Product Details

• Format: Import, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: FOX
• DVD Release Date: September 11, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000646L4Y
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,791 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Winner* of four Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, and featuring a cast of superbplayers (Boxoffice) headed by the Oscar®-nominated** Albert Finney and Susannah York, this wickedly funny classic has been hailed as 'the best comedy ever made (Newsweek)! No one has ever lived as freely and carelessly as Tom Jones. Abandoned at birth and raised by a wealthy squire, Tom romps through English society leading a lusty life of brawling and bed-hopping until his bawdy behavior causes him to be sent away from his family, his home and the only womanhe's ever truly loved. But some men never learn, and soon Tom's escapades land him in the company of reckless scoundrels, the boudoirs of more women and, finally, in jail. Will Tom's charm save him or will the gallows be his last swing? *1963: Director, Adapted Screenplay, Music **Finney: Actor, Tom Jones (1963); Murder on the Orient Express (1974); The Dresser (1983); Under the Volcano (1984); York: Supporting Actress, They Shoot Horses, don't They? (1969)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of All Bawdy Romps and Period Pieces, February 28, 2008

By 

Alastair N. Mcleod (San Diego, California) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tom Jones (1963) (DVD)

Astonishing to find this wonderful work unreviewed on Amazon. It belongs to that tiny aristocracy of 'perfect' films, which include, to take a few random examples, The Sting (Redford and Newman), A Man for All Seasons (Scofield and York), Chinatown (Nicholson and Dunaway), and Deliverance (Voight and Reynolds). Such films entertain us deeply because they are executed with originality, sincerity, and a very strong story-telling sense. They have powerful casts, richly rendered settings, and satisfying attention to detail. One cannot imagine how any of them could have been made differently or better. Tom Jones is based of course on Henry Fielding's 1750 History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, and runs true to Fielding's impatience and amusement with hypocrisy and his delight in matters romantic, sexual, and improper. One cannot but love the impossible Mr. Jones; one cannot fail to cheer when his respectable enemies are confounded by their own pieties. When Tom misbehaves, one feels only a wistful joy: "If only I could sin so innocently and so well!"

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Poor Visual Quality, January 13, 2009

By 

Steve Dossey (Somewhere just beyond or before the crossroads) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tom Jones (1963) (DVD)

The visual quality of this DVD is grainy, murky, scratched and wanting....
The video I have of this is far superior.....its a great movie but this DVD transfer is very poor...and detracts from the greatness of the movie...

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Raucus, Raunchy, and Rollicking 18th Century Romp, December 26, 2009

By 

Deborah Earle (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tom Jones (1963) (DVD)

Director Tony Richardson presented this Oscar winner for Best Picture of 1963.
To the accompaniment of a harpsicord, and Michael MacLiammoir's narration, Henry Fielding's literary libertine with a heart of gold, so buoyantly played by Albert Finney, comes to life.
First introduced as a foundling infant, placed in the bed of one Squire Allworthy(George Devine)whose servants Jenny Jones and Partridge( Joyce Redman, Jack MacGowran) are established as the child's unwed parents, and banished from the estate, he is raised as Allworthy's ward, and comes of age under the supervison of Parson Supple(James Cairncross), the tutor Mr. Thwackum(Peter Bull)--whose surname removes any doubts about his feelings on corporal punishment--and Allworthy's sister, Bridget( Rachel Kempson), whose pimply-faced and falsely pious son Blifil(David Warner) will prove to be Tom's nemesis.
Tom has a fling with the disreputable Molly Seagrim(Diane Cilento), who after appearing in church heavily pregnant and unwed, is attacked by the women of the congregation, only to be rescued by Tom.
Tom's real love, however, is Sophie Western(a light, lively,and comical Susannah York), the daughter of a gluttonous and rather dissolute Squire(Hugh Griffith), who also lives with his sister( Dame Edith Evans).
The young couple's romance blossoms despite the disapproval of Squire and Miss Western, who would prefer that Sophie marry Blifil, whom she despises.
We follow the characters on sumptuously portrayed venison hunt, during which Tom injures himself while rescuing Sophie while she's on a runaway horse. Taken to the Western's estate for recovery, their feelings deepen as Sophie nurses Tom back to health.
Tragedy ensues when Allworthy and his sister are in a carriage accident, which proves fatal for Bridget.In its aftermath, Blifil, the Parson, and Thwackum report to Allworthy that Tom's debauchery went to excesses during Allworthy's recouperation, and Tom is banished from the estate.
It is then that his true adventure begins. Among the many memorable characters he meets as he traipses about the England of the 1740s are, a band of redcoats en route to fight for the Protestant cause, Avis Bunange's landlady, Lynn Redgrave's Susan,Angela Baddeley's Mrs. Wilkin's,Rosalind Knight's Mrs. Fitzpatrick, her husband, Mr. Fitzpatrick(George A. Cooper),David Tomlinson's Lord Fellamar, who tries to rape a runaway Sophie, and the velvet-voiced siren, Lady Bellaston(Joan Greenwood). We watch our hero mingle with all elements of English society, having many comical moments in a film that could be a painting by William Hogarth brought to life(one thinks especially along the lines of" A Rake's Progress"), as he once again encounters both Partridge an Jenny Jones, having a more treacherous encounter that may lead him to the gallows before this story reaches its conclusion, and the truth about Tom's parentage established.
Audiences have enjoyed the dizzying array of activity by a highly flawed character with whom they may come to empathize. Captured with realistically styled cinematography, and with both of the baseness and splendor of the time and place, "Tom Jones" reaches beyond the confines of its period and still continues to delight.