The Truth About Women

The Truth About Women is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Muriel Box and starring Laurence Harvey, Julie Harris, Mai Zetterling and Diane Cilento.[3][4]

This article is about the 1957 British film. For the American silent 1924 film, see The Truth About Women (1924 film).

The Truth About Women
British 1-sheet poster
Directed byMuriel Box
Produced byHerbert Smith
Sydney Box
Written byMuriel Box
Sydney Box
StarringLaurence Harvey
Julie Harris
Diane Cilento
Mai Zetterling
Eva Gabor
Music byBruce Montgomery
CinematographyOtto Heller
Edited byAnne V. Coates
Production
company
Beaconsfield Productions (as Beaconsfield Films Ltd.)
Distributed byBritish Lion
Release date
October 1957 (UK)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budgetunder ₤200,000[1][2]

Plot

When his son-in-law comes to him with a woeful tale of an unhappy relationship and a belief that all women are impossible to love, elderly Sir Humphrey Tavistock calmly puts him straight.

Tavistock regales him with decades-old anecdotes of found lovers and lost love. We meet in flashback the free-thinking Ambrosine Viney, an independent woman ahead of her time, and the sophisticated Louise Tiere, a diplomat's wife. There are others as well, including one whom Tavistock adores and marries, only to lose her forever during childbirth.

Cast

Critical reception

TV Guide: "the direction is simply too serious for what should have been a much lighter comedy, so the film falls far short of its intentions".[5] The New York Times: "an erratic but basically good-natured color pacing written, directed and produced by Muriel and Sydney Box. With Laurence Harvey heading a large, impressive cast...Visually, the picture is luscious. The five episodes that carry the well-born hero from young manhood to the fireside spread out over beautifully tinted, lavish period and modern settings. The small army of ladies engulfing the poor bloke have been dressed to kill by an expert, Cecil Beaton. Smoothly, deviously and knowingly the picture slides along as if a good joke were tucked up one of the Beaton sleeves...As an uncomplicated young painter who marries him and eventually dies in childbirth, our own American Miss Harris is splendid, far and away the best and least glittering thing in the picture. Her meeting with Mr. Harvey, in a stranded elevator, is a gem of a scene. The last section, as Mr. Harvey almost attains happiness with a wise, unselfish nurse, movingly played by Miss Zetterling, slides appropriately into a bittersweet but lighthearted fade-out. Of the large cast, such people as Michael Denison, Derek Farr, Marius Goring, Roland Culver and Wilfred Hyde-White bolster the opulent tapestry with effective bits. As for why it should take an intelligent, red-blooded Englishman more than fifty years to discover the "truth," as Mr. Harvey finally states it, we thought they learned that at Eton."[6]

gollark: TheyWorkForYou.com
gollark: I guess MPs really like pensions.
gollark: I have a site tell me about what he does in parliament and it seems to mostly be nonsense about pensions.
gollark: Vaguely. It was actually very boring.
gollark: There are other parties, but they are mostly irrelevant.

References
  1. Spicer, Andrew (5 September 2006). "Sydney Box". Manchester University Press. Retrieved 23 March 2018 – via Google Books.
  2. Andrew Spicer, Sydney Box Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 164
  3. The Truth About Women on IMDb
  4. "The Truth about Women (1957)". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
  5. "The Truth About Women". TVGuide.com.
  6. "'Truth About Women'". 29 August 1958. Retrieved 23 March 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
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