The Pumpkin Eater

Synopsis: Film screenwriter Jake Armitage and his wife Jo Armitage live in London with six of Jo's eight children, with the two eldest boys at boarding school. The children are spread over Jo's three marriages, with only the youngest being Jake's biological child, although he treats them all as his own. Jo left her second husband Giles after meeting Giles' friend Jake, the two who were immediately attracted to each other. Their upper middle class life is much different than Giles and Jo's, who lived in a barn in the English countryside. But Jo is ruminating about her strained marriage to Jake, with issues on both sides. Jo suspects Jake of chronic infidelity, she only confronting him with her suspicions whenever evidence presents itself. And Jo's psychiatrist believes that Jo uses childbirth as a rationale for sex, which he believes she finds vulgar. These issues in combination have placed Jo in a fragile mental state. They both state that they love the other, but neither really seems to like th

Genre: Drama

Director(s): Jack Clayton

Actors: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Janine Gray

Production: Sony Pictures Entertainment

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations.


IMDB:: 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes:: 64%

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Year:: 1964
: 118 min
: 13 Views

What are you doing?
What are you doing?
- Nothing.
- I thought you were going shopping.
It's late. I have to go.
- How are you feeling?
- All right.
Look, I have to go to this dinner.
I'm sorry.
All right.
Do you think you' re going to
get over this period of your life?
Because I find it very depressing.
All right.
Daddy, I want to be
the signaI-box man.
Darling...
Yeah, all right.
This is Jake Armitage. My wife, Jo.
- Hello.
- Hello. How do you do?
- Daddy, Daddy!
- Sit down over there.
Oh! Excuse me.
- Who's he, Mummy?
- A friend of Daddy's.
- Why did you put that on the line?
- I'm joining it to the dieseI.
This is a non-stop express.
You shouldn't do that.
- What do you think of them?
- Marvellous.
Here you are.
- Do you like my car?
- Is this your car?
Yes.
- Where did you learn how to sew?
- I...
You know in the car, on the way here,
I said to you, " Mummy... "
Why isn't there a front to it, then?
- Well, it's not quite finished.
- I see.
- Give it back!
- Really, you two boys!
Jack, will you stop breaking down
the partitions!
- Tea?
- I'll help you.
What's that?
That? The windmill.
Well, where's the... thing?
Oh. I don't know.
- Does anybody live there?
- No, I don't think so.
Why on earth
do you want to marry my son?
- Why not?
- It's incomprehensible.
He'd be an impossible husband.
- Just a minute, I...
- No, I assure you. He's got no money.
He's bone-lazy, he drinks too much.
- Oh, he's quite useless.
- Thank you.
He's going to be
a very successfuI writer.
Do you think so?
What do the children say?
We haven't actually
discussed it with them.
Do you like children?
Of course, I do. Yes.
Have you ever actually known any?
Do you realise what
you' re saddling yourself with?
- Yes, yes.
- A zoo.
A children's zoo. And their keeper.
Are you reconciled to keeping
a zoo and its keeper?
- Yes, of course. I mean, yes.
- Are you fit?
You know my daughter's record,
I suppose.
Yes, I do.
I want to marry her.
Then you' re a fooI.
The least I can do is to give you
a start. Do you think that's fair?
- Fair?
- You' re a fooI but I'll give you a start.
- Do you think that's fair?
- Yes, very fair.
Right. The first thing we must do
is shed the load.
- Far too many children.
- What do you mean?
I suggest we send the eldest two
to boarding schooI.
- No. That's ridiculous.
- The burden on Jake is ridiculous.
I don't want them
to go away to schooI.
- They'd love it.
- They wouldn't.
I'd love it. Jake'd love it. They can
stay with us during the holidays.
- We don't we just give them away
- Only the first two. There are others.
I won't have you trailing home with
six more children in five years' time
and another messed-up marriage
on your hands.
Don't crush this poor boy
before he starts.
He'll have to work
like a galley slave as it is.
We can't afford to send them
away to schooI.
Well, I'm paying.
Oh! Thank you very much.
I've also bought you a fairly good
lease on a London house.
It's quite reasonable.
It's old, but it should
suit you very well.
It'll clean me out, but you may as well
have the money now as when I die.
Oh, Mummy!
Do you like it?
Yes! It's super!
Look, Mummy,
they' re here before us!
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
Yes, isn't it!
Yes, isn't it!
Look, Mummy,
they' re here before us!
I think it's going to be wonderfuI
with all of us here.
What do you think of it, Elizabeth?
- It's gorgeous, Mummy.
- Yes, it is quite gorgeous.
- What do you think of it, Dinah?
- I think it's absolutely lovely.
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Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others' works. Pinter was born and raised in Hackney, east London, and educated at Hackney Downs School. He was a sprinter and a keen cricket player, acting in school plays and writing poetry. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but did not complete the course. He was fined for refusing National service as a conscientious objector. Subsequently, he continued training at the Central School of Speech and Drama and worked in repertory theatre in Ireland and England. In 1956 he married actress Vivien Merchant and had a son, Daniel, born in 1958. He left Merchant in 1975 and married author Lady Antonia Fraser in 1980. Pinter's career as a playwright began with a production of The Room in 1957. His second play, The Birthday Party, closed after eight performances, but was enthusiastically reviewed by critic Harold Hobson. His early works were described by critics as "comedy of menace". Later plays such as No Man's Land (1975) and Betrayal (1978) became known as "memory plays". He appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film. He also undertook a number of roles in works by other writers. He directed nearly 50 productions for stage, theatre and screen. Pinter received over 50 awards, prizes, and other honours, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005 and the French Légion d'honneur in 2007. Despite frail health after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2001, Pinter continued to act on stage and screen, last performing the title role of Samuel Beckett's one-act monologue Krapp's Last Tape, for the 50th anniversary season of the Royal Court Theatre, in October 2006. He died from liver cancer on 24 December 2008. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018