One of the seminal British working-class films of the 1960s, BILLY LIAR is a first-rate comedy-fantasy that features Tom Courtenay in a role which Albert Finney had played in the stage version by Waterhouse and Hall.
No one will argue the plot's derivation--James Thurber's classic short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," with Courtenay as Billy Fisher, a dreamer who works for a funeral director, but who retreats into a fantasy world. Billy is also a pathological liar who, as Oscar Wilde once said,
doesn't lie for gain, just for the sheer joy of lying. Billy is involved with three young women, two of whom share an engagement ring. Christie, in one of her earliest roles, is terrific as a adventurous young woman willing to overlook anything the charming Billy tosses at her.
All the secondary roles are sharply etched and wonderfully acted under the sure hand of John Schlesinger in his third feature. Although his two earlier films, TERMINUS and A KIND OF LOVING, were superb, it was really with this film that Schlesinger garnered widespread attention. A later stage
musical and TV series were based on the same story. leave a comment
