IMDb RATING
6.4/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
The down-at-heel lodger in a seaside boarding house is menaced by two mysterious strangers, who eventually take him away.The down-at-heel lodger in a seaside boarding house is menaced by two mysterious strangers, who eventually take him away.The down-at-heel lodger in a seaside boarding house is menaced by two mysterious strangers, who eventually take him away.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
- Director
- Writer
- Harold Pinter(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe movie was a passion project of director William Friedkin who called it "the first film I really wanted to make, understood and felt passionate about". He had first seen the play in San Francisco in 1962, and managed to get the film version funded by Edgar J. Scherick at Palomar Pictures, in part because it could be made relatively cheaply. Pinter wrote the screenplay himself and was heavily involved in casting. "To this day I don't think our cast could have been improved," wrote Friedkin later.
- Quotes
Stanley Webber: How would you like to go away with me?
Lulu: What?
Stanley Webber: How would you like to go away with me?
Lulu: Where would we go?
Stanley Webber: Nowhere...
Lulu: Well that's a charming proposal.
Stanley Webber: There's nowhere to go, so we could just go, it wouldn't matter.
Lulu: We might as well stay here.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Pinter's Party as Told by William Friedkin (2017)
Featured review
good version of a weird play
Harold Pinter's work is infuriating at best, but this film version comes close to making some sense of 'The Birthday Party'. Dandy Nichols runs a boarding house in which oddball lodger Stanley lives (very well played by Robert Shaw) and when two unusual menacing visitors arrive (Patrick Magee and Sidney Tafler) events start to get progressively weirder. The play is dark, claustrophobic, and extremely clever, and the film plays on this - I particularly liked the sequence with the torchlight which had heaps of atmosphere. Not seen much, this version is now commercially available again and hopefully will be eventually viewed in the same light as other Pinter movies such as 'Accident'. It deserves better than it has had so far.
helpful•145
- didi-5
- Dec 1, 2003
- How long is The Birthday Party?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party
- Filming locations
- 7 Eriswell Road, Worthing, West Sussex, England, UK(The boarding house)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime2 hours 3 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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