Tony Richardsons The Entertainer (1960), starring Laurence Olivier in one of his defining performances, is a bleak British New Wave drama about an aging music-hall performer whose career and family life crumble amid postwar decline. Adapted from John Osbornes landmark play, it captures the disillusionment and class tensions of late-1950s Britain, blending Psychological Drama, Social Commentary, and Kitchen-Sink Realism into a vivid portrait of fading glory.

Laurence Olivier plays Archie Rice, a mediocre music hall artist upholding a dying tradition in an English seaside town. Tony Richardson originally directed Laurence Olivier as Rice in the Royal Courts theatre production, and did so again in this, his second feature. The seedy world which Archie Rice occupies could be seen to represent the general malaise of post-war Britain, previously explored by writer John Osborne in his play Look Back in Anger, adapted for the screen by Nigel Kneale in 1959. Kneale subsequently went on to co-write The Entertainer with Osborne.

Olivier is supported by a superb cast including a young Alan Bates as his son, Roger Livesey as his kindly, now retired, always more talented and popular father, and Joan Plowright as his daughter. The remarkable cast also features Daniel Massey, Shirley Anne Field, Thora Hird and Charles Gray. Oliviers portrayal of a man coming undone at the seams and revealing the emptiness inside, is a revelation. It changed the publics perception of him, introducing him to a new younger audience, and garnered him yet another Oscar nomination.

Från IMDB:
Archie Rice, an old-time British music hall performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.

Special features

George Devine Memorial Play: The Entertainer - Sequences One and Two (1966, 6 mins, 5 mins) David Frost-produced film, directed by Peter Whitehead, capturing a stage performan