Reception
According to Melvyn Bragg's 1988 biography Richard Burton: A Life, the film was a terrible flop and helped erode Burton's status as a box office star. Two years before Villain, Burton had played a homosexual hairdresser in the comedy Staircase, which had proved a huge bust at the box office despite the talents of co-star Rex Harrison and director Stanley Donen. A gay love scene between Burton and co-star Ian McShane was cut from Villain, possibly as it was felt it wouldn't boost ticket sales, as cinema audiences already had not accepted Burton, one of the cinema's most notorious Don Juans, as a homosexual.
However, Alexander Walker, in his book about the 70s British film industry, National Heroes, says the film was "outstandingly successful at the British box office." And British exhibitors voted him the most popular star at the local box office in 1971, although Villain was not listed among the top ten most popular movies.
Coincidentally, Burton was mentioned in James Barlow's 1968 novel, The Burden Of Proof, upon which the film was based. In the book, the prosecutor asks a female witnesses if she "likes the actor Richard Burton".
The film received bad reviews, and Burton—whose acting style was predicated upon the precise use of his mellifluous voice—was particularly savaged for his attempt at a Cockney accent.
The film coined a popular phrase used regularly and adapted accordingly of "Don't be a berk all your life; take a day off!"
Read more about this topic: Villain (1971 Film)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)