Arka Evren

FILM · 1963 · UK

Tom Jones

36 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

20 Interesting Facts About Tom Jones

  1. #001

    Welsh singer Tom Jones (born Thomas John Woodward) took his professional stage name from the title character of this film.

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  2. #002

    This was the last film President John F. Kennedy watched, during a stop in Palm Beach, Florida, on his way to Dallas, Texas (17 November 1963).

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  3. #003

    Hugh Griffith was reportedly drunk for much of the production; the scene in which he falls from his horse was unplanned, and many believed he was saved only because he was drunk. The film includes every frame of the footage before the rescuers entered the frame to save him.

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  4. #006

    After Hugh Griffith accidentally struck several cast and crew members with a riding crop, Tony Richardson had him specially outfitted to reduce the pain.

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  5. #007

    The British Board of Film Censors cut twelve seconds from the film to remove the cockfighting scene. Depicting this particular form of animal cruelty is illegal in British films.

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  6. #009

    The famous eating scene, in which Tom Jones and Mrs. Waters express their desire for each other by turning it into a great feast, took three hours to shoot. Buckets were conveniently placed out of camera range to accommodate the actors, who kept vomiting from eating.

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  7. #010

    Although the first reviews in London were not very favourable, audiences discovered the film on their own and made it a major hit before it opened in the United States.

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  8. #011

    This was David Warner's first cinematic appearance.

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  9. #012

    The hunting scene posed particular problems because local hunters refused to cooperate, assuming the film would take an anti-hunting stance. The crew had to scour the countryside to find hunting dogs that people were willing to sell or rent. Tony Richardson ultimately wanted to show the dogs tearing the deer apart, so the team tried to keep the hounds hungry, in keeping with hunting tradition. Local hunters who got word of the plan entered the kennel the night before and fed the dogs their fill. When the time came to shoot the scene, all the dogs did was sniff at the carcasses of the dead deer the crew had bought. They had to reshoot the scene three days later. The crew then stuffed the carcass with beef liver to make the dogs attack.

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  10. #016

    The death of David Warner (who made his film debut here) on 24 July 2022 left Julian Glover (who also made his film debut here) as the only surviving credited actor.

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  11. #017

    Filming ended with studio work in London. By then, the cast and crew were overwhelmed by the hard work and the many shortcuts. Tony Richardson and his company believed the film would be a major disappointment. When the head of United Artists' UK office saw the first cut, he predicted disaster.

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  12. #021

    Tom Jones marked Julian Glover's first cinematic appearance.

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  13. #022

    Among the estates where the film was shot were Nettlecoombe, then a girls' school, and Cranborne, which included a garden maze.

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  14. #024

    David Warner and Susannah York would later play Bob and Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (1984). Albert Finney and Edith Evans would appear together again in "Scrooge" (1970).

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  15. #026

    Susannah York and David Warner would later play Superman's biological Kryptonian parents, though not in the same production. York played Lara Lar-Van in Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), and Warner played Jor-El in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993).

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  16. #029

    On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 81% approval rating based on 43 reviews, with an average score of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A wildly irreverent adaptation of the novel, bolstered by Albert Finney's fearless performance and striking visuals."

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  17. #030

    David Tomlinson and Joan Greenwood appeared together again 15 years later in The Water Babies (1978).

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  18. #032

    When Tom first arrives in London, we briefly see the coat of arms of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters hanging upside down.

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  19. #035

    The film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #910.

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  20. #036

    The cast includes two actors who appeared in different films of the James Bond/007 series: Julian Glover in For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Albert Finney in Skyfall (2012).

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