One Way Pendulum (film)

Study of absurdity in a suburban family: father rebuilds the Old Bailey in the living room, and the son teaches weighing machines to sing in the bathroom.[4]

• Eric Sykes as Mr. Groomkirby
• George Cole as Defence counsel / friend
• Julia Foster as Sylvia
• Jonathan Miller as Kirby
• Peggy Mount as Mrs. Gantry
• Alison Leggatt as Mrs. Groomkirby
• Mona Washbourne as Aunt Mildred
• Douglas Wilmer as Judge / Maintenance Man
• Glyn Houston as Detective Inspector Barnes
• Graham Crowden as Prosecuting Counsel / Caretaker
• Ken Farrington as Stan
• Walter Horsbrugh as Clerk of the Court / Drycleaner's Assistant
• Frederick Piper as Usher / Office Clerk
• Vincent Harding as Policeman / Bus Conductor
• Trevor Bannister as Groomkirby's colleague (uncredited)

Producer Michael Deeley and director Peter Yates wanted to work on a project together and saw the play at the Royal Court. Yates was excited at the prospect of the material being so different from his first feature, Summer Holiday (1963), and Deeley managed to set up the film at Woodfall Film Productions, then flush with money in the wake of the success of Tom Jones (1963). Writer John Osborne helped introduce Yates and Simpson to United Artists.[2]

Simpson said he had received a number of offers to film the play but turned them down because he did not feel it was a movie. He changed his mind after a meeting with Yates where the director said the words were key to visual concepts. "He was the first film man I met I felt I could work with," said Simpson who wrote the script and was on set every day.[2]

The film was the first from Woodfall to be shot in a studio and commenced filming at Twickenham Studios in March 1964.[1]

The film was poorly received by the public and did not recoup its money. However Woodfall Films was impressed by Michael Deeley and hired him to work for the company.[1]

The film received a poor review from Howard Thompson, who wrote that it was "a new serving of British-stirred froth that weighs almost as much as Big Ben. And how it got those friendly notices back in the homeland, we'll never know. The picture is excruciatingly coy and flat, coming, believe it or not, from the Woodfall production unit that gave us, among other things, 'Tom Jones'."[5]

• One Way Pendulum at IMDb