Johnnie Byrne is a member of the British Parliament. In his 40s, he's feeling frustrated with his life and his personal as well as professional problems tower up over him. His desires to win the next election are endangered by his constant looking for love and he is faced with the choice of giving up a career in politics or giving up the woman he loves.
Peter Finch Stanley Holloway Mary Peach Donald Pleasence Billie Whitelaw Hugh Burden Rosalie Crutchley Dennis Price Mervyn Johns Michael Goodliffe Geoffrey Keen Paul Rogers Peter Barkworth Fenella Fielding Derek Francis Gladys Henson Conrad Phillips Maureen Pryor George Rose Peter Sallis Oliver Reed John Arnatt Donald Churchill Norman Rossington
Eri tu l'amore, O Suplício de Tua Ausência
UK
UK
A Timeless Tale of Poison Politics
An honest politician is almost a contradiction in terms. Contemporary politics has jaded and disillusioned a once willing and engaged electorate. But thanks to careerist and opportunists like Johnnie, we have fractious governments with more infighting than a hungry pack of rats.
The humble servants of the people are unseen because their desire is to serve rather than be seen. It’s the boys at the top who have no intention of serving anyone but their ego and their legacy. It’s the unmitigated bastards who wield the knife and get the biggest cut of the pie.
There’s no love for the Johnnies of then and now, but there’s no shortage of power. We have the true power to hold our elected officials accountable and place our votes where it counts!
Ralph Thomas' No Love for Johnnie reminded me of Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut; it has a similar up-then-down diptych structure, where Johnnie goes through a series of encounters and then goes through them again. And almost all of them are about sex. No Love for Johnnie is the story of a Labour MP, Johnnie Byrne, who has just been re-elected, with an increased majority, but is offered nothing in the government; his more radical wife has left him, while his neighbour, Billie Whitelaw, makes it clear she is interested in him, but Johnnie meets young student model, Mary Peach. The film unravels and then re-ravels.
Johnnie Byrne is played by Peter Finch. Finch excels as Byrne, the Labour MP…
A dryly incisive look at a politician's political and personal mid-life crisis. Though I wouldn't say I was as consistently engaged as the best films of this ilk, and found the ending a tad bit unsatisfactory, overall I did find its look at the protagonist's burnt-out disillusionment with his work, the wavering pursuit of sexual affairs, and the hypocrisies of politicians intriguing. Straightforward, with a solid ensemble, and led by what is of course the highlight, Peter Finch's BAFTA-winning turn as Johnnie, using that unique off-beat charisma of his to craft another compelling turn.
Peter Finch is slyly charming and convincing as a checked-out politician; a man who has stopped turning up for his work, his marriage, who meanders through events; who leans on but doesn't support the women in his life (wife, neighbour, girlfriend); who has no great moral drive, interest in the people he represents, or sense of obligation to them; who trades on his working class roots but has purposefully shed his Yorkshire accent; who has filed himself off into a disaffected blank suit, then feels the self-pity of the title.
I enjoyed the ambiguity, the well-defined female characters, and the lack of a neat resolution. Dennis Price is also good fun in a small role as a caustic, gossipy ad-photographer…
One of the ‘allowed’ films from the Box-Thomas production stable, whereby Rank would permit a more personal project from its most commercial production team in exchange for making another popular film as trade-off - meaning either Doctor in Love or A Pair of Briefs paid for this. Not that it’s searingly serious or anything other than mainstream, it just doesn’t feature Donald Sinden in a sports jacket.
Perhaps a ‘Big L’ Labour subject matter from the ‘small c’ conservative Rank Organisation might seem an odd choice but it’s not a flattering portrait of the man or his party, and is in any case more accurately an even smaller toe tipped in the then-current kitchen sink (ahead of the all out,…
NO LOVE FOR JOHNNIE (1961) UK, blk/white, 106m.
Directed by Ralph Thomas.
Centered round a shifty and self-serving member of the British parlament, elected as right-wing Labour candidate. He is self-centered and prone to turn his coat to his own interest, ignorant to other peoples feelings, with an open eye for other women than his wife and liable to change his mind without warning, admirably played by Peter Finch.
This film is not a loveletter to politicians.
Even so it seems to be much worse in real life, at least nowadays.
The supporting cast has many good names:
Stanley Holloway, Billie Whitelaw, Donald Pleasence, Rosalie Crutchley, Mervyn Johns, Mary Peach, Dennis Price, Peter Barkwith, Fenella Fielding.
I spotted Norman Rossington…
An example of great potential that isn't realized all that well, though not poorly either. It is a film that is consistently fine, to the point that it is detrimental. We never dive deep enough into the politics, the personal loneliness of the man, or the conflict between political ambition and personal life. We just sort of glance over it all, so the politics are never that engaging and the personal life is never that moving. It's not bad but it's just isn't all that good either.
Also if young Billie Whitelaw lives upstairs, and is into you, you go upstairs you fool!
In the expansive tapestry of British cinema, No Love for Johnnie, directed by Ralph Thomas, stands out not for the heights it reaches but for the depths it fails to explore. This adaptation of Wilfred Fienburgh's novel, intended as a gritty portrayal of the disillusionment within the political sphere, centres around Johnnie Byrne (played by Peter Finch), a Labour MP grappling with the incongruities between his personal ambitions and professional ethics. The film's foremost asset is undoubtedly Peter Finch, whose portrayal of Johnnie Byrne is both nuanced and compelling. Finch adeptly navigates the complex emotional landscape of a man caught in the throes of political and personal turmoil. However, even Finch's performance cannot salvage the narrative from its disjointed pacing…
"No Love for Johnnie" is that rarest of beasts, a film about British politics and, more over, a highly intelligent one though perhaps the biggest surprise is that this first-rate film came from the Betty Box/Ralph Thomas stable. This producer/director team were hardly noted for good, serious movie-making but they hit pay dirt here. Peter Finch is outstanding, (he won both a BAFTA and a Best Actor at Berlin), as the highly ambitious Labour MP whose extramarital affair could be his downfall though this isn't so much a film about sex and scandal as it is about the cut and thrust of British politics. Consequently it's a lot less melodramatic than it might have been. Finch dominates, (he's hardly ever…
Cult Of Personality 2020 (6/53)
6. Fanella Fielding
Fielding is only a very small part in this. Only seen in her in Carry on Screaming previously, there's no mistaking that voice though.
I was more interested in the cynical look at Macmillian-era politics than the main character's love life, but Finch is still very good in the lead.
It belongs firmly in that Kingsley Amis school of sex-centric grumpy old men from the late 50s, early 60s, but this attempt by Ralph Thomas to make something more grown up than his Doctor films with Dirk Bogarde never quite gets the balance right between kitchen sink drama, sex comedy or political thriller and falls uncomfortably between all of these various stools.
Full of lovely cameos from the likes of Billie Whitelaw, Stanley Holloway, Donald Pleasance, Fenella Fielding, Denis Price, Peter Sallis and even Oliver Reed in his seminal "man with a bucket on his head at party" role.
