The Whole World Loves Tom Jones Quiz

Answer: Silent film

"Tom Jones" would adopt a number of comic styles to deliver its message, including having the actors break the "fourth wall" and address the audience directly. Whilst the use of silent film techniques in contemporary films is not new nor unique it doesn't always work. Here, its use is most effective on a number of levels:
- It allows the writers to capture the dumping of the baby Tom, the dismissal of the suspected mother and the adoption of the baby by Squire Allworthy in a brief space of time.
- It provides an avenue to the director to convey a sense of levity to the audience over a scene that could easily have been too serious or, Heaven forbid, maudlin.
- It lets the film literally scream at its audience "prepare yourself to be seriously entertained".

Apart from turning the opening into a black and white film, this sequence has remained true to the silent film era by using such tools as title cards (inter titles) in lieu of sound to convey both dialogue and narrative and, music, particularly the piano and harpsichord, to promote atmosphere and an attitude to not take the film too seriously. In addition to this the actor's use of body language to convey emotion was deliberately campy and overdone and the projection speed was also varied.

Answer: Diane Cilento

In this scene we are instantly shown that Tom is a rogue but, at least, a good natured one. He is seduced (easily I might add) by Molly but then decorum sees the scene cut and we are introduced to his other passion, hunting. On this occasion it is for pheasant with Molly's father Black George.

Molly's less than tight morals are not enjoyed by the other women in the community and this leads to conflict. Molly is derided, spat upon by the women and has to defend herself physically when a "cat-fight" breaks out over her, after a church service. Cilento's performance as the delicious but wanton Molly earned her a deserving nomination at the Oscars for Best Supporting Actress. Two of her co-stars (mentioned above), Edith Evans, who plays Sophie's intrepid aunt, and Joyce Redman, in the roles of Jenny Jones, a lady of (let's say) easy virtue and Tom's supposed mother and Mrs Waters, the woman who seduces Tom at the Upton Inn, also received the same nomination. This was the first time in the annals of the Academy's history that a film would provide three nominees for the same acting category. Unfortunately all three missed out on the award which went to another Englishwoman, Dame Margaret Rutherford, for her role as the Duchess of Brighton in Anthony Asquith's "The V.I.Ps".

Answer: Tom is a foundling.

Describing Tom as a foundling is a polite way of saying that Tom is an illegitimate child and, as such, he is considered too lowly to marry a woman of Sophie's station. Whilst Squire Allworthy raises Tom as his own son and he does enjoy a life of some privilege the foundling status is thrown into his face with regularity. Eventually circumstances, based on half-truths, are contrived to see Tom dismissed from the household. Endowed with a legacy from his step-father he sets off for London to make his fortune with a view to raise himself sufficiently to be able to marry Sophie.

Answer: Deer

Walter Lassally's cinematography here is brilliant, displaying the raw beauty of an English countryside while capturing the rabid heat and frenzy of the hunt. This scene is particularly brutal, witnessing the horde of hunters complete with its pack of baying hounds descending upon the unfortunate deer. Director Richardson doesn't hold back as he manages to counterpoint the boorish but festive air of the occasion with the whipping and spurring of horses, blood on their flanks, falling riders, trampled creatures and the ultimate display of the "bloody" trophy.

Whilst this scene is not central to the plot it is vital in setting the atmosphere for the film. In a single breath the scene is both passionate and violent, a celebration and an indictment of the hunt and, within this hypocrisy, we see our hero, like everybody else, caught up in its fever.

Answer: Knocked unconscious and robbed

Squire Allworthy is forced to dismiss Tom from the household but endows him with a legacy before he departs. Tom is determined to use these funds to make his fortune and lift his station so that he may, one day, be worthy to wed the beautiful Sophie. Despite his roguishness he always stood up for those that he believed in and, early into his journey, whilst standing up for the good name of Sophie he is knocked unconscious and relieved of the legacy. Bowed but not beaten he continues on the road to London. In this he is hindered by his vital penchant for the ladies (a nice way of saying that he's randy) and this continues to get him into all sorts of bother. His womanising gets him from one earthy scrape to another salacious misadventure. Breathlessly we watch as he escapes from windows without trousers, is chased through beech forests, over hills and down dales and fights for his life against sword wielding renegades. Along the way he also encounters his alleged mother, who now goes by the name of Mrs Waters, and rescues her from an evil redcoat.

All of the other scenes mentioned above were adopted from the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

Answer: The consumption of a large meal

Three minutes of wordless eating - three minutes in which their eating habits are metaphors of sexual innuendo steadily building to a climax. For three whole minutes you know what is going to happen but for that entire passage of time it's as if your fork has stopped halfway to your mouth, for you do not wish to miss a single titillating second of this delicious foreplay unfolding before you. For three minutes Tom and Mrs Waters are slurping through soup, swallowing oysters, gnawing on bones of roasted meat and chewing on nuts while all the while they're eating each other with their eyes while you, the viewer, can only salivate with antici... pation!

This little scene relegates the calorie induced froth eroticism between Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in Adrian Lyne's "9½ Weeks" (1986) to nothing more than B-Movie shenanigans, but, a hint for prospective Romeos - don't try this stunt on Valentine's Day. How our stars managed to consummate their lust after a meal like that is beyond me. It is said that the filming of this scene took over three hours and that the actors felt the effects of all that food for days afterwards.

Answer: John Osborne

It was no surprise to see John Osborne's name as the scriptwriter to a Tony Richardson film. Their association goes back to 1954 when Richardson and George Devine received a copy of Osborne's semi autobiographical "Look Back in Anger". At the time Osborne was a 27 year old struggling actor and had been untried as a playwright. Together the pair would manage a film company called Woodfall Films and a number of its productions were adaptations of Osborne's work. Notable amongst these were a film version of "Look Back in Anger" (1959), "The Entertainer" (1960) and the above-named "Tom Jones".

"Tom Jones" is an adaptation of a bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) written by Henry Fielding in 1749 and entitled "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling". Osborne was drawn to the work by the story's "quintessential Englishness" and the romantic fable it expressed about the time when "men were men and women were women". He managed to instill this exuberance into Tom in the initial drafts of the script, however, this was toned down in the direction by Richardson and a degree of passiveness was introduced to the character. A good example is that in both Fielding's work and Osborne's drafts the sexual initiative sat with our protagonist but in the film this is passed onto the women. So, rather than "making the play" it is Tom (to coin an Americanism) who "gets laid".

Osborne's adaptation of Fielding's eighteen book work into a two hour screenplay was no mean feat but the effort was worth it as it earned him an Academy Award the following year for writing.

Answer: Albert Finney

Tom Jones was a man who would chase anything that wore a skirt. Boisterous and bawdy he was also good natured and kind of heart. Yet, despite all his womanizing, his thoughts were never far away from his "true love", the ever innocent Sophie Western.

The choice of Finney to portray Tom is almost an inspired one. With his rich, smooth voice, smouldering good looks and his mischievous smile it is not difficult to believe that he could enjoy a wide array of girlfriends. The selection, however, was by no means accidental for Finney had previously worked with the director, Tony Richardson, on a number of stage plays and had also made his film debut in Richardson's 1960 drama "The Entertainer". "Tom Jones" would make Finney a star and earn him the first of his four nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actor. On this occasion he would miss the honour which went to Sidney Poitier for his work as Homer Smith in "Lilies of the Field".

Answer: They're cousins.

Without giving away a key element of this story, Blifil is the son of Squire Allworth's widowed sister, Bridget and the man who Sophie is being coerced into marrying by her own father. Sophie, however, detests Blifil and for very good reason. Whilst Blifil appears to be outwardly pious he's really a cold-hearted and vengeful little so-and-so, who contrives to have Tom, initially, evicted from his home and, eventually, framed for a crime that will send him to the gallows. He also intercepts and withholds information that would reveal Tom's true parentage for his own personal gain.

The role of Blifil marked the film debut for English character actor David Warner who would go on to make a name for himself playing a range of villainous characters, including Jack the Ripper in Nicholas Meyer's 1979 time travel thriller "Time After Time".

Answer: Susannah York

Upon her death the British national daily newspaper, "The Telegraph", described York as "the blue-eyed English rose with the china-white skin and cupid lips who epitomized the sensuality of the Swinging Sixties". A rather apt description for a woman of rare beauty who refused to be typecast, spoke her mind and would receive an Academy Award nomination for her work in the 1969 Sydney Pollack drama "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

York had refused the role of Sophie on three occasions and had only agreed to the venture out of guilt - apparently a meal she'd prepared for director Tony Richardson had turned out to be nothing short of a disaster. In this film where the female characters were given an astonishing amount of sexual agency York's Sophie stands as a paragon of virtue. She is prissy and almost virginal. Yet, whilst she disapproves of Tom's wanton ways, she proves to be like all the other ladies and loves the young rascal. So much so that she rejects the advances of all her other suitors and sneaks away from the family home to pursue Tom all the way to London.