Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1970)
A woman and her closeted brother meet a man sunbathing on a gravestone and invite him to be their lodger. Their elderly father, however, recognises him as the killer of his old boss. Past sins could be forgiven if he agrees to the siblings' demands.
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A really nice and funny based on good subversive humor. I love it.
this is a generous slice of cinematic black comedy, adapted from Orton's play, concerning the amoral Mr Sloane, who lodges with a far from normal family.Pretty good performances from the four leads, but for me, the standout is Harry Andrews, driving around in that bright pink monstrosity of a car, that apparently used to belong to Syd Barrett (of Pink Floyd).Is it a good film? I dunno really, but it is well worth watching.
ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE is certainly an uneven adaptation of the Joe Orton play, but it does create a few sparks with the performances of BERYL REID as Kath, PETER McENERY as Sloane and HARRY ANDREWS as Ed. The trio is involved in a three-way affair with Mr. Sloane who charms them both with his good looks and apparently bi-sexual leanings.It's certainly not the usual fare one expects to see on screen, even in the '70s when the material was considered quite daring. But the script gives the three principals some rich material to work with and the film now has a cult status with fans of black comedy.Orton is the gay playwright who was killed by his lover who then committed suicide and was dead before this film version of his hit London play was made. Whether he would have approved of some of the changes is debatable, but it still has the power to shock and cause ripples of laughter despite the darkness of the theme.Summing up: As oddball as they come.
I first saw EMr.S as a teenager who had just come out of the closet. As a child I was a fan of '60s horror films (Carradine, Cushing, et.al.) and black comedies (e.g., "No Way to Treat a Lady") and suspense/murder ("Eye of the Cat" or "Wylie", "What Happened to Aunt Alice?", "Daddy's Gone a Hunting", "Who Killed Teddy Bear?"). EMr.S, at least as I remember it after 20 years, combined those genres. The title character, handsome and bi-sexual, added the homo-eroticism that made for a very happy young gay movie fan indeed. It also led me to learn that the Brits were years ahead of Hollywood in the treatment of gay characters in movies, and I now count "Who Killed Sister George?" and "The Leather Boys" as other personal favorites.