kijii At number 76 on the BFI's Top 100, this Criterion DVD is a gem with commentary by three then-living members of the original project: John Schlesinger, Tom Courtenay, and Julie Christie. Set in an industrial North-of-London location, it easily fits among the Kitchen Sink Realism films. In the DVD commentary, Courtenay says that, when released, the film was loved by the Italians and generally ignored by Americans as being an English black-and-white version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The similarity of the daydreaming-hero-of-his-own-imagination is an understandable connection between the two stories. However, this is a far superior as a film—and it is even better than James Thurber's short story--especially if you are able to understand the inside-jokes of the British humor, which we Americans surely didn't.If, like me, you have only seen Tom Courtenay as the stoically determined and grime juvenile delinquent of Tony Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, you will be pleasantly surprised by his wacky humorous side here. Also, even though Julie Christie only makes a brief appearance in this film, it may have represented a breakthrough role for the very successful career that she was to have, including three more joint ventures with John Schlesinger. The title character, Billy Fisher (Tom Courtenay), lives with his parents (Wilfred Pickles and Mona Washbourne) and grandmother (Ethel Griffies) in a boring North England town. He works as a low-level clerk at a funeral home and dreams of being a scriptwriter for a London radio comedian. Thinking that a polite form letter meant that he is hired as the scriptwriter, he is ready to quit his job and strike out on his own in London. However, before leaving, he has a few things to take care of. He has to break up with BOTH of his fiancées—the no nonsense blond, Rita (Gwendolyn Watts), and the sweet and trusting brunet, Barbara (Helen Fraser). Also, he has to explain to his boss why he 'forgot' to send out the funeral parlor's annual calendars as well as what he did with the postage money that he was given to send them out. Billy has a wild imagination and constantly daydreams about being the great leader, hero, inventor, business magnate…or whatever…of his imagined country of Ambrosia, a country where heroes are always losing their right limbs for some reason (?). BUT, in his real life, his job is a bore, his family is a drag, his friends know he is a liar and as he says to Barbara, 'You know I TEND to ex-a-ggerate a bit ..at times' (as he describes their future idyllic life together---with little Billy and little Barbara). One of the many black humor moments of the film is the scene in which he takes Barbara on a quiet date to the cemetery where the two walk around and read the tombstones. He seems to be stuck, dreaming away his boring life, until a Liz (Julie Christie) comes bouncing into town and into his life. Her answers to his dilemmas seem surprisingly simple: 'Billy, if you want to go to London, GO to London.' When Billy asks her if she would like to be his fiancée, she says, 'No, I want to be your wife.' But, before Billy can go anywhere or do anything, he has to overcome his lifelong habits and inertia and make some sort of REAL move? This film wonderfully weaves back and forth between Billy's vivid comical daydreams and his equally comical real life. Both are full of fun, imaginative creation, and roaring entertainment.

SimonJack Having seen and enjoyed "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," the 1947 movie that starred Danny Kaye, I was expecting to enjoy this 1963 British film. But I found nothing to compare favorably in "Billy Liar." Mitty's daydreams were escapist and recharging. Billy's fantasies were purging and led to lies, deceit and delusion.Mitty's daydreams were funny and had an uplifting sense. When he returned to reality, his spirits were lifted from his experience and he seemed genuinely to adjust better with all around him. But Liar's fantasies are outside the realm of daydreams. They begin with shattering or destroying everyone and everything about him that he doesn't like. Maybe one scene of himself as a soldier or gangster machine-gunning his family might evoke a laugh for its ridiculousness. But after that, the repeated entrances into his fantasies with violence to gain his "freedom" turn quickly to pathos.When he returns from each departure, Billy is not happy to be back. In subsequent scenes he seems to become more and more frustrated. His inability to deal with ordinary things from day to day seem to overwhelm him. He is a sick dude, completely self-centered and self-absorbed.Billy can't stand his life, yet is unable to make serious efforts to change it, and can't fit into it comfortably or sanely. He seems to be something of a sociopath. I just didn't see the humor in this – not in this script.I think there was potential for considerable comedy and humor in this story. But not as it is written and played. There might have been some very good laughs in Billy being engaged to two girls at the same time. But the scenes of his trying to get the engagement ring from one to the other are flat and humorless. Instead, we have two young girls who are hurt by his lie.I kept watching and waiting for this film to get better. At about two-thirds of the way through, it had become so disconnected and boring that I turned it off. I had lost interest even in seeing how it finally played out. From the reviews I've read, I see that it followed its moribund plot to the end.I give this film three stars just for the actors who showed up, especially the supporting cast. They did a decent job with a lousy script and a lousier plot. Even Tom Courtney couldn't raise this tiring script to mediocre. I enjoy British humor and wit as brought to the screen over the decades by Alistair Sim, Alec Guinness, John Cleese, Eric Blore, Leslie Howard, Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Geoffrey Palmer, Michael Caine, Hugh Grant, Rupert Everett, Stephen Fry and others. But it's a real stretch to label this film a comedy. The best words to describe it would be a fantasy downer (or downer fantasy).Supposedly, novelist and playwright Keith Waterhouse wrote some of his youthful experiences into his stories. But one can surmise that Billy Liar's destiny belies that of Waterhouse, who created his character. Waterhouse lived to age 80 and had a very successful career as a novelist, columnist and playwright.

Bill Slocum In a world, Billy Fisher is a war hero, beloved despot, acclaimed novelist, writer of the reform-producing prison memoir "I Have Paid," and grandson of the woman who invented radium and penicillin (presumably not simultaneously).Unfortunately for Billy, this world exists only in his imagination. The rest of the time, he fights a losing battle with grim reality in the Yorkshire city where he lives, toiling as a mortician's clerk while dreaming of making a name for himself in London and lying whenever he feels threatened by reality, which is often.Tom Courtenay plays Billy as a mixture of dreamer and low-grade sociopath, drawing both our sympathy and scorn. Taken from an even bleaker comic novel by co-screenwriter Keith Waterhouse, "Billy Liar" is an enigma of a movie, directed by a man, John Schlesinger, who liked to make enigmatic films. Surrealistic yet gritty, "Billy Liar" throws a lot of comedic curves at the viewer, yet leaves you with heavier feelings."I turn over a new leaf every day, but the blots show through," is how Billy explains it to the one person who seems to understand, the radiant gadabout Liz (Julie Christie). Liz tells Billy he doesn't need to be stuck in his northern town; he can go to London like she does any time he wants. But of course it's not that simple, especially if you are a cheat and a coward at heart.The fantasy sequences are low-key but effective. We see Billy leading a parade where he also appears as various soldiers. A newspaper advertisement features an article about Billy with the headline: "Genius Or Madman?" When he's with one of the two young women he is presently engaged to, he imagines her slinking over to his bed in a negligee until his reverie is cut short when she catches his hand on her thigh.Schlesinger works the comedy more than the novel did, a good thing as "Billy Liar" needs a light touch. It is a rare film that marries the kitchen-sink drama of British films being made at the time with more farcical elements, but the drama is ever-present and gets more thick as the movie goes on. Even the humor has an unpleasant edge: One of the biggest laughs comes when we see Billy cut down his boss (Leonard Rossiter) with a tommy gun.Billy bickers constantly with his sullen father, while dismissing his mother rather heartlessly. "I'm not ordinary folk, even if she is," he says, after shaking off her attempt to talk some sense into him. Billy's just not that likable, even apart from his serial lying. The trick of the film is the way it gets you to pull for him anyway. We see how up against it he is, in the way Courtenay shrugs and smiles and drifts back into fantasy, losing precious time all the while."Billy Liar" could have been more fun and less dour, but that would have cut against its message of antic despair. You know what Billy should do with his life, and you know he knows it, too, but like Liz you see also how a dreamer's life can get in the way with reality, and understand why the future belongs to her, not him.

chuck-reilly Although Tom Courtenay is the star of "Billy Liar" and gives an outstanding performance as this British version of a "Walter Mitty-like" character, it's a very young Julie Christie who steals the show. Her part isn't large and her on-screen time is limited, but Christie's free-spirited carefree role changes the dynamics of the film and challenges Courtenay's Billy Fisher to do something with his life besides living in a complex fantasy world of his own making. Fisher is mainly concerned with his standing in Ambrosia, a make-believe European country where he resides as military hero, dictator and all-around super human being. He's forever leading the parade in this imaginative world as his real life passes him by. In reality, Fisher lives in a drab northern English city and employed as an undertaker's assistant. He's a notorious and habitual liar and under-achieving in every facet of his existence---except one. He has more than one fiancée and is constantly juggling his lies to keep them at arm's distance. In the hands of a less capable director, Fisher's "problems" wouldn't elicit anything more than a yawn and a cheap laugh. But the great John Schlesinger is able to present Billy's story with a bundle of humor tinged with a whiff of sympathy. He's really a lost soul but doesn't know it yet. The ambivalent ending can be taken two different ways depending on the viewer's opinion. The final scene where Christie leaves alone on the train to London stays with you long after the final reel is over."Billy Liar" was Tom Courtenay's second major success after "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" was released the previous year. He followed this role with a lead part in David Lean's epic "Doctor Zhivago." He's kept himself busy with stage and screen work to this day and he's now "Sir" Thomas Courtenay. For Julie Christie, all the doors opened up for her after "Billy" and she continued on to international success. Her next film, also with Schlesinger directing, was "Darling" for which she took home the Academy Award for Best Actress. But seeing her in this first major role is certainly a treat. It's easy to see why she became one of screen's all-time leading ladies. Actress debuts don't come any better than Julie Christie's in "Billy Liar." John Schlesinger's career took off after "Billy Liar" and "Darling." He's probably best remembered now for directing Dustin Hoffmann and Lawrence Olivier in the thriller "Marathon Man."