Joe Orton’s dark comedy made his career in its 1964 UK stage premiere; proved too hot for Broadway; and posthumously made it to the screen as a career boost for helmer Hickox (soon to direct Theater of Blood). Royal Shakespeare Company and Disney veteran Peter McEnery strips down as the rough-trade title character who toys with both middle-aged landlady Beryl Reid and her brother Harry Andrews, while their infirm father Alan Webb tries to get the better of the lodger.

Presented by John Cameron Mitchell, who writes: “[This is] my favorite British film comedy of the 70’s, based on the stage play by Joe Orton, a queer enfant terrible who was so ahead of his time that the Beatles commissioned a screenplay from him–but when he cast them as crossdressing terrorists, they returned it to him without comment!”

Print courtesy of the British Film Institute