Prick Up Your Ears (1987) on Netflix
Joe Orton meets Kenneth Halliwell at drama school in London, and the two men begin a relationship and a shared ambition to write. Orton's plays find success while Halliwell's work stalls.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb7.1/107,024 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Joe Orton meets Kenneth Halliwell at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where Orton is a student with little education and Halliwell is older and more reserved. They begin a relationship and set up home together, with Orton taking the part of husband and Halliwell the long-suffering wife. Both want to write. In England at the time, sex between men is illegal, and Orton seeks it out in bath-houses and public toilets while Halliwell fares less well in those places. Orton's plays Entertaining Mr. Sloane and Loot become London hits, and the Beatles commission a screenplay from him. Halliwell's own writing has stalled, and Orton's success draws him away.
Cast
- Dave Atkinsas Mr Sugden
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ian McKellen was the original choice to play Kenneth Halliwell in Prick Up Your Ears, but kept turning the film down because he had been working so hard and needed a holiday; he later said he regretted it after seeing the finished film.
- Maggie Smith turned down the role of the literary agent Peggy Ramsay in Prick Up Your Ears, saying she did not want to upset her sons by appearing in a film that featured homosexual promiscuity and murder.
