No Love for Johnnie (1961) User Reviews (16)

I like Johnnie

[eddie-83 · 7/10 · 23 January 2002]

`No Love for Johnnie' is an enjoyable political drama whose sub-plot concerns the doomed love affair between the main character and a much younger woman. The nature of this relationship is undermined by the fact that 42 year old Johnnie Byrne is played by handsome, virile Peter Finch whereas Mary Peach playing 20 looks nearer 30 and Byrne's job as an MP in a Labour government would presumably make him even more attractive - remember Henry Kissinger's remark about the aphrodisiac nature of power?

The film takes a conventionally cynical view of politics; the Labour cabinet is referred to as `a gang of lawyers and university lecturers' so nothing much has changed since 1961. I felt that there was one too many shots of the admittedly magnificent Palace of Westminster from the other bank of the Thames and I certainly could not see any reason for Cinemascope as the action is almost exclusively indoors.

Stanley Holloway, always good value, playing a fellow-MP acts as a sort of conscious to Byrne but see if you can spot Oliver Reed in one scene with a waste-paper basket over his head, even then a party animal! And the brilliant Billie Whitelaw turns a neighbour who is little more than a doormat into a fully rounded character.

Maybe the `red menace' lurking in the background dates `No Love for Johnnie' but I found it most involving.

You have to feel sorry for this guy....

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 17 August 2018]

"No Love for Johnnie" is a most unusual movie that doesn't at all go in the directions you expect. I was actually pretty thrilled that repeatedly I was wrong about the film...and I love to be surprised.

When the film begins, Johnnie Byrne (Peter Finch) is told by his cold wife that she doesn't love him and she's leaving. Considering she's been very frigid and their relationship has been rather asexual, this should have come as a relief to Johnnie. However, there's a complication...he's a member of Parliament and his wife leaving might hurt his career. So might it hurt if he starts dating once again. But Jimmie has normal needs...and soon seeks out a girlfriend. What's to come of all this?

This is an interesting slice of life film. If you are expecting anything very dramatic or with a super-satisfying conclusion, look elsewhere. Instead, the film strives for realism and you really do have to feel sorry for him. Well worth seeing.

By the way, at the party scene where Johnnie is kissing a lady, the man counting off how long the kiss is Oliver Reed in one of his very brief early roles.

Life Imitating Art

[malcolmgsw · 7/10 · 13 January 2013]

In 1963 John Prufumo a Conservative MP in the Cabinet had an affair with a model Christine Keeler.He made a statement in the Commons in which he lied.Subsequently he was forced to resign his post and as an MP and retire to private life.Keeler had been involved in a simultaneous affair with a Russian spy.Some of these ingredients are in this film.It probably showed the workings of parliament more to the public than any other media.there being no broadcast of parliament at that time.It is a fine but long forgotten film.One can only wonder why.Incidentally there are some fine views of the old Euston Station which was vandalised by its demolition in 1963.They subsequently wanted to do the same to St pancras,but thankfully this was successfully opposed.The only slight problem is the pointless use of Cinemascope.In fact it is rather irritating at times.

Hot Figure - benched. Nice one, Wilf!

[johnnieroderickbyrne · 24 October 2006]

Count the number of reviews on this site for this 45 year old film. Less than seven at the time of writing. As a life long film fan I have now heard of and seen this movie (thanks to a fellow film fan on this site) but it remains very difficult to view. The number of reviews are indicative of how available it is to view be it on TV or via specialised cinemas. An asset very little exploited and that was a big clue as to why.

Despite the films age it is still relevant especially to British politics. Nothing at all has changed that the author was criticising via this fictional account of Westminster and its residents. Love affairs, power hungry, greed, self serving and back stabbing. It all still there - just read the newspapers in the last year here - but in 1958 they didn't have special people to spin the news like they do now. You get the top two men in Government coming out of rooms, obviously after a set to with fixed grins on their face and saying something like "We have had a frank discussion and are in complete agreement" - that sentence is never finished but would continue "in complete agreement that we loath each other"

In "No Love For Johnnie" the combatants were the likes of Stanley Holloway, Geoffrey Keen, Donald Pleasance, Peters Sallis and Barkworth and leading the field by a nose, Peter Finch. Everyone well played and instantly disliked by myself. Two characters only come out with the viewers sympathy, Flagg,(Dennis Price) not in the original book and Mary (a young Billie Whitelaw) who was obviously perfect for the Peter Finch character but he only saw her as a possible sexual conquest. The man was a fool.

It is also a wonderful bookend to Finch's later USA film "Network", where he goes into that famous rant on live TV against the likes of the character he played in this earlier film.

Despite this sterling cast - like the book it is based on it has been marginalised and is fast losing it mentions in film references books.Check Variety, Time Out. Hats off to Halliwell - it still lists it. For his loathsome performance, Finch won a BAFTA and a Berlin Silver Bear. A lost treasure of a film but now dug up by me and buffed up a bit.

So owners of this film - can I request you re-release it now! The reason I think it was buried in the first place is redundant now - check the title of this text. The book was the incendiary device - the film interpretation defused the bomb. Only Sikes/Sykes of the Earnley Herald remains.

The "No Love For Johnnie" book's blurb screamed "The Novel That Lifts The Lid Off Westminster". It is said REAL Members of Parliament sat around muttering darkly about who it was about - why do MPs always think it is about them? Oh yes - self serving. A question not then answered - perhaps because the author had unfortunately died before even his book was accepted and published, let alone a filmic version.

So the makers of the film version, sort of lifted the lid at Westminster, had a wee peek inside, didn't like what they saw and retreated a respectful distance. Shame really. It was still a shocking film albeit it diluted.

So fair do's - let the whole world see how New Politics was only Old Politics and evermore will be so.

A reflection of the times

[malcolmgsw · 7/10 · 23 February 2018]

This film was made in 1961 during Harold MacMillan's premiership and about a year before the Profumo scandal broke.So much of what is shown in the film was reflected in contemporary life.Of course parliamentary scandals would get worse culminating in the expenses fiddle.Peter Finch is excellent.However there are two aspects of the film which don't ring true.Firstly Mary Peach running off back home.Secondly the motion of no confidence.I am sure that this would have been squashed by the head office,as such an unlikely move would cause major embarrassment to a new government.Incidentally the red scare was quite real at the time,as apart from the Profumo scandal a small number of Labour MPs had contacts with iron curtain countries.

Peter Finch joins Blair's Front Bench.

[ianlouisiana · 7/10 · 19 November 2005]

Jamais plus change.Ambitious,self-serving,dishonest.....yes I'm talking about a British politician,but not in 2005.By today's standards Johnnie Byrne would be a positive paragon of virtue,but 45 years ago MPs at least made the pretence of being at Parliament for some purpose other than self-aggrandisement.Now it's lies,damn lies and political manifestos. Cut and thrust of debate has been replaced by deception and evasion,all done with a knowing smile,after all its a great big gravy train,boys and girls,get on board and fill your boots. Nobody struggles with their conscience any more,most M.P.s couldn't find their consciences with a pair of binoculars and a sniffer dog. "No love for Johnnie" would be laughed out of the cinema nowadays. First time out it was pretty controversial.Most people still respected the British Estates or at least found them tolerable.Now their reputations lie in tatters.It won't be long before "Honours" are offered on E bay,they're already touted around like second hand motor cars.The church is an irrelevance riven by schisms,the media mad with power,the armed forces virtually impotent and Parliament a cash cow. 45 years ago it wasn't so. Hard to believe I know,but true.People were shocked by philandering politicians.Other politicians were shocked by philandering politicians. People like the Stanley Holloway character still existed.Checks and balances were maintained.Mary Peach would have thought twice about embarking on an affair,and certainly wouldn't have hawked her story round Fleet Street afterwards. So "No love for Johnnie" is a record of a more innocent age.The last scene used to cause murmurs in the audience now would merely cause yawns.That's progress fr you.

Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater only in 1969

[kevinolzak · 6/10 · 14 May 2020]

1960's "No Love for Johnnie" was a straight political drama and a change of pace for director Ralph Thomas and producer Betty Box, becoming increasingly identified with comedies like "Doctor in the House" and its sequels. The film was adapted from the novel by Wilfred Feinburgh, a member of Parliament himself who died in an auto accident before its 1959 publication, Peter Finch playing Johnnie Byrne, reelected to Parliament with a greater majority for his Labour Party, quickly becoming disillusioned when passed over for a Cabinet position. This leads to a frankly far less interesting love affair with a young model half his age (Mary Peach), conveniently showing up after the departure of his Communist wife (Rosalie Crutchley). Add to this Billie Whitelaw as the upstairs neighbor pining for his affections, and a sinister looking Donald Pleasence as Roger Renfrew, leading an attempt to undermine Geoffrey Keen's Prime Minister by selecting Johnnie as the one to blow the whistle on a Middle Eastern coup before events play out in Britain's favor. Had the MP's predictably miserable love life not taken precedence over his political aspirations it might have made for something quite special, but it did earn Finch his third BAFTA Award, plus the Silver Bear for Best Actor at Berlin's 11th International Film Festival. The list of familiar faces features longtime veterans such as Dennis Price as a knowing photographer, Stanley Holloway, Mervyn Johns, George Rose, and Peter Sallis, to newcomers Mary Peach and an unbilled Oliver Reed, just off his starring debut in Hammer's "The Curse of the Werewolf," spotted at a party with a basket covering his head at the half hour mark.

Constituent Service

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 15 January 2010]

No Love For Johnnie, I'm guessing did not have much of a release in the USA back when it was first made. Only political science students might grasped the significance of many of the happenings in this film. Of course that was before the BBC sent over its programs on our Public Network and we got a more humorous look at the UK's political system in Yes, Minister.

Peter Finch got one of his best screen roles in No Love For Johnnie as Johnnie Byrne recently re-elected Labour member of Parliament. He's got ambitions and he'll do whatever it takes to succeed, to get to the front benches where the Labour ministers sit when they're in power.

It's a tribute to Finch's talent as a player that he keeps so thoroughly dislikeable a person as Johnnie Byrne interested. He's got a wife, he's estranged from and a mistress he's cheating on also with yet another woman. The women in Finch's life respectively are Rosalie Crutchley, Billie Whitelaw and Mary Peach.

There's nothing he won't do, my favorite part of the film is when fellow back bench Labour ministers attempt a little palace coup against their Prime Minister, such people as Mervyn Johns and Donald Pleasance are involved. They have a script ready to follow and it's with Finch taking the lead. When the play is ready to commence, Finch is nowhere to be found, he's with Mary Peach delivering some constituent service. In fact their scenes, tame as they are today, would never have been in an American film of that era.

Actually Pleasance is also a really ruthless character himself, but apparently really dumb as well. I can't believe that what he was trying to do so totally depended on Finch in Parliament. I mean he couldn't have started the back bench revolt against Prime Minister Geoffrey Keen by improvising someone else to ask the pertinent questions. He gets back at Finch by raising some row with Finch's district constituents, that they almost give him a no confidence vote at a Labour Party district meeting. Imagine if we could do that here.

Stanley Holloway is another Labour minister, an older one who remembers Finch's parents who were right at the beginning of the founding of the Labour Party. He serves as the voice of integrity in the film. He alludes to some things that an American audience might not be aware of like the split during World War I which nearly wrecked the Labour Party during it's adolescence. An element of the party that Holloway apparently belonged to opposed British entry into World War I on pacifist grounds and some in fact did go to jail as conscientious objectors. One of those people who was a conscientious objector was James Ramsay MacDonald, Labour's first prime minister. Others in the Labour Party like Arthur Henderson joined the Coalition government to support the war.

Whether you believed what a MacDonald or apparently Finch's parents did was right isn't really the point. What Holloway says is that back in the day people had real beliefs and acted on them. Finch's lack of commitment to anything other than his ambition is the worst thing about his character. Sounds like a lot of people I know today.

Finch got a BAFTA award which is the UK's equivalent of the Oscar for Best Actor. The film in its searing cynicism is years ahead of its time. I suggest it could be remade today and find a much wider audience than it did in 1961.

An outstanding film about British politics.

[MOscarbradley · 8/10 · 23 December 2016]

"No Love for Johnnie" is that rarest of beasts, a film about British politics and, more over, a highly intelligent one though perhaps the biggest surprise is that this first-rate film came from the Betty Box/Ralph Thomas stable. This producer/director team were hardly noted for good, serious movie-making but they hit pay dirt here. Peter Finch is outstanding, (he won both a BAFTA and a Best Actor at Berlin), as the highly ambitious Labour MP whose extramarital affair could be his downfall though this isn't so much a film about sex and scandal as it is about the cut and thrust of British politics. Consequently it's a lot less melodramatic than it might have been. Finch dominates, (he's hardly ever off the screen), in a film that boasts an outstanding supporting cast, though to be fair, few others are given much of a chance to shine. This is Finch's film and it marked a huge step forward in bringing intelligent, adult fare into British cinemas in the early sixties.

One of the best political dramas ever

[westy42 · 10/10 · 15 December 2003]

Spoiler - though the title says it all.

A very powerful film, unforgettable to any serious viewer. Peter Finch gives a full performance of a man searching for two things in life, love and political success.

The movie is a study of how much a person is willing to give up for political power and respect. Finch sells his heart and soul for a pathetically small piece of this power, as an MP moving from the upper, and less influential, benches to a coveted spot in the lower or front bench. The final frame is one of the most chilling moments in film history.

A must see for anyone thinking about entering politics or anyone who wants to understand politicians.

Life problems for a British MP

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 26 August 2018]

NO LOVE FOR JOHNNIE is a fairly odd addition to the 'kitchen sink' cycle of social dramas that were doing the rounds in Britain from the late 1950s onwards. This one's a little different to the rest in that the focus of our attention is on a politician rather than an ordinary working class bloke, but otherwise the usual subject matters - the problems of the work/life balance, a love triangle, social hierarchy, doing the 'right' thing - are familiar. Peter Finch is an effective choice of lead, coming across as thoroughly believable, and the supporting cast is quite extraordinary, with famous face after famous face fleshing out the cast.

An Excellent Political Drama

[screenman · 8/10 · 15 May 2010]

'No Love For Johnnie' is a rarely-seen early 1960's take on political life. Despite a sterling cast of British character actors, the movie seems almost to have vanished without trace. And that's a real shame.

Peter Finch plays the titular 'Johnnie'. He's a handsome middle-aged politician, still quite young for the period, who has difficulty keeping his trousers on. Basically, he is going through what we would now refer to as a mid-life-crisis, but back in 1961, society was far less tolerant of political peccadilloes.

We see him drift from success to desperation, as adultery, marital breakdown, and the gradual desertion of 'colleagues' leave him isolated and lost.

Everyone turns in excellent performances, placing this movie in the same category as 'Term Of Trial' and 'The Browning Version'. It's such a pity that it's almost never screened, perhaps the print has actually been lost or deteriorated beyond repair, because with the present crop of political crooks demonstrating their utter lack of integrity, its appearance would be very timely.

Well worth a watch if you get the chance.

Finch's performance makes Johnnie a person we can relate to

[howard.schumann · 8/10 · 8 May 2016]

Johnnie Byrne (Peter Finch) is a British Labor party back bencher whose ambition overrides his principles and ultimately his humanity in Ralph Thomas' political drama No Love for Johnnie. Written by Nicholas Phipps' and Mordecai Richler's from a novel by Wilfred Fienburgh, the film is similar in theme to Room at the Top with its unlikable status-seeking protagonist. Unlike the Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret classic, however, No Love for Johnnie never found its audience, though Finch's performance won him a BAFTA Award for Best Actor.

Just re-elected to Parliament from the working-class constituency of Earnley, the 42-year-old Byrne is not exactly a charmer, something his wife Alice (Rosalie Crutchley), an active CP member. notes as she decides to leave him. Passed over for a cabinet position by the Labor Prime Minister Reginald Stevens (Geoffrey Keen), Byrne schemes with a more radical faction of the Party to ask embarrassing questions of the Prime Minister during a parliamentary debate but, after some quiet reassurances from Stevens, he decides to skip the Q and A. Notable here are Stanley Holloway, Geoffrey Keen, Donald Pleasence and Mervyn Johns as nondescript British politicians but it is always Finch who dominates the screen.

The plot, however, turns away from jealousy, ambition, and back stabbing long enough to generate a romance. Johnnie's upstairs neighbor, Mary (Billie Whitelaw) invites him to a party where he meets a 20-year-old model, Pauline West (Mary Peach), and begins a close relationship that ultimately becomes too involving for the much younger woman to handle. Spurned by his own Party, given a vote of no-confidence by his constituency, and unsuccessful in his relationships, Byrne's downfall is pitiable, but the striking authenticity of Finch's performance makes him a person we can relate to and even sympathize with. In today's politics, however, where cynicism has become even more prevalent, a politician who puts ambition above principle would hardly warrant such attention.

Labour left-right punch-up

[Goingbegging · 9/10 · 2 November 2014]

Novels about Labour MP's were enjoying a rich harvest when Wilfred Fienburgh wrote the book on which this film is closely based, and we need to remember the atmosphere of the time - older working-class members being edged-out by smoothies who looked as though they were compromising the soul of the party. Those Northern constituency-meetings would be packed with people who could remember the General Strike, the Depression and the war, while at Westminster, their envoys would be tempted by the charms of the capital into a selfish and cynical mindset that presaged the sixties.

Peter Finch is ideally cast as the protagonist - the right blend of ruggedness and sophistication - and he carries deep conviction as the ambitious newcomer. Soon he is invited to join a left-wing pressure-group, and briefed to embarrass the Prime Minister with a question about a planned military coup in a tiny oil-state. But he is distracted by the much-younger Mary Peach, and cannot tear himself from her bed to attend the session. Presently, unfolding events in the oil-state show that it would have been a blunder to put that question to the PM, but this is only referenced in a single throwaway line. The one unfortunate departure from the novel is the missing scene where he is congratulated on keeping his head and not being panicked into rocking the boat!

The pressure-group is an odd mix of characters that never look united, but all are well-drawn. The inscrutable Donald Pleasance, the chippy Mervyn Johns, the student-like Peter Barkworth. Geoffrey Keen suggests a touch of Attlee as the PM trying to control his quarrelling brood. And Stanley Holloway provides a reassuring Greek chorus as the benevolent veteran. Also displaying benevolence for once is Dennis Price, just before he slid into his alcoholic decline, seen here briefly as the (presumably gay) photographer who is showcasing Mary Peach.

The title 'No Love for Johnnie' is apt enough, and the sad truth of Westminster as the marriage-wrecker is confirmed here. His long and loveless marriage to a Marxist agitator is on the rocks, as she accuses him of moving to the right and selling-out. Emotionally, he is caught between next-door neighbour Billie Whitelaw and party pick-up Mary Peach, the latter falling in love for the first time, but too-frequently reminded that he is a full generation older than her.

The greasy pole

[brogmiller · 8/10 · 10 May 2020]

This adaptation of the novel by Labour MP Wilfred Fienburgh depicts politics as a grubby business conducted by grubby people. To many at the time this may have been something of a revelation but we have long since ceased to harbour any illusions about politicians and see them for the self-serving s***s they really are. The central character here is Johnnie Bryne who has been returned as Labour MP with an increased majority but is passed over for a senior post in Government. He finds consolation in the bottle and in the arms of a much younger woman. He treats appallingly a woman in the flat upstairs with whom he might perhaps have found happiness. He later learns that he has been overlooked because of his wife's communist leanings. They have since parted and being free of this encumbrance he is given a junior post by the Prime Minister. Peter Finch picked up his third of five BAFTAS (the last being awarded posthumously) for his performance as Johnnie. Even by his standards he is simply superb in what is an unsympathetic role. The supporting cast is uniformly excellent notably Geoffrey Keen, Stanley Holloway, Michael Goodliffe, Paul Rogers and Billie Whitelaw. Ralph Thomas freely admitted that he was a journeyman director who made all kinds of films and was happy if he had an occasional hit. This film might not have been a hit in the commercial sense but as a piece of direction Thomas has surpassed himself. He is blessed to have such fine actors and a brilliant script by Nicholas Phipps and Mordecai Richler. Great score by Malcolm Arnold but I do not think the subject matter justifies the film being shot in Cinemascope. Whatever ones political beliefs or affiliations this excellent film still resonates. After all, what Disraeli called the 'greasy pole' is as greasy as ever!

Relevant for sure

[safenoe · 8/10 · 15 January 2022]

I saw No Love for Johnnie ages ago (in the 90s I think?) and it's more relevant now than ever even though it was released over 50 years ago.

No Love for Johnnie is timeless and definitely it's like Australian actor Peter Finch was born for the role of the M. P. who has to trade and compromise his principles to move up the greasy pole.

I'd love for a reboot starring acclaimed British actor Danny Dyer as the M. P.