James Fox. No crickets, please. Really looking for responses.

Dear Joseph, you need to stay way from the cordial.

James was never 'edgy, dynamic, creative nor unconventional.'. He has explained all his issues about Jesus and Christianity in a few TV interviews which all seem to degenerate into silent meditations.

He was cute half a century ago.

OP, I've read that he was traumatized from the filming of 'Performance' and disappeared for awhile. This would be Fall 1968.

Edward has some interesting things to say about film-acting here.

(He's wearing a big beard from a recent stage production)

Yeah I know about the road to Damascus conversion, but there's got to be something more to it than that. I mean walking away from a career when you are in demand....got to have a screw loose. Especially when you were getting screwed by the hottest chicks, I men, Birds, every day.

Edward is lucid in that interview at R3 but all of James' interviews are opaque and he seems incapable of finishing his own sentences.

R4 You have no idea about the technicalities of James Fox's sex life. Gentleman put their penises into ladies; 'chicks' do not 'screw' men.

I saw Edward Fox perform on stage in the West End as Bernard Berenson in "Old Masters" about fifteen years ago--he was terrific. He's a small man, but he was energetic and very physically agile.

James says there's a tension for Christians being IN the world but also not being OF the world.

Reply 5..... Now you've listened to my story Here's the point that I have made Chicks were born to give you fever Be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade You give me fever.....

James' performance in The Servant (1963) is remarkably good especially considering it was his film debut. It's truly a first-rate film in every respect

Close. Loneliness of the Long Distant Runner - 1962 -was Jame's first

One word...Tapioca

Nah, check out those 60s performances. Tapioca after his come back for sure.

I want to say Performance messed him and I believe he got a divorce around that time, too.

However, I disagree with you about his post-Performance movies. He is pretty good in A Passage to India, The Mighty Quinn, The Russian House, The Remains of the Day, Sexy Beast, The Golden Bowl, and Sherlock Holmes.

Edward is a good actor, too. I never understood why people don't like him.

Tapioca, 1967

[quote] I never understood why people don't like him

Because he's an actor with a scar on his face.

Because he's asked to play snipers, cads who are cruel to women and military men who set off The Amritsar Massacre of 1919.

This Simon Gray play is sympathetic and sad.

Gee what a real swell guy.

I've always gotten Edward and James confused. Until this thread I don't think I could have said which brother played which role, even which one was in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Are they twins? If not, who's older? Is there a big difference the way they've been perceived professionally and talent/wise?

But I think I'm seeing now that the big difference between them physically is their nose, yes? James' nose turns up and Edward's is more hawkish.....have I got that right?

R9 Did you notice ANYTHING homosexual in that dry, acetic, antiseptic unsatisfying movie?

Yeah, it's hard to tell them apart. They both act queeny and faggy, especially James in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and The Servant. But then most Brit men act queeny and faggy to us Americans. Can you imagine Americans saying, "My dear boy," " My dear chap?" And we're supposed to be cousins? Limey, please.

dry, acetic, antiseptic unsatisfying movie?

Are you bloody serious, mate??? Perfect direction, perfect casting, perfect blend of Pinter's script with Losey's Mise-en-Scene. Notice how Losey builds tension in the clip, reply 18. Subtle, unobtrusive but there. Look at this film again, or take a course in cinema storytelling though editing, lighting, sound, casting, script, and camera placement.

Also, another spectacular performance by Dirk Bogarde, proving once again how neglected he is when people speak of great film acting. He's a master.

[quote] Dirk Bogarde

Appears nude on screen.

R18 There is an underlying suggestion of homosexuality as the servant comes to dominate his master and they both share the same woman. The Servant has thematic similarities to both Performance which also starred Fox and Dead Ringers.

[quote] underlying suggestion of homosexuality

The author of this tiny little novella may have been an overt homosexual but I watched this dry, acetic, antiseptic unsatisfying, short, little movie and found no depiction or allusion to homosexual behaviour.

[quote] they both share the same woman

Are you saying that the servant and the employer both fornicated with that flat-faced scrubber or that pointy nosed woman?

R24 and dry, acetic and antiseptic describe the style and tone of the film perfectly. The LA Times described it as "brilliantly icy" and the NY Times said 'it wafts a thick and acrid air of smoldering truth'

Swinging 60s

He may have been cute very briefly before he became so wrinkly.

Some Datalounger insists that he played a character who had a repressed homosexual attraction to another character in this dreary black and white movie.

But I didn't detect any.

Never seen Bryan Forbes King Rat, but it looks like an interesting film. Actor, writer and director Forbes had made several good films none of which are alike in subject matter: Whistle Down the Wind, The L-Shaped Room, seance on a Wet Afternoon, The Whisperers. Long Ago Tomorrow and The Stepford Wives (1974)

Bryan Forbes had a good career going in the 60s unfortunately he tarnished his reputation by insisting he put his wife Nanette Newman in more than 20 of his movies.

Nanette Newman is memorable in 'The Stepford Wives' repeatedly saying, "I'll just die if I don't get this recipe'" and she and Malcolm McDowell are excellent in Long Ago Tomorrow' in what seems to be the only starring role she had in one of her husband's films and she's fine as the mother of the kidnapped girl in 'Seance on a Wet Afternoon'

The Fox dynasty is like the Redgrave's, only wider. James and Edward's father was a big time agent. I think their other brother is an agent. Then there's actors Lawrence, Emily, Freddie, and....one more, I believe

R31 You forgot to mention the well-connected casting director and "éminence grise" Miss Celestia Fox.

R27 I detected that repressed sexuality thing you are talking about too. He’d become so attached to the George segal character by the end of the movie, their goodbye scene was heartbreaking how segal just left and it seemed clear the fox had more to say and wanted a bigger goodbye. It was a similar feeling I got from watching Sal mineo and James dean in rebel without a cause.

With regards to other gay leaning characters:

His character in “the loneliness of the long distance runner” while not gay was very soft in comparison to the Tom Courtenay one and rather camp too, in a public school boy kind of way, a sort of precursor to his character in “the servant” but softer than that.

The servant - as someone already pointed out, this had a very interesting homosexual subtext.

Thoroughly modern millie - this whole film is like a gay wet dream. Wonder how fox and John Gavin interacted behind the scenes, both were hot at the time.

Performance - already mentioned the similarities between this and “the servant” in terms of the possible homosexual subtext.

Fox was also in at least one of those roddy mcdowall Malibu beach videos. He accompanied George segal from what I remember.

I believe he deliberately chose to imbue his early characters with this homosexual subtext and it was quite different at the time as not many others were doing this or taking on these types of characters.

His character in absolute beginners was also gay wasn’t he? I think he was portrayed as closeted but I could be misremembering. But I think I remember watching it and then remembering all the other gay leaning characters the actor had portrayed previously.

Laurence Fox is a douchebag anti-vaxxer.

His first movie credit, at age 11. was "The Miniver Story", as Greer Garson's son.

That film also starred John Hodiak, short lived hunk, who was even more hunkier in "Lifeboat." Talluah and he had great sexual chemistry together. No gay overtones there, unless you think Talluah was secretly a chick with a dick.

Thoroughly modern millie - this whole film is like a gay wet dream.

yeah, cause it was produced by Ross Hunter. What do you expect? To quote Fred Allen: "It's the fairies baseball."

English male actors - straight, bi, and gay - past and present are by default very campy. I had a friend who worked at the National Theatre when was head master, and he described Larry as very high camp. Maybe with one exception.....

[quote] Loneliness of the Long Distant Runner

Oh dear.

Look for James in the Roddy McDowell Malibu 1965 beach party home movies. He's seen there with Jane Fonda, Julie Andrews and George Segal.

^ James worked with Jane in The Chase, Julie in TMM and Segal in King Rat

James Fox was good in High Season with Jackie Bisset.

He could hold his own with Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day.

[quote] He could hold his own

You sound like R33 who sees non-existent sex.

I am the instigator for this thread, and thanks to the many responses, I am going to revise my opinion of James's work after his come back. Yes, indeed he still had his mojo working and gave some intense and creative performances in the 80s. It wasn't until the mid-90s when he could no longer play those jaded romantic leads that his work became dull, conventional, stuffy, and simply boring. His parts became mainstream, conventionally button-down, square, and as a result, he excelled in playing nothing more than English fuddy-duddies.

R46 Actors are paid to impersonate other persons. You should make NO assumption about their personal personality.

The only thing I know him from, is "Thoroughly Modern Millie". And upon seeing the film...I wanted to fuck him immediately. I need to brush up on the work of James Fox!

He never had any body. Actors weren't expected to have bodies in those days.