They shared everything - except success.
This unadorned biography of playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) charts his bawdy, dangerous relationships. Alfred Molina plays Orton's brutish lover, Kenneth Halliwell, a pathetic figure who becomes horrific and then tragic before the film is over. The hilarity of scenes from such Orton plays as Loot and What the Butler Saw is evenly balanced by the bleakness of the playwright's tormented (and tormenting) off-stage existence, which ended suddenly at age 34 with half a dozen blows to the head from a hammer. Prick Up Your Ears is based on the book by theater critic John Lahr, who is played in the film by Wallace Shawn. ~


Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the book by John Lahr. The film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr and Vanessa Redgrave as Margaret "Peggy" Ramsay.

Prick Up Your Ears received a generally positive critical reaction, with a 92% "fresh" rating at review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[2] Roger Ebert awarded the film four stars out of four, describing Redgrave's performance as "superb", and praising the work of Oldman and Molina: "The great performances in the movie are, of course, at its center. Gary Oldman plays Orton and Alfred Molina plays Halliwell, and these are two of the best performances of the year." On the basis of Oldman's work in the film and the previous year's Sid and Nancy, Ebert described him as "the best young British actor around."[3] Ken Hanke of the Mountain Xpress was less impressed, describing the film as a "good, but never quite great biopic", while still awarding it four stars out of five.[2]
Oldman earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor; Redgrave received BAFTA- and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Alan Bennett earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival


Release Date: April 17, 1987

Distrib: Samuel Goldwyn

Trailers:
Kidnapped (1987) Video Spot
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
The Rosary Murders (1987)