a 15-year old schoolgirl. Whereas O'Hara's first film That Kind of Girl displayed a considerable moral zeal, this goes to the other extreme. Len is deceitful on all fronts and even introduces his young friend to the marital bad while his wife (Judy Carne) is away. His indifference to morality is staggering. Normally characters behaving in this manner would be hung drawn and quartered further down the narrative line, but not here. This non-judgemental aspect of the film is refreshing, though it does mean an almost total lack of drama. Everybody's happy, where's the story? Some compensation can be had in the keenly observed period detail and the excellent cast, but Scenes From a Marriage this isn't.

She was like an innocent young child

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 14 April 2021]

A very small film that likely has seem only a be small number of people and a tiny theatrical release. Except for the young fifteen your old Olivia Hussey who had had the most amazing experience in Italy with Zeffirelli and Romeo and Juliet that made her famous across the world. She was like an innocent young child except she was older than her years, smoking a cigarette on TV and falling into a romance with Tom Bell in the film. His is fine, as is Judy Carne as his wife and the story is likeable enough though it his to see there is not anything that earth crashing.

"You've got it all sorted out, haven't you?"

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 21 June 2022]

Far from the saucy romp suggested by the title, it's actually a very subdued triangle drama against a well drawn theatrical backdrop. Seen over fifty years later it's even more poignant than it doubtless seemed at the time since Tom Bell and Judy Carne are both now long dead and Olivia Hussey seventy-one years old.

I only watched the movie for Olivia Hussey

[ThingsAreLookingUp · 6/10 · 17 July 2021]

After seeing Romeo and Juliet I wanted to see more of Olivia Hussey's work, in this film she is really perfect in this role of Lolita with the youthful beauty, maybe too youg because she plays a 15 years old who has an affair with a man twice her age! So of course the film is from the late 60s / 70s when it was not a big deal. But I admit that apart from this plot of scandalous and forbidden love story, is the wife going to catch them and all, the movie was a little boring.

The subject matter has potential, but this film wastes it

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 6 February 2016]

ALL THE RIGHT NOISES is one in a sub-genre of films in which middle aged men fall for underage girls and embark on torrid affairs with them. This one stars Tom Bell as a family man who falls in love with the timeless beauty of Olivia Hussey, embarking on a relationship that threatens to tear his life apart.

It's a mixed bag of a film, made with effective production values and also some strong acting from the leads. Aside from ROMEO AND JULIET, Hussey has never been more lovely or ethereal, and Bell comes across as remarkably likable given his character's activities. A supporting cast incorporating the likes of Rudolph Walker, Lesley-Anne Down, Charles Lloyd Pack, John Standing, and one time horror starlet Chloe Franks, helps immeasurably.

A pity, then, that the actual storyline of this movie turns out to be more than a little dull. I have to spoil it by saying that the main characters never get caught or found out, which robs the film of drama and interest. In fact, come the end, ALL THE RIGHT NOISES seems to have been something of a waste of time and something of a 'male fantasy' piece. Pete Walker's dramatic version of the subject, HOME BEFORE MIDNIGHT, is a huge improvement...

Precious FEW right noises

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 22 September 2016]

The BFI of course has plenty to answer for and will, presumably, be handed a hefty tab in the next world but meanwhile there are those who may well enquire legitimately what it thinks it's doing promoting fodder like this on its own label. At best this is a ho-hum effort by a journeyman director and hardly deserving of a booklet to analyse its so what storyline, a staple back in the late sixties/early seventies, and boost its mediocre at best writer/director Gerry O'Hare. About the best that can be said for O'Hara is that at least he isn't Terence Davies, another non-talent the BFI in their wisdom have chosen to deify. The three principals, Judy Carne, Tom Bell, Olivia Hussy, are up in their lines and don't bump into the furniture, which seems to be all O'Hara requires of them.

A very intriguing story that stops too soon

[richievee · 8/10 · 18 June 2012]

This was the first film made by lovely teenager Olivia Hussey since the 1968 release of Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" brought richly-deserved accolades. "All the Right Noises" was produced in 1969 and released two years later to generally positive reviews. Tom Bell is quite believable as a married, 32-year-old theatrical electrician, Len, who falls for the precocious charms of a 15-year-old dancer/singer named Val. Judy Carne does well too, as Len's unsuspecting wife, Joy, and director Gerry O'Hara directs with a light touch -- in fact, probably a bit too light for this highly provocative material. I liked the realism of "All the Right Noises" very much but confess to being disappointed by the indeterminate conclusion of O'Hara's script. The ending just sort of trails off under the credits, and we are left to wonder what (if any) consequences accrued. Still, this film is worth seeing, if only to savor the stunning beauty of Olivia Hussey, whom I regard as the most enchanting young actress ever to appear on a motion picture screen.

A fascinating extra is the full, sixteen-minute interview that Bernard Braden made (in October 1967) with the talented stars of "Romeo and Juliet," Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey.

Sleaze-Orama?

[trimmerb1234 · 5/10 · 15 December 2016]

For some reason the theme of older man and younger girl seems a perennially popular one in French cinema and is usually done - film and relationship - with charm and some believability. The stories of Colette an influence but not entire explanation. In Gigi, the film based on a Colette story, young Leslie Caron is an engaging ingenue. Her ultimate fate is glossed over however her love interest is the older but attractive and ultimate French charmer, Louis Jourdan, someone who could probably win over any girl's mother in his project. UK films on this topic however tends towards a peculiar mixture of moralising and prurience - exploitation under the guise of exploring social issues.

Here the film entirely lacks charm (other than Olivia Hussey's innate kind) or believablility. Tom Bell, as ever, plays a bluff manly man's man, but is neither charmer nor seducer. Perhaps his appearance was fashionable at the time but the over-long all-round facial hair gives him a slightly furtive appearance - a sort of hair-hoody, slightly suggestive of dirty-mac schoolyard-loiterer. His performance seems low key - as if hoping that few people will notice he's in the cast. Olivia Hussey, having just charmed the world with her youngest sweetest prettiest of Juliets, is an odd choice here - more a dirty mac fantasy than anything remotely believable. In real life a girl of such extraordinary prettiness would have experienced the interest and (usually) tiresome attentions of older men, would thus have well known her attractiveness and chosen someone special, whatever their age, of equal or greater attractiveness either of looks, style, manner, education, sophistication or simply very rich - not an ordinary middle-aged geezer. Putting aside the improbability, the story-line itself is so-so. The casting of Olivia Hussey makes the film ridiculous.

Starts with a bang, goes out with a whimper.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 6 January 2022]

All bark and no bite, this very 70's romantic drama is deadly dull in spite of being in a mod, mod world, and dealing with the controversial subject, a 30-ish year old married man romancing a fifteen-year-old girl. Pretty disgusting, but the more disgusting fact is that it's just a hideously boring way to pass 90 minutes. Teenager Olivia Hussey is the aggressor, and mature adult Tom Bell is the pursued, married to Judy Carne who is plenty worth being faithful to, as well as having a daughter.

The free for all attitude of the age of Aquarius has several moments of musical comedy, probably pushing the fact that Khan had recently starred in the Broadway revival of "The Boyfriend". Those sequences are probably the only things amusing in this, other than a chance to see a young Lesley-Anne Down and explore some obscure British locations. Not as sordid for the most part as its description sounds, just really not even a curiosity as a viewing.

A good film which grows on me the more times I watch it.

[jerbar2004 · 8/10 · 22 April 2010]

This film, very much of its time shows London in the early 1970's. Of course now a different world. Note the old fashion Underground ticket machines, and the Black and White Telly in the flat. The location looks very much like Churchill Gardens, Pimlico, with Battersea Power Station in the background. And, plenty of smoking going on, in pubs, and on the tube. The film is strangely sexy in its own way, with the young girl playing along with the much older man, its really a sexual fantasy come true. It is another one of those British low budget film where the low budget adds to rather that take away value. Watch for fun, which is what it is. Good for the BFI for bring to a larger audience on DVD

A pretty salacious tagline.

[jjparish · 10/10 · 20 June 2021]

"Is 15 1/2 too young for a girl?" That didn't really relect this honest story about a married man having an affair with a teenage girl. It wasn't just about sex and they certainly make a good looking couple. They dont look out of place in their acting world and social circle despite the age gap. Its great to see a young olivia hussey in something contempory and totally different to romeo and juliet. Which is all that i had seen her in before i watched this. What a talent she was to be leading films like this and R&J at such a young age.