Vivíras sin amor

This film was made in 1961 during Harold MacMillan's premiership and about a year before the Profumo scandal broke.So much of what is shown in the film was reflected in contemporary life.Of course parliamentary scandals would get worse culminating in the expenses fiddle.Peter Finch is excellent.However there are two aspects of the film which don't ring true.Firstly Mary Peach running off back home.Secondly the motion of no confidence.I am sure that this would have been squashed by the head office,as such an unlikely move would cause major embarrassment to a new government.Incidentally the red scare was quite real at the time,as apart from the Profumo scandal a small number of Labour MPs had contacts with iron curtain countries.

In 1963 John Prufumo a Conservative MP in the Cabinet had an affair with a model Christine Keeler.He made a statement in the Commons in which he lied.Subsequently he was forced to resign his post and as an MP and retire to private life.Keeler had been involved in a simultaneous affair with a Russian spy.Some of these ingredients are in this film.It probably showed the workings of parliament more to the public than any other media.there being no broadcast of parliament at that time.It is a fine but long forgotten film.One can only wonder why.Incidentally there are some fine views of the old Euston Station which was vandalised by its demolition in 1963.They subsequently wanted to do the same to St pancras,but thankfully this was successfully opposed.The only slight problem is the pointless use of Cinemascope.In fact it is rather irritating at times.

"No Love for Johnnie" is a most unusual movie that doesn't at all go in the directions you expect. I was actually pretty thrilled that repeatedly I was wrong about the film...and I love to be surprised.

When the film begins, Johnnie Byrne (Peter Finch) is told by his cold wife that she doesn't love him and she's leaving. Considering she's been very frigid and their relationship has been rather asexual, this should have come as a relief to Johnnie. However, there's a complication...he's a member of Parliament and his wife leaving might hurt his career. So might it hurt if he starts dating once again. But Jimmie has normal needs...and soon seeks out a girlfriend. What's to come of all this?

This is an interesting slice of life film. If you are expecting anything very dramatic or with a super-satisfying conclusion, look elsewhere. Instead, the film strives for realism and you really do have to feel sorry for him. Well worth seeing.

By the way, at the party scene where Johnnie is kissing a lady, the man counting off how long the kiss is Oliver Reed in one of his very brief early roles.

1960's "No Love for Johnnie" was a straight political drama and a change of pace for director Ralph Thomas and producer Betty Box, becoming increasingly identified with comedies like "Doctor in the House" and its sequels. The film was adapted from the novel by Wilfred Feinburgh, a member of Parliament himself who died in an auto accident before its 1959 publication, Peter Finch playing Johnnie Byrne, reelected to Parliament with a greater majority for his Labour Party, quickly becoming disillusioned when passed over for a Cabinet position. This leads to a frankly far less interesting love affair with a young model half his age (Mary Peach), conveniently showing up after the departure of his Communist wife (Rosalie Crutchley). Add to this Billie Whitelaw as the upstairs neighbor pining for his affections, and a sinister looking Donald Pleasence as Roger Renfrew, leading an attempt to undermine Geoffrey Keen's Prime Minister by selecting Johnnie as the one to blow the whistle on a Middle Eastern coup before events play out in Britain's favor. Had the MP's predictably miserable love life not taken precedence over his political aspirations it might have made for something quite special, but it did earn Finch his third BAFTA Award, plus the Silver Bear for Best Actor at Berlin's 11th International Film Festival. The list of familiar faces features longtime veterans such as Dennis Price as a knowing photographer, Stanley Holloway, Mervyn Johns, George Rose, and Peter Sallis, to newcomers Mary Peach and an unbilled Oliver Reed, just off his starring debut in Hammer's "The Curse of the Werewolf," spotted at a party with a basket covering his head at the half hour mark.

Count the number of reviews on this site for this 45 year old film. Less than seven at the time of writing. As a life long film fan I have now heard of and seen this movie (thanks to a fellow film fan on this site) but it remains very difficult to view. The number of reviews are indicative of how available it is to view be it on TV or via specialised cinemas. An asset very little exploited and that was a big clue as to why.

Despite the films age it is still relevant especially to British politics. Nothing at all has changed that the author was criticising via this fictional account of Westminster and its residents. Love affairs, power hungry, greed, self serving and back stabbing. It all still there - just read the newspapers in the last year here - but in 1958 they didn't have special people to spin the news like they do now. You get the top two men in Government coming out of rooms, obviously after a set to with fixed grins on their face and saying something like "We have had a frank discussion and are in complete agreement" - that sentence is never finished but would continue "in complete agreement that we loath each other"

In "No Love For Johnnie" the combatants were the likes of Stanley Holloway, Geoffrey Keen, Donald Pleasance, Peters Sallis and Barkworth and leading the field by a nose, Peter Finch. Everyone well played and instantly disliked by myself. Two characters only come out with the viewers sympathy, Flagg,(Dennis Price) not in the original book and Mary (a young Billie Whitelaw) who was obviously perfect for the Peter Finch character but he only saw her as a possible sexual conquest. The man was a fool.

It is also a wonderful bookend to Finch's later USA film "Network", where he goes into that famous rant on live TV against the likes of the character he played in this earlier film.

Despite this sterling cast - like the book it is based on it has been marginalised and is fast losing it mentions in film references books.Check Variety, Time Out. Hats off to Halliwell - it still lists it. For his loathsome performance, Finch won a BAFTA and a Berlin Silver Bear. A lost treasure of a film but now dug up by me and buffed up a bit.

So owners of this film - can I request you re-release it now! The reason I think it was buried in the first place is redundant now - check the title of this text. The book was the incendiary device - the film interpretation defused the bomb. Only Sikes/Sykes of the Earnley Herald remains.

The "No Love For Johnnie" book's blurb screamed "The Novel That Lifts The Lid Off Westminster". It is said REAL Members of Parliament sat around muttering darkly about who it was about - why do MPs always think it is about them? Oh yes - self serving. A question not then answered - perhaps because the author had unfortunately died before even his book was accepted and published, let alone a filmic version.

So the makers of the film version, sort of lifted the lid at Westminster, had a wee peek inside, didn't like what they saw and retreated a respectful distance. Shame really. It was still a shocking film albeit it diluted.

So fair do's - let the whole world see how New Politics was only Old Politics and evermore will be so.