untung99.biz: Tom Jones Is the Horniest Best Picture Winner Ever

The Academy Award for Best Picture often goes to a movie that seemed relevant at the time, even if history eventually proved otherwise. This has been the case since the inception of the Oscars’: How Green Was My Valley’s victory over Citizen Kane, Driving Miss Daisy’s win over Born on the Fourth of July (in a year when Do The Right Thing wasn’t even nominated), Crash’s upset over Brokeback Mountain, and The King Speech’s triumph over The Social Network are all more egregious in retrospective. It’s often that a perfectly fine, pleasant film that fits within one of the Academy’s favorite genres takes the prize over something more subversive, leading to some truly baffling films being named “Best Picture.” Does anyone remember Cimarron or Out of Africa with any affinity? That being said, there isn’t a stranger winner than 1963’s Tom Jones, a film that suggests that the Oscars are a lot hornier than they have ever been credited for.

Directed by the legendary Tony Richardson, Tom Jones is an 18th-century period piece set in the upper class of Somerset, Gloucestershire and London. The titular character is born out of a presumed affair between two staffers at a lavish estate, but it’s Squire Allworthy (George Devine) who takes on the responsibility of raising the young boy as his own, and teaching him the etiquette needed to succeed in the socially contentious bureaucratic lifestyle. In the title role of the older Jones is the great Albert Finney, who grows into a successful young bachelor with a romantic appetite that is nearly unquenchable. Tom proceeds to spend the majority of the film schmoozing his way around London, getting into affairs, and even getting caught up in a comical scheme where he’s nearly robbed of his entire fortune. Those expecting a serious character piece similar to Barry Lyndon might be disappointed, because everything in Tom Jones is pretty much played for laughs.

The Oscars have always had a reverence for European period pieces, as Rebecca, Hamlet, and The Bridge on the River Kwai had previously taken home the top prize; however, those films were working with beloved source material or depicting critical true stories that surely were more important than watching a haughty English guy seduce women. While the Academy had tended to award some comedies that seemed “elevated” in one way or another, such as The Apartment, Gigi, An American in Paris, Going My Way, and You Can’t Take It With You, they all had an aesthetic or technical mastery that Tom Jones clearly lacked. It’s a truly strange decision, as Tom Jones has yet to permeate the culture in the same way that some of its contemporaries did. That being said, anyone interested in the soap opera-esque adventures of an 18th-century charmer might find Tom Jones to be a fairly enjoyable sex romp.

Albert Finney’s Performance Is Delightful

If there’s any reason to invest in Tom Jones, since the actual plot is relatively superfluous, it’s for the lead performance at its center. Finney is one of the most beloved actors of all time, and while he hardly shows the same level of depth and nuance he had in Murder on the Orient Express or Erin Brockovich, he does show off his versatility in a very challenging role. The personal and petty indulgences of a wealthy British man would have been difficult to get emotionally invested in back in the 1960s, and it’s not like they would have aged well at all. However, there’s a boyish charm that Finney has that makes Tom interesting; he’s an oaf in the more formal settings, and his amusing ploys somehow seem to mock the faux seriousness and etiquette with which the rest of the upper class seems to prize.

There’s also a sincerity to Tom’s pursuit of his neighbor Sophie Western (Susannah York); while Tom is a bit of a prankster, he’s never cruel, and it’s his kind-hearted nature that makes his relationship with Sophie so endearing, even if it feels a little simplistic to be named Best Picture. It’s a classic case of forbidden love, as Sophie’s father Squire Western (Hugh Griffith) would prefer her to wed a more educated young man who would satisfy their family’s business arrangements.

As a result, Tom’s quest to win over Sophie feels somewhat noble, and the attempts to steal his fortune become more than a battle over monetary rewards. It feels like the system itself is rejecting Tom because of his soft-hearted nature; the attempts to take away his money are made to discredit him so that he can’t be a part of the elite class. Finney is endearing enough, and while the stakes get slightly more serious later on when he’s pinned for murder, it never goes beyond a series of comic misunderstandings.

The Other Films Of 1963

Tom Jones was even a strange Best Picture at the time. Competing against it was John Ford’s historical magnum opus How The West Was Won, the cultural breakthrough of Sydney Poitier’s work in Lilies on the Field, the infamously troubled production of Cleopatra, and Elia Kazan’s riveting masterpiece America America. Even beyond Tom Jones’ official competition in the category, other films of the same year such as From Russia, With Love, Bye Bye Birdie, The Great Escape, Charade, Hud, and particularly Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ (an all-time favorite of Roger Ebert) have all left more prominent legacies. It’s also strange considering that this was in the same decade that the Oscars gave Best Picture to all-time classics like Lawrence of Arabia, West Side Story, In The Heat of the Night, The Sound of Music, and the groundbreaking X-Rated Midnight Cowboy.

Tom Jones is certainly watchable, and compared to some truly dull Best Picture winners like A Man For All Seasons or Around The World in 80 Days, it may provide some entertainment value if not for Finney’s work and the terrific set design alone. That being said, anyone claiming that Everything Everywhere All At Once is the horniest Best Picture winner of all-time is incorrect; Everything Everywhere All At Once may have had “hot dog fingers,” but it doesn’t Albert Finney in the world’s fanciest white linens.