Directed by:
John SchlesingerCinematography:
Denys N. CoopComposer:
Richard Rodney BennettCast:
Tom Courtenay, Helen Fraser, Wilfred Pickles, Julie Christie, Gwendolyn Watts, Mona Washbourne, Ethel Griffies, Leonard Rossiter, Finlay Currie, Rodney Bewes (more)Plots(1)
The era of the British New Wave came of age with John Schlesinger’s comedy, one of the enduring films from the movement that crucially combines humour and literary pedigree with its ‘kitchen sink’ realism. Tom Courtenay is Billy, an undertaker’s clerk with an overactive imagination who’s often lost in a world of Walter Mitty-esque fantasies. Julie Christie is the glamorous girlfriend who urges him to act on his dreams and leave dreary Yorkshire for a new life in London. Schlesinger’s affectionate portrait of an archetypal British character - the loveable loser unable to transcend his provincial life - is a key British film of the 1960s and was voted 76th in a BFI poll of the 100 best British films. (British Film Institute (BFI))
(more)Cast
Tom Courtenay
UK
Best movies:
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The Dresser (1983)
King Rat (1965)
Helen Fraser
UK
Best movies:
Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988)
A Kind of Loving (1962)
Repulsion (1965)
Wilfred Pickles
UK
Best movies:
Billy Liar (1963)
Julie Christie
Best movies:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
A Long Way from Home: Dadah Is Death (1988) (TV movie)
Gwendolyn Watts
UK
Best movies:
Billy Liar (1963)
The Wrong Box (1966)
Fanatic (1965)
Mona Washbourne
UK
Best movies:
My Fair Lady (1964)
O Lucky Man! (1973)
The Million Pound Note (1954)
Ethel Griffies
UK
Best movies:
Waterloo Bridge (1940)
The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
Leonard Rossiter
UK
Best movies:
Barry Lyndon (1975)
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
King Rat (1965)
Finlay Currie
UK
Best movies:
Ben-Hur (1959)
Great Expectations (1946)
Cleopatra (1963)
Rodney Bewes
UK
Best movies:
The Three Musketeers (1973)
Billy Liar (1963)
Jabberwocky (1977)
Patrick Barr
India
Best movies:
The Longest Day (1962)
The First Great Train Robbery (1978)
The Dam Busters (1955)
Neville Smith
UK
Best movies:
Billy Liar (1963)
Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
Wish You Were Here (1987)
Moira Foot
UK
Best movies:
Billy Liar (1963)
Anna Wing
UK
Best movies:
Providence (1977)
Billy Liar (1963)
A Doll's House (1973)
Harry Landis
UK
Best movies:
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
The Longest Day (1962)
Billy Liar (1963)
Ernest Clark
UK
Best movies:
Gandhi (1982)
A Stitch in Time (1963)
The Dam Busters (1955)
John Tordoff
Best movies:
Jesus of Nazareth (1977) (TV movie)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Sharpe's Siege (1996) (TV movie)
George Innes
UK
Best movies:
Shogun (1980) (series)
Stardust (2007)
The Medusa Touch (1978)
Jack Cunningham
UK
Best movies:
Dial M for Murder (1954)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Billy Liar (1963)
Jim O'Brady
UK
Best movies:
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
From Russia with Love (1963)