Tom Jones (film) - Production

Production

Bridgwater's Castle Street was used as a location in several scenes. Bryanston Films hesitated to make the film in colour and shortly went bankrupt. The film was financed by American production money through United Artists.

The production suffered from more than the usual disasters, near-disasters and squabbles attending films shot on location in English weather. Tony Richardson was dissatisfied with the final product, notwithstanding its acclaim by others. In his autobiography Richardson wrote:

"I felt the movie to be incomplete and botched in much of its execution. I am not knocking that kind of success — everyone should have it — but whenever someone gushes to me about Tom Jones, I always cringe a little inside."

Cinematographer Walter Lassally has said that in his opinion the location unit got on very well together under the circumstances, and that the experience was satisfying. He thought Richardson rather lost his way in post-production, endlessly fixing what was not really broken.