'Ulysses’ Shown Uncut

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31384, 1 June 1967, Page 13

'Ulysses ’ Shown Uncut

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright f LONDON, May 31.

Sophisticated London will see, from to-' morrow, the uncut film version of James Joyce’s famous novel, “Ulysses”—in spite of a bitter fight by a titled socialite to have it banned as “filth.”

London’s critics, who had a preview yesterday, gave it a mixed reception. Some wondered what all the fuss over the film in other countries was about.

Most of them concentrated on the highlight of the 131minute film—the soliloquy of the voluptous heroine, Molly Bloom (Barbara Jeffoid), and hailed it

Her husband, Leopold (Milo O’Shea), has not been able to make love to her since the death of their infant son 11 years earlier. Molly lies frustrated in bed —her husband cuddling her feet—and pours out her raw memories of past men and detailed descriptions of how they made love to her and what die thought when they were doing it Molly’s monologue prompted Felix Barker of the London “Evening News” to predict

Molly’s monologue, he wrote, “contains by far the most unrestrained passages about sex ever heard in a cinema or theatre.

“They are bound to generate some moral indignation. There could easilv be demonstrations. Antagonists have already alerted the police.”

j John Russell Tayor of “The Times” went to the other extreme.

He wrote: “The film is worthy, slow and lack-lustre. If anyone can succeed in obtaining a guilty thrill from it all, one can only envy him his vivid imagination and congratulate him on his sheer stamina.”

Director Joseph Strick’s long-suffering screen adaptation was exceptionally stolid, respectable and dull, he added.

Praise came from Eric Shorter, of the “Daily Telegraph."

He said: “Joseph Strick’s film is a sober and sensitive -achievement. “Sensation is the one word which only sensation-seekers would try to apply to it “Masterly Performance”

“Molly is a masterly performance. She has the last half hour of the film to herself and deserves every poignant, lurid minute of her sexual recollections.”

lan Christie of the “Dailly ■ Express” wrote: “I was, touched, occasionally amused i.

and moved by James Joyce’s words and deeply impressed by Barbara Jefford’s interpretation of them. ... It is an honest film which is probably why so many people, will find it shocking. Nothing hurts like the truth.” Ann Pacey of the “Sun” said that if the film corrupted just one teen-ager she would eat one of the hats of the socialite who wanted “Ulysses” banned. This is Lady Dartmouth, a member of the Greater London Council, whose licensing committee gave a certificate allowing the uncut version to be shown.

Lady Dartmouth in the past has campaigned against cracked cups in restaurants at London Airport and for self-defence for girls.

She has not seen the film but she said she had read the book—and that was enough. The rest of Britain will not be so lucky as London. The British Board of Film Censors holds sway there, and it has ordered cuts in the film —even if local authorities .agree to let it be seen in their i areas.