Stop the World: I Want to Get Off

Stop the World: I Want to Get Off

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew
  • Recommendations

Status

Released

Release Date

Apr 25, 1966

Runtime

1h 40m

Genres

Music

User Score

43%

Original Title

Stop the World: I Want to Get Off

Production Companies

Warner Bros. Pictures

Director

Philip Saville

Description

The Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse London and Broadway musical hit Stop the World, I Want to Get Off is given literal treatment in this filmization. Newley stars as Littlechap, whose allegorical rise to success is countered by the instability of his private life. Like the play, the film is staged impressionistically, with Newley decked out in mime makeup and periodically stopping the action to address the audience, and with all the women in his life -- German, American and "Typically English" -- played by a single actress (Millicent Martin, taking over from the stage version's Anna Quayle). In Wizard of Oz fashion, the play itself is lensed in color, while the brief prologue, showing the actors preparing for their performance, is in black-and-white. The production includes such standards (and perennial audition pieces) as What Kind of Fool Am I? and Gonna Build a Mountain.