User reviews

ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE is certainly an uneven adaptation of the Joe Orton play, but it does create a few sparks with the performances of BERYL REID as Kath, PETER McENERY as Sloane and HARRY ANDREWS as Ed. The trio is involved in a three-way affair with Mr. Sloane who charms them both with his good looks and apparently bi-sexual leanings.

It's certainly not the usual fare one expects to see on screen, even in the '70s when the material was considered quite daring. But the script gives the three principals some rich material to work with and the film now has a cult status with fans of black comedy.

Orton is the gay playwright who was killed by his lover who then committed suicide and was dead before this film version of his hit London play was made. Whether he would have approved of some of the changes is debatable, but it still has the power to shock and cause ripples of laughter despite the darkness of the theme.

Summing up: As oddball as they come.

I first saw EMr.S as a teenager who had just come out of the closet. As a child I was a fan of '60s horror films (Carradine, Cushing, et.al.) and black comedies (e.g., "No Way to Treat a Lady") and suspense/murder ("Eye of the Cat" or "Wylie", "What Happened to Aunt Alice?", "Daddy's Gone a Hunting", "Who Killed Teddy Bear?"). EMr.S, at least as I remember it after 20 years, combined those genres. The title character, handsome and bi-sexual, added the homo-eroticism that made for a very happy young gay movie fan indeed. It also led me to learn that the Brits were years ahead of Hollywood in the treatment of gay characters in movies, and I now count "Who Killed Sister George?" and "The Leather Boys" as other personal favorites.

"Entertaining Mr Sloane" is regarded in some quarters as one of the great post-war British comedies though you would hardly think so after seeing this 1970 film version. It's not at all bad, is frequently very funny and its cast of four, (Beryl Reid, Harry Andrews, Peter McEnery and Alan Webb), give it all they've got. Reid and Andrews are siblings; she's a nymphomaniac and he's gay and McEnery is the eponymous Mr Sloane, the object of both their affections. Webb is their ancient father and it's he who rubs Mr Sloane up the wrong way. Douglas Hickox directed without much imagination, relying too heavily on the material. Entertaining it certainly is but great? Best you see it on stage before making up your mind.

This adaptation of the brilliant Joe Orton play in an unmitigated disaster. Every joke is overdone to the point of surrealism. The wit is killed dead, and any pretense to psychology is thrown out the window in a late sixties psychedelic mish-mash completely at odds with the stage farce tone of the source material. If people like this movie, it's for the sheer oddness, not because it has any of the qualities evinced by the play. It's like watching a Noel Coward play performed by lunatics in an asylum.

I really don't know how to describe this film or the feeling I had after it.

But it did keep me on tenterhooks about what was going to happen.

Overall it is pretty good and I doubt I will see another film like it for many years.

The adaptation of Joe Orton's play Entertaining Mr Sloane is a misfire. Beryl Reid is the middle aged nymphomaniac Kath who spots the amoral narcissistic drifter Mr Sloane (Peter McEnery) lying half naked sunbathing in the cemetery. Kath herself who lives by the cemetery is dressed seductively, a see thorough dress and we initially see her suggestively licking an ice lolly.

Kath invites Mr Sloane to become her lodger and quickly seduces him. Her elderly father, Dada recognizes Mr Sloane as the man who killed his employer and then disappeared.

Mr Sloane is having a fine time womanizing, tormenting Dada and being playful with Kath and her brother Ed (Harry Andrews) who drops by every now and then. Ed seems straight-laced but drives a pink Pontiac and makes Mr Sloane the chauffeur with a tight leather uniform.

The film is supposed to be a grotesque, sexual black farce but the film reveals its hand too early. McEnery is too old as Mr Sloane, he should had been held back as an innocent charmer than unveiled as a murderer as soon as he met Dada. As for Ed, that pink Pontiac gave him away not matter how much of a country gent he tried to pass off as.

The ending was also rather abrupt and disappointing although I suspect a gay marriage ceremony would had been seen as shocking at the time.

A worthy film adaptation from a farcical play by Joe Orton. Really as fresh as the day it was made and only dated in the most endearing of ways. To be honest I have never seen anything quite like it before or since and over the years it has certainly gained a strong, cult following. The cast including Beryl Reid, Harry Andrews and Mr Sloane himself, played by Peter McEnery, are all on great form. Top Entertainment from start to finish.

If you haven't seen this superb film - put it to the top of your "must view" list! Featuring two of Britain's best character actors, the late Beryl Reid and the late Harry Andrews, this scintillating black comedy is based on Joe Orton's wonderful play of the same name. Reid is marvellous as aging nymphomaniac Kath and Harry Andrews provides a superb foil as her roue brother Ed, who both attempt to secure the sexual services of their libidinous lodger, Sloane (played by Peter McEnery). Set in an eerie graveyard lodgehouse and with Alan Webb as their grubby father this brilliant film has gained cult status since its release over 30 years ago and is the only film I can watch - and enjoy - repeatedly.

Odd quirky quite sexual but then the 70s was a time of such things Interesting watch

Have watched this film many times and enjoy it just as much as the first time,a mark of a good film.Joe Orton certainly had a strange sense of humour very evident in this black-comedy.A must see if never seen.Perhaps immoral,so what the blazes its entertaining to say the least.Great performances from the cast.

Joe Orton's classic play is bought to the big screen and features just 4 eccentric characters. Young lothario, arch manipulator and potentially murderer. McEnery cons his way into love starved Beryl Reid's house by a graveyard where she lives with her old father, Webb. All is well but McEnery needs his wits about him when Reid's gay businessman brother Harry Andrews arrives.

The script is all in this witty, very dark black comedy, although the performances are spot on with Reid wonderful as the sad, past it sex mad landlady and particularly Andrews in full military swagger preaching morals to McEnery whilst still longing to get into his pants. Hilarious.

A Classic "English Black Comedy" You have to laugh Well Miss Reid.. who knew you were a tart. And she kills it. From scene ONE. We're off on a trip. It's an ageless, magnificent English comedy as only they can do. Farce, black comedy and more, so much more. The characters. How did Beryl and Harry Andrews have the guts to do it. This is Harry from Ice Cold In Alex. Played Upper Crusts all his career. Then this manic. But everyone's mad in Joe Orton world.

Confession time I watched this for the first time as a young boy with my mother as she laughed her head off. Me ... Embarrassed not a bit of it.

Back to Mr Sloan. Every word is a gem. Every word has so much meaning. Double, Multiples. It rips along and the brother/sister switch around in their affection/hate/dominant/submission/up .. down and anyway you want. The opening scene for each of the 4 lead's are brilliant. We get them. Get them in what ever works for you. McEnery, ok he's not a perfect Mr Sloan. But he is up against 2 fantastic actors revelling in what was the performance of their careers. He does have to be in almost every scene after all. Dada. Ok. He's annoying. But it's Reid and Andrews who are so funny, sad, Kath and Ed. As sad, weird, fuuny, needy pair as you'll ever find in cinema. But you have to laugh.

Watch this. You'll learn about England, the secretive, crazy people who lived in the home counties with their double lives, fantasy's and sadness.

An the theme song my Georgie Fame.

A really nice and funny based on good subversive humor. I love it.