The Homecoming *** (1973, Paul Rogers, Cyril Cusack, Ian Holm, Michael Jayston, Vivien Merchant, Terence Rigby – Classic Movie Review 12,537

Peter Hall adapts Harold Pinter’s Tony Award-winning play for his valuable 1973 drama film The Homecoming, based on Pinter’s own screenplay and with most of the original 1965 Royal Shakespeare Company cast.

Director Peter Hall adapts Harold Pinter’s Tony Award-winning play for his 1973 British-American drama film The Homecoming in the American Film Theatre series produced by Ely Landau, who presented 13 film adaptations of plays in the US from 1973 to 1975.

Family tensions abound in a London home when prodigal son Teddy (Michael Jayston) returns with his wife Ruth (Vivien Merchant) to greet his retired butcher father Max (Paul Rogers) and siblings Lenny, Teddy and Joey (Ian Holm, Michael Jayston, Terence Rigby).

The Homecoming is a very valuable filmed record of Pinter’s esteemed play in the American Film Theatre series, and it is quite a treat for stay-at-home theatre-lovers. The fine play and the esteemed players come vividly to life under Hall’s nimble and nuanced direction.

The rather awesome cast are Paul Rogers as Max (father of Lenny, Teddy and Joey), Ian Holm as Lenny, Cyril Cusack as Sam (brother of Max), Terence Rigby as Joey, Michael Jayston as Teddy, and Vivien Merchant as Ruth.

The film is based on Pinter’s own screenplay and features most of the original 1965 Royal Shakespeare Company cast, though Cyril Cusack and Michael Jayston replace John Normington and Michael Bryant. It was part of the two-season subscription series American Film Theatre in the US. It is available on DVD distributed by Kino Lorber.

It was released on 29 October 1973 in the US.

it runs 111 minutes.

Ely Landau (January 20, 1920 – November 4, 1993) had a passion for adapting theatrical productions to film, and is also remembered for producing films of plays in the American Film Theatre series. They include A Delicate Balance (1973), The Homecoming (1973), Butley (1974), The Iceman Cometh (1974), Lost in the Stars (1974), Luther (1974), Rhinoceros (1974), Galileo (1975), In Celebration (1975), The Maids (1975), and The Man in the Glass Booth (1975).

Harold Pinter’s two-act play The Homecoming was written in 1964 and published in 1965. Its London (1965) and New York (1967) premières were both directed by Sir Peter Hall.

In London, the play opened on 3 June 1965 at the Aldwych Theatre, with Paul Rogers (Max), Ian Holm (Lenny), John Normington (Sam), Terence Rigby (Joey), Michael Bryant (Teddy), and Vivien Merchant (Ruth).

The 1967 Broadway production won four Tony Awards: the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Paul Rogers), the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (Ian Holm), the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (Peter Hall), and the Tony Award for Best Play (Alexander H Cohen, producer).

Pinter wrote the play in six weeks in 1964 at his home in the Sussex coastal town of Worthing. He later remarked that ‘it kind of wrote itself’.

Vivien Merchant married Harold Pinter in 1956 and performed in many of his plays. In 1975, he began a serious affair with the historian Lady Antonia Fraser. Suffering from depression and alcoholism, Merchant died in 1982, two years after her divorce from Pinter.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,537

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