Kath (Beryl Reid) is an aging woman with strong sexual urges who, while traipsing through a cemetery in a wispy see-through dress and licking a popsicle, happens upon the lithe and strapping Mr. Sloane (Peter McEnery) sunbathing half nude. She sees an opportunity to sate her hunger and invites him to become her lodger. Living with her is her crusty old father Kemp (Alan Webb) who eventually recognizes Mr. Sloane as a murderer from his past. Sloane proceeds to playfully torment Kemp while subtly manipulating Kath and her closeted gay brother Ed (Harry Andrews). What devious desires will Sloane’s meddling and machinations unlock and what dark deeds will be committed?

While this 1970 film version of the celebrated Joe Orton stage play Entertaining Mr. Sloane loses some of Orton’s original stage production’s biting satire in favor of more broad, strange content, it’s a delightfully morbid and amusing film in its own way. Beryl Reid is excellent as the aging but horny sister who throws herself at Sloane at every turn. She captures the slinky sultriness necessary for this kind of role. You know she’d be a tiger in bed in her prime, and really perhaps still is despite being old enough to be Sloane’s mother. As for McEnery as Sloane, while some have commented that he’s a bit too old for the character, I didn’t find his age too distracting. As far as his portrayal goes, I thought McEnery did a great job portraying the “aw shucks” faux-innocent but deeply devious and coldly calculating Sloane. Webb is solid as the bourgeois but secretly homosexual brother as well. Yes, the ending is ridiculous, but in my mind it fits in nicely with the more broad, farcical tone that director Douglas Hickox was going for.

Entertaining Mr. Sloane comes to blu-ray courtesy of Severin in a very nice new 2K scan from the original film elements that captures the heightened naturalistic cinematography of Wolfgang Suschitzky without losing any of the detail in the film’s many close-ups. This is a film of subtle glances, facial expressions and body language as much as Orton’s dialogue and is perhaps the biggest achievement of Hickox’ adaptation, bringing something beyond what can be had on the stage. That aforementioned dialogue comes through crystal clear in the film’s DTS-HD Master dual-mono track with no distortion or hiss to detract from the bouncy score. Severin has really stacked this blu-ray with lots of good special features to dig into if that’s your bag. First we have an audio commentary with film historian Nathaniel Thompson and Orton expert Dr. Emma Parker, and as one would expect, we get lots of information not only on the film but on Joe Orton as well. Along a similar line, we also get an archival interview with John Lahr, who wrote a biography on Orton, an interview with Leonie Orton reminiscing about her brother Joe, and an interview with screenwriter David McGillivrey discussing Orton’s impact on other writers. All of these things together go a long way toward painting a clearer picture of who Orton was and why he was so influential on future playwrights and screenwriters. Additionally we get an interesting feature called “All My Sloanes” that interviews multiple actors who have played the role of Mr. Sloane over the years in different productions of the play as well as others involved in the productions. We also get an interview with film professor Rosie White who discusses lead actress Beryl Reid, a shooting locations featurette hosted by film writer Richard Dacre, and a video essay by historian Elissa Rose on the costuming of Entertaining Mr. Sloane and how it informs and characterizes the sexuality in the film.

Entertaining Mr. Sloane is a delightfully macabre dark comedy of twisted power dynamics with a consistently great cast. Severin has brought this film to blu-ray in a beautiful and exhaustive package with excellent video quality and a stacked set of extras. Highly recommended, especially if you gravitate to the saucy British sex comedies of the ’60s and early ’70s!