GB
1970
1hr 18mins
Dir: Anthony Friedman
Starring: Paul Scofield and John McEnery
Defeated by the pressures of everyday life, a young audit clerk decides to drop out of life and withdraws into his own world
This unusual drama is brooding and slow, and rather sad, but it is not easily forgotten. It is based on the Herman Melville short story Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street that originally appeared as two parts in the November and December 1853 issues of Putnam’s Magazine. It should not be confused with several other films and short story versions of the same basic tale, but it appears difficult to get hold of. It opens with a short railway sequence that sees McEnery onboard a train of 1938 tube stock, followed by an excellent shot of one arriving into the Northbound City Line branch platform of Euston station on the Northern Line. There are then brief shots of the concourse of London Euston station, but no trains feature. Finally, there is a shot of McEnery’s Bartleby character on Hungerford Bridge with EPB EMU’s behind him on their way into and out of Charing Cross.
