kijii The Pumpkin Eater, for which Ann Bancroft won a Golden Globe and received her second Best Actress Oscar nomination, is an example of how she could dramatically dominate a film. This film, based on Penelope Mortimer's novel, is energized by Harold Pinter's enigmatic screenplay, beautifully photographed by Oswald Morris, and expertly directed by Jack Clayton. Peter Finch, James Mason, and Maggie Smith, round out a great cast. As the film opens we see a well-dressed, but extremely depressed woman, Jo Armitage (Ann Bancroft), entering her house. She seems totally alone. Her isolation is apparent as she lets a telephone ring without answering it. As she looks out from her lofty tower (an old Dutch-style windmill, without its blade-like arms, that had been restored as part of her house), we see a split screen (double exposure) showing us her thoughts from the time when she first met her husband, Jake (Peter Finch). This split screen cues us into a flashback that will make up the bulk of the film. I love this shot because it simulanteouly shows us Jo's present- day depression (shown on our left side) and blends it with images of the formerly happy and laughing Jo (shown on our right side). Not only is there chiaroscuro in the image but there is also chiaroscuro when one compares Jo's present mood with that of her past.As we enter the flashback, we see Jo living in a restored barn with her second husband, Giles (Richard Johnson), and her seven children. There, she meets one of Giles' friends, Jake Armitage (Peter Finch). She eventually leaves Giles for Jake. He marries her in spite of her brood of children, accepting both the 'zoo and the zookeeper' as her father, Cedric Hardwicke, puts it. Jo's father wants to give Jake a 'fighting chance' of succeeding, so he offers to pay for having the two eldest sons shipped off to boarding school and putting a deposit down on a modest London flat for Jake and his ready-made family. As Jo becomes pregnant with Jake's child, he goes on to become a successful and wealthy film writer. Since his work takes up much of his time, Jo becomes empty and unhappy. Jake asks one of his co-workers, Philpott (Maggie Smith), to live with them for a while and help Jo in caring for the children. But, Philpott is not much help, and Jo doesn't understand why she is staying with them. After Jo accuses Jake of having an affair with Philpott, Philpott leaves them. Also, Jo doesn't feel comfortable with Jake's film-related crowd and stays home with the children rather than accompanying him to filming locations or going to the required social parties. Jo wants Jake to herself, but that isn't possible with his work; Jake 'n Jo continue to co-exist in quiet desperation. One day while shopping at Harrod's, Jo publicly breaks down. Jake has Jo start psychotherapy and she eventually becomes better. The sessions with her psychiatrist, Eric Porter, are revealing, but not overstated in this Pinter screenplay. One evening, Jo decides to invite Jake's working friends to a party. However, she feels alone, isolated, among her own guests. One obnoxious guest at the party is Bob Conway (James Mason). Conway--who declares his distrust of 'professionals' and prefers to be called a 'craftsman'--is married to a film actress, Beth (Janine Gray). The social (professional) link between Beth and Jake is Jake's film writing. When Jo becomes pregnant again, Jake asks her to have an abortion and sterilization. (He wants to someday be free to travel, have fun, and not always be thinking about caring for another new child—to be able to start out all over again). He has Jo's doctors approve the medical procedures based on her psychological and medical condition. Jo learns to live with this until she finds out, from Bob Conway, that HIS wife is pregnant, but not by him—by Jake.Aside from the great acting, directing and photography, I think that this is a very good film in that it is often able to show emotions WITHOUT the use of words. It is not always easy to show what depression actually 'looks like, 'but this film captures it quite well. It also captures isolation, manipulation, and panic in a way that I have never seen done so well before. Priceless!

Rob-120 "The Pumpkin Eater" is a depressing film. Like "Darling" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," it's one of those bleak, black & white 1960's dramas about self-absorbed "High Society" twits who are their own worst enemies. Jo Armitage (Anne Bancroft) is an English housewife and mother. For her third marriage, Jo divorces her second husband and marries Jake Armitage (Peter Finch), a screenwriter. Jo and her four kids move into a house in London with Jake, and they have one or two more kids. (It's never made clear just how many children Jo has, but it's a lot.) Although Jake is a doting father to Jo's children, and seems to like kids, he makes Jo have an abortion when she becomes pregnant yet again.Over time, Jo descends into depression, as her rotten, stinkin' husband has numerous extra-marital affairs. Jo suffers a nervous breakdown in Harrod's Department Store. She sees a psychiatrist for a time, then unreasonably dismisses him when he tells her he's taking a short vacation. She has an affair of her own with her ex-husband, and beats up Jake after he makes another girl pregnant. And they both keep smoking cigarettes -- and smoking, and smoking, and smoking. These characters are making *themselves* miserable! It isn't simply that Jake is a rotten husband; Jo doesn't make it easy for him. She complains that he's ruining their marriage, but when Jake offers to take her along to Morocco, where one of his films is being shot, in hopes that they can save their marriage, Jo refuses to go with him. But she won't tell him *why* she refuses! The movie is based on a novel by Patricia Mortimer, wife of John Mortimer (author of the "Rumpole" series). By all accounts, both Patricia and John had numerous affairs during their stormy marriage. The screenplay is by Harold Pinter, himself a notorious womanizer. It features the usual "Pinter" touches – the hellish cocktail party, flashbacks, betrayals, cruelty, domination, an encounter with a caustic stranger (Jo meets a deranged woman at the beauty parlor who rips into her for having such a "perfect life"), and long slow passages of dialogue where people yammer on and on about nothing! Pinter was so good at this claptrap that they gave him the Nobel Prize for it.James Mason plays a windbag movie director, whom Jake unwisely crosses by having an affair with his wife, and who then launches a vendetta against Jake. Maggie Smith makes an early appearance as a blabbering Cockney house guest who also has an affair with Jake. And Cedric Hardwicke (in his last role) plays Jo's father, who warns Jake and Jo that their marriage will be a disaster, but cheerfully pays for the wedding and gives them a house to live in anyway.One element of the story that I found particularly unbelievable was Jake and Jo's children. They seem unnaturally happy, eternally pippy, always smiling and laughing. Jo's oldest daughter is a bubbly teen who cheerfully visits Jo in the hospital, and doesn't seem to realize her mother has just had an abortion. Even the two oldest sons, whom Jo ships off to boarding school, bear her no ill will, and smile when they are finally reunited, even though their mother has selfishly cast them aside.Do these kids have *any idea* that their parents are at each other throats? Don't they hear the screaming and fighting that is coming from the bedroom down the hall? The kids seem blissfully unaware of the marital infidelities and emotional cruelty their parents inflict on each other! Real kids would be traumatized and upset by what is going on in this house (not to mention asthmatic, because of all the smoking their parents do)!Yes, Anne Bancroft gives a good performance. But the movie is so dismal, it's no wonder Julie Andrews got the Oscar for "Mary Poppins." If you were an Academy voter, which would you choose? "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" or *this* depressing downer?

st-shot Anne Bancroft gives a shattering performance as a woman on the verge in The Pumpkin Eater. In arguably her finest role Bancroft through the shear power of expression slowly disintegrates from the pressures of raising an army of kids and the betrayal of her philandering husband in this melancholy marathon written by Harold Pinter and directed by Jack Clayton. Prolific breeder Jo marries up and coming screenwriter Jake Armitage and adds another child to the brood along the way. She luxuriates in the chaotic household but Jake chafes at the constant barrage of activity. He is also prone to straying. Watching Bancroft go over the edge is both disturbing and mesmerizing made even more uncomfortable by Jack Clayton and cinematographer Oswald Morris's insistence on making us see things from her point of view most of the film. Her haunting blank stares speak volumes making her rages all the more volcanic. The adult world she deals with is deceitful and cruel and we are left to witness her wall of denial crumbling. It's a grim but absorbing watch.Finch along with a superb supporting cast do an excellent job of illuminating Jo's hostile world. In a mere three scenes and one phone call James Mason goes about as low as one can get as a cuckolded husband with unctuous magnificence. Maggie Smith is exasperatingly callous as a mooch and lover to Jake while Yootha Joyce as a stranger in a benign hair salon is chilling.Over two hours in length this lugubrious work never wanes due to Pinter and Mortimer's fine tuned script that keeps you guessing as to the extent of Jo's instability along with Clayton's tension creating tight framing and Miss Bancroft's truly riveting performances that has to rank with some of the best of the decade.

islandsavagechild It seems I have always been aware of this movie...it's strange title was one I'd heard even as a kid. But I only recently saw it for the first time, some 46 years after it was made.This strange little drama, written by Harold Pinter, has a performance by Anne Bancroft that is simply astounding. Beautiful and full of life, she is absolutely riveting in this part. Peter Finch is sly and attractive as her husband, and the two are extremely plausible as conflicted, complicated lovers.The movie is nicely shot, directed with obvious care and attention to detail, and the writing has an odd, menacing, off-kilter vitality. But it's Bancroft's remarkably strong and beautiful performance that makes this unmissable.