May 17
1637.) I’m a major fan of the work of Ken Loach (check out my three-part career survey on the Media Funhouse blog), and so I’m aware that there are a few films Loach made that he’s not exactly fond of. One of them is the teleplay “The End of Arthur’s Marriage” (from The Wednesday Play, Nov 1965). It may not have been as cohesive as Loach would’ve liked, but it is sure is loopy and it sure is fun. Its plot concerns a man who is given money by his in-laws to put as down payment for a house. He travels to the house with his young daughter and they find the house has been sold — so the man goes on a spending spree around London with his in-laws’ money. Loach’s best-known teleplays were diehard “kitchen sink” films about the lives of the working class. He did like, though, to inject the pop music his characters enjoy into those films; he also is a big fan of putting comic relief into his often-heavy character studies. Here, the comic relief is centerstage, and we get a nice tour around some London sites, including a luxurious department store and the London Zoo. The songs sung by the characters aren’t memorable (although the pop tunes played on the soundtrack are). The light-heartedness, though, which reflected the French New Wave influence on Loach, is quite infectious even as the title gives away the not-happily-ever-after ending.
