Tom Jones is a brilliant, lusty fun romp of a movie that maintains much of the novels savage sense of satire. Albert Finny is perfect as the title character, a foundling raised by one of the few examples of a noble aristocrat, who is more interested in sport than learning and suffers many a misadventure along the way. Susannah York is perfect as nice and proper Sophie Western, the ultimate object of Tom’s love.
Tom is raised by the kindly and upright Squire Allworthy. Also in the household is the Squire’s nephew, Mr. Blifil, played by the always sour David Warner. Although Blifil pretends to be pious and worthy, hew is actually greedy and jealous. Tom is the favorite neighbor of Sophie’s father, Squire Western, a squalid, drunken fool who enjoys spending time with his hounds and the milkmaids. When Sophie declares her love for Tom, instead of the more socially acceptable Blifil, she causes trouble for both. At the same time, Blifil manages to embroil Tom in the troubles of a local tavern girl.
Tom gets sent away from the Allworthy household to make his way in the world. Tom finds himself embroiled in one trouble after another on his way to London. He is as quick to defend the honor of the women he meets as he is to go to bed with them. The most famous of which is the lusty eating scene with Mrs. Walters, Joyce Redman. They tear into chicken and lobster sucking meat from bone and shell in a lascivious frenzy and then rush upstairs. Eventually he ends up in London with the man who was accused of being his father, but isn’t. He finds out that Sophie has also run away to London and spends the rest of the movie trying to reunite with her, no matter how many bedrooms he has to crawl through on the way.
The best scenes are the ones that are dialogue free, such as the funny and lewd dinner scene. Tony Richardson has a way of ratcheting up the speed of a scene gradually until the actors are moving like Keystone Kops. But he always makes time for Albert Finney to give the audience a lusty wink to let the viewers know that he is always in on the joke.