THE ENTERTAINER (1960) British version of 'All in the Family' - complete with Archie

THE ENTERTAINER proves that Lawrence Olivier, at 53, was still in tip-top form. Based on a play by John Osborn, who wrote it expressly for Sir Larry, the story centers on the Rice family - and in particular, papa Archie, a fading entertainer in a fading medium (music halls) in the fading British empire. From scene to scene, Rice careens from good-time-Archie to finagling cad to aging lothario to tragic wreck. The speech to his daughter (Joan Plowright) onstage in an empty theater about being dead behind his eyes is moving. Fine performances from two relative newbies - Alan Bates and Albert Finney as Archie's sons - and from old-timer Roger Livesay, a Powell-Pressburger regular in the '40s, as Archie's sweet and slightly dotty dad.