''Otley'' is a 1968 British

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

, starring

Tom Courtenay Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay (; born 25 February 1937) is an English actor. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Courtenay achieved prominence in the 1960s with a series of acclaimed film roles, including ''The Loneliness of t ...

and Romy Schneider. It was adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais from a book by Martin Waddell, and released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

Plot

plays Gerald Arthur "Gerry" Otley, a charming but feckless young drifter who scrapes a living from selling antiques in trendy 1960s London. Gerry's responsibility-free life suddenly takes a serious turn, when he finds himself caught up in a round of murder, espionage and quadruple crossing. He is mistaken for a spy; is kidnapped and detained several times; and becomes romantically involved with a foreign agent ( Romy Schneider) working for British Intelligence.

Cast

.... Gerald Arthur Otley - "Gerry" * Romy Schneider .... Imogen * Alan Badel .... Sir Alec Hadrian * James Villiers .... Hendrickson * Leonard Rossiter .... Johnson * Freddie Jones .... Philip Proudfoot * Fiona Lewis .... Lin * James Bolam .... Albert * James Cossins .... Geffcock * James Maxwell .... Rollo * Edward Hardwicke .... Lambert * Ronald Lacey .... Curtis * Phyllida Law .... Jean * Geoffrey Bayldon .... Inspector Hewett * Frank Middlemass .... Bruce (as Frank Middlemas) *

Barry Fantoni Barry Ernest Fantoni (born 28 February 1940) is a British author, cartoonist and jazz musician of Italian and Jewish descent, most famous for his work with the magazine ''Private Eye'', for whom he also created Neasden F.C. He has also published ...

.... Larry

Production

The exterior action takes place in a number of recognisable London locations: the area around Portobello Road street market in Notting Hill; a

houseboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. Ho ...

colony near Cheyne Walk in Chelsea;

Bowater House Bowater House was a 17-floor office block at 68 Knightsbridge in London SW1, completed in 1958. The building occupied a site between Knightsbridge and South Carriage Road, at the southern edge of Hyde Park. It was demolished in 2006 and redevel ...

in Knightsbridge; the

Playboy Club The Playboy Club was initially a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago in 1960. Each club generally featured a Living Room, a Playmate Bar, a Dining Room, and a Club R ...

Park Lane Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from ...

; and the old

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

milk depot in Wood Lane. A wide range of period British vehicles is featured: Otley drives an

E-Type Jaguar The Jaguar E-Type, or the Jaguar XK-E for the North American market, is a British sports car that was manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1961 and 1974. Its combination of beauty, high performance, and competitive pricing established the m ...

, a Ford Anglia and an early 1960s passenger coach, and his disastrous driving test, which turns into an epic car chase, involves a driving-school Vauxhall Viva and a Ford Zephyr. The film, whose interiors were shot at

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused ...

, marked the directorial debut of Dick Clement. He and Ian La Frenais, famous at the time for writing '' The Likely Lads'', wrote the script.

Don Partridge Donald Eric Partridge (27 October 1941 – 21 September 2010)Report of death< ...

co-wrote and performed the title music, "Homeless Bones", which was also released as the B-side of his single "Colour My World" (1969).

Awards

The film in 1970 won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award as ''Best British Comedy Screenplay''.

Reception

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "Like Otley, the movie is a bad risk. Everything in it is borrowed and badly used—actors (Tom Courtenay, Alan Badel), situations (the triumph of the fraudulent fool) and even settings, including a rather handsome Thames houseboat that reminded me wistfully of '

The Horse's Mouth ''The Horse's Mouth'' is a 1944 novel by Anglo-Irish writer Joyce Cary, the third in his ''First Trilogy'', whose first two books are ''Herself Surprised'' (1941) and ''To Be A Pilgrim'' (1942). ''The Horse's Mouth'' follows the adventures of ...

.' 'Otley' is the kind of movie that allows you to think about other movies, in those great gaps of time between the setting up of a gag and the moment when it is ritualistically executed."

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' wrote that the film was so boring it "could put Sominex out of business" and admitted to walking out on it, reporting, "I took the CTA to see 'Otley' at the Coronet theater in Evanston. The film began at 6:15 p. m. I returned home on the 7 p. m. train." '' Variety'' wrote that "the film has an uneasy lack of a point of view and fails to focus viewer's attention on any particular character or plotline philosophy. The frantic, intentionally incoherent episodes are sometimes amusing, but too often suffer from unoriginality."

Judith Crist Judith Crist (; May 22, 1922 – August 7, 2012) was an American film critic and academic. She appeared regularly on the '' Today'' show from 1964 to 1973 Martin, Douglas (August 8, 2012)"Judith Crist, Zinging and Influential Film Critic, ...

described it as "a bright, breezy, light-handed but never lightheaded spies-and-counterspies story".Crist, Judith. ''This Week's Movies''. TV Guide, North Carolina Edition, 9–15 December 1972, pg A-4 Jack Ibberson of '' The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was also positive, calling it a "vastly entertaining comedy-thriller" with "uniformly excellent" performances.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Otley (Film) 1969 films British comedy thriller films British spy comedy films Columbia Pictures films Films set in London Films shot in London 1960s comedy thriller films 1960s spy comedy films Films scored by Stanley Myers Films with screenplays by Dick Clement Films directed by Dick Clement Films with screenplays by Ian La Frenais 1969 comedy films 1960s English-language films 1960s British films