Stop the World: I Want to Get Off
Stop the World: I Want to Get Off
| 25 April 1966 (USA)
Stop the World: I Want to Get Off Trailers

The Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse London and Broadway musical hit Stop the World, I Want to Get Off is given literal treatment in this filmization. Newley stars as Littlechap, whose allegorical rise to success is countered by the instability of his private life. Like the play, the film is staged impressionistically, with Newley decked out in mime makeup and periodically stopping the action to address the audience, and with all the women in his life -- German, American and "Typically English" -- played by a single actress (Millicent Martin, taking over from the stage version's Anna Quayle). In Wizard of Oz fashion, the play itself is lensed in color, while the brief prologue, showing the actors preparing for their performance, is in black-and-white. The production includes such standards (and perennial audition pieces) as What Kind of Fool Am I? and Gonna Build a Mountain.

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Reviews
TrueJoshNight

Truly Dreadful Film

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SpuffyWeb

Sadly Over-hyped

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Keeley Coleman

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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Raymond Sierra

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

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andeven

I fell in love with Stop the World when I saw it in the West End, starring Anthony Newley and Anna Quayle, back in 1962. It told the story, through songs, speech and mime, of a man's life in a way which has rarely been bettered. Nearly half a century on I still enjoy the songs, on a battered LP, and treasure the memory of Newley's performance.The film in my view does not measure up to the stage production. This is partly because Tony Tanner, while very good, is simply not Anthony Newley and partly because it is a film of a stage performance which, for some reason, never really seems to work. Theatre audiences are, I suppose, geared to accept the physical limitations of the stage while cinema audiences, even if composed of the same people, are similarly programmed to expect the very different techniques of film. StW makes little attempt to use the latter, basically pointing a camera (or a number of cameras) at the stage and leaving it at that. We are therefore left in a situation which is neither one thing nor the other.For all that it is useful to have a record of what was a classic show and the film I do find enjoyable if not itself classic. I accept that others will hold different opinions. Even when the show first appeared I heard of several people who walked out because they could not understand its premise and failed to realise that the lack of 'reality' meant that they had to use their imaginations. They are , of course, fully entitled to their views. Nevertheless I find it difficult to accept the comments of a previous reviewer whom the film apparently induced to throw up.I have sat through many films which have bored me rigid but have never as a result felt the urge to vomit. Perhaps I could suggest that he or she see a doctor without delay to assess the cause of this clear over-reaction.

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joe d

My wife and I put on our old VHS copy the other night (having not seen it for many years) and once more became totally absorbed in the production and Tony Tanner's performance. Some have called it outdated but it's pure theater with a theater-type experience as best as could be reproduced on screen. "World's" brilliance is that it's simple story combined with a magnificent score can hold audience captivated, no small achievement considering it is done in mime and soliloquy and performed within the confines of a small circular one-ring circus-type stage with no elaborate settings.Just magnificent, not matter what generation.

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dave carnegie

When the film was made it was shot multi camera as it appears Bill Sargent the producer had a thing about this. He had made a bit of a name shooting onto video tape and transferring to film via Technicolor tape to film process. All the playback was done via equipment which was not locked to the cameras, Great fun was had in trying to sync it all up. I myself enjoyed the overtime this film generated in the projection department. When the film exscaped to the cinemas, which those days it was shown own the ABC circuit, the film did not last the week and by the Wednesday was pulled.

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alfabtch

Well staged version of the play usually associated with Anthony Newley. Well performed. A bit dated, but it IS over 30 years old!

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