A Taste of Honey
UK release window card
Directed byTony Richardson
Screenplay byShelagh Delaney
Tony Richardson
Based onA Taste of Honey
by Shelagh Delaney
Produced byTony Richardson
StarringRita Tushingham
Dora Bryan
Robert Stephens
Murray Melvin
Paul Danquah
CinematographyWalter Lassally
Edited byAntony Gibbs
Music byJohn Addison
Production
company
Distributed byBritish Lion Films
Release date
  • 14 September 1961 (1961-09-14)
[1]
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Budget£121,602[2][3][4][5]

A Taste of Honey is a 1961 British drama film directed by Tony Richardson. It is an adaptation of the 1958 play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney. Delaney wrote the screenplay with Richardson, who directed the original Broadway production of the play in 1960. The film is an exemplar of a gritty genre of British film that has come to be called kitchen sink realism.

Plot

In a run-down, post-industrial area of Salford, 17-year-old Josephine, who goes by "Jo", struggles through an outdoor game of netball in gym class at her all-girls school. When she gets home, she hears her self-centred mother, Helen, arguing with their landlady, who is upset about overdue rent and Helen's frequent gentlemen visitors. Once the landlady leaves, Jo and Helen sneak out the window and move across town on a bus, which is apparently not a unique occurrence for the pair.[6]

When Jo and Helen arrive at their shabby new flat, Jimmy, a young black sailor, sees Jo struggling with her suitcases and comes to her aid. Later that evening, Helen brings her new boyfriend, Peter Smith, home after a night in the pub, but their romance is curtailed when Jo's presence alerts Peter to the fact that Helen is a mother. Helen and Jo go to sleep in the bed they share.

After being kept after class for mocking her teacher, Jo trips and scrapes her knee as she is walking home. She limps past the Manchester Ship Canal, where Jimmy happens to be disembarking the ship on which he works as a cook, and he invites her aboard to attend to her knee. They begin a brief courtship, and Jimmy gives Jo an engagement ring that she wears on a ribbon around her neck.

Jo tags along with Helen and Peter on a weekend trip to Blackpool with a couple of friends. Peter and Jo argue, and Peter gives Helen an ultimatum, saying she must choose between him and her daughter; Helen sends Jo home alone. Jimmy is waiting when Jo arrives in Salford, and they spend the night together. In the morning, he boards his ship and departs, watched by Jo. Helen returns just long enough to pack before leaving to get married and go on a honeymoon, after which she intends to live in a suburban bungalow with Peter.

Left to fend for herself, Jo leaves school, gets a job in a shoe shop, and moves into an old workshop. She meets Geoffrey Ingham, a gay textile design student, and, after learning he has been thrown out of his lodgings, invites him to live with her.[7] With Geoff's help, Jo makes the workshop feel more like a home.

Jo discovers she is pregnant by Jimmy. Geoff offers to marry her, and she declines, though she does let him take care of her and get materials to help with the pregnancy. After Jo has an outburst during which she says she does not want to be either a mother or a woman, Geoff thinks she might need her mother and tracks down Helen. Helen comes to visit Jo, and they almost immediately have a row. An inebriated Peter, who Helen had told to wait outside, enters and takes back some money Helen offered Jo, and he also claims he will not allow Jo to move into his house, though Jo had already rejected this idea. Before she leaves, Helen offers to come stay with Jo, but Jo again refuses the help. Once alone, Peter gives Helen the same ultimatum as in Blackpool, and, once more, she chooses him over Jo.

On Guy Fawkes Night, with Jo's due date fast approaching, Helen reappears. Her marriage to Peter has fallen apart, and she is intent on moving in with Jo and pushing out Geoff, with whom she has a shouting match. They all realize there is not room in the apartment for both Geoff and Helen, so, although Jo says she would prefer that Geoff stay, he packs his things and quietly leaves while Jo is lying down, as he feels she will need someone with her who has gone through childbirth.

When Jo wakes up, Helen tells her that Geoff has just popped out. Nervously, Jo tells Helen that the baby will be black, and Helen leaves to buy some alcohol. Jo notices Geoff's belongings are gone and finds his goodbye note. She goes outside, but only sees some children with fireworks around a bonfire. From the shadows, Geoff watches Helen return from the off-licence, and then sneaks away unseen. One of the children gives Jo a sparkler.

Cast

Future MP Hazel Blears and her brother Stephen appear as two of the street urchins.

Production

Filming locations

The film was shot on location in Salford, Manchester, and Blackpool, England.

Release

A Taste of Honey opened on 14 September 1961 at the Leicester Square Theatre in London's West End.[8][1]

Box office

The film made a profit of £29,064 for Bryanston Films.[9]

Critical reception

A. H. Weiler of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, stating: "In being transported out of the theatre, this "Honey" has been enriched."[10]

The film was banned in several countries. Tushingham said in 2020 that "A lot of the reaction was 'People like that don’t exist' – by which they meant homosexuals, single mothers and people in mixed-race relationships. But they did."[11]

Awards and honours

At the 15th British Academy Film Awards, A Taste of Honey won in four categories: Best British Film,[12] Best British Screenplay (tied with The Day the Earth Caught Fire,[13] Best British Actress (Dora Bryan),[14] and Most Promising Newcomer (Rita Tushingham).[15] Delaney and Richardson won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain award for Best British Dramatic Screenplay.

Tushingham and Murray Melvin won Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively, at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.[16][17]

Although the film dealt with several topics that were rarely touched upon in Hollywood movies of the time, it won Tushingham a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer (tied with Patty Duke for The Miracle Worker and Sue Lyon for Lolita), and Richardson received a nomination at the 15th Directors Guild of America Awards.

In 1999, A Taste of Honey was ranked 56th on the British Film Institute's list of the top 100 British films of the 20th century.[18]

Home media

The Criterion Collection released a restored 4K digital transfer of the film on Blu-ray and DVD on 23 August 2016.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 "Gala World Premiere (advertisement)". Evening Standard. 12 September 1961. p. 12.
  2. ↑ Alexander Walker, Hollywood, England, Stein and Day, 1974, p. 124.
  3. ↑ Petrie, Duncan James (2017). "Bryanston Films : An Experiment in Cooperative Independent Production and Distribution" (PDF). Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television: 7. ISSN 1465-3451.
  4. ↑ Chapman, L. (2021). “They wanted a bigger, more ambitious film”: Film Finances and the American “Runaways” That Ran Away. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 18(2), 176–197. https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2021.0565
  5. ↑ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 360 gives figure as £120,349
  6. ↑ "A Taste of Honey (1962) - Full Synopsis". Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  7. ↑ "Breaking Barriers: Murray Melvin on A Taste of Honey". Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  8. ↑ "Tony Richardson, John Osborne And Rita Tushingham". Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  9. ↑ Petrie p 9
  10. ↑ Weiler, A. H. (1 May 1962). "Screen: 'A Taste of Honey' Arrives:British Drama Stars Rita Tushingham". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  11. ↑ Stuart Jeffries (28 January 2020). "Rita Tushingham on life after A Taste of Honey: 'It was a shock when the 60s ended'". The Guardian.
  12. ↑ "BAFTA Awards British Film in 1962". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  13. ↑ "BAFTA Awards British Screenplay in 1962". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  14. ↑ "BAFTA Awards British Actress in 1962". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  15. ↑ "BAFTA Awards Most Promising Newcomer To Leading Film Roles 1962". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  16. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: A Taste of Honey". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
  17. ↑ Hodgkinson, Will (15 June 2001). "Stark raving mod". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  18. ↑ "BBC News | Entertainment | Best 100 British films - full list". news.bbc.co.uk.
  19. ↑ "A Taste of Honey". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
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