Otley (film)

[1]

Otley
British theatrical poster
Directed by Dick Clement
Produced by Bruce Cohn Curtis
Written by Ian La Frenais
Dick Clement
Based on the novel Otley by Martin Waddell
Starring Tom Courtenay
Romy Schneider
Music by Stanley Myers
Cinematography Austin Dempster
Edited by Richard Best
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
 March 11, 1969
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Otley is a 1968 British comedy thriller film, starring Tom Courtenay and Romy Schneider.[2] It was adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais from a book by Martin Waddell, and released by Columbia Pictures.[3] Film critic Judith Crist described it as "a bright, breezy, light-handed but never lightheaded spies-and-counterspies story".[4]

Outline

Tom Courtenay 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.

The exterior action takes place in a number of recognisable London locations: the area around Portobello Road street market in Notting Hill; a houseboat colony near Cheyne Walk in Chelsea; Bowater House in Knightsbridge; the Playboy Club in Park Lane; and the old Unilever milk depot in Wood Lane. A wide range of period British vehicles is featured: Otley drives an E-Type Jaguar, 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, 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 co-wrote and performed the title music, "Homeless Bones", which was also released as the B-side of his single "Colour My World" (1969).

Cast

References

  1. ↑ BFI
  2. ↑ "Otley (1968)".
  3. ↑ Gifford, Denis (1 April 2016). "British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film". Routledge – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Crist, Judith. This Week's Movies. TV Guide, North Carolina Edition, 9–15 December 1972, pg A-4
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