Withnail and I

Plot

In September 1969, two unemployed young actors, flamboyant alcoholic Withnail and contemplative, neurotic Marwood, live in a squalid flat in Camden Town, London. Their only regular visitor is their drug dealer, Danny. One morning, the pair squabble about housekeeping and then leave for a stroll. In Regent's Park, they discuss the poor state of their acting careers and the desire for a holiday; Marwood proposes a trip to a rural cottage near Penrith owned by Withnail's wealthy uncle Monty. They visit Monty that evening at his luxurious Chelsea house. Monty is a melodramatic aesthete, whom Marwood infers is homosexual. The three briefly drink together as Withnail casually lies to Monty about his acting career. He further deceives Monty by implying that Marwood attended Eton College ("the other place"), whilst a lithograph of Harrow School seen earlier in the flat suggests that both Monty and Withnail were educated there. Withnail persuades his uncle to lend them the cottage key and they leave.

Withnail and Marwood drive to the cottage the next day but find the weather cold and wet, the cottage without provisions and the locals unwelcoming—in particular a poacher, Jake, whom Withnail offends in the pub. Marwood becomes anxious when he later sees Jake prowling around the cottage and suggests they leave for London the next day. Withnail in turn demands that they share a bed in the interest of safety but Marwood refuses. During the night, Withnail fears that the poacher wants to harm them and climbs under the covers with Marwood, who angrily leaves for a different bed. Hearing the sounds of an intruder breaking into the cottage, Withnail again joins Marwood in bed. The intruder turns out to be Monty, with supplies.

The next day, Marwood realises Monty's visit has ulterior motives when he makes suggestive sexual advances upon him; Withnail seems oblivious to this. Monty drives them into town and gives them money to buy Wellington boots but they go to a pub instead, and then to a small cafe where they cause a disturbance. Monty is hurt, though he forgets the offence as the three drink and play poker. Marwood is terrified by the thought of Monty's further sexual overtures and wants to leave immediately, but Withnail insists on staying. Late in the night, Marwood tries to avoid Monty's company but is eventually cornered in the guest bedroom as Monty demands sex, threatening to rape Marwood. Monty also reveals that Withnail, during the visit in London, lied that Marwood was a closet homosexual. Marwood lies that Withnail is the closeted one and that the two of them are in a committed relationship, which Withnail wishes to keep secret from his family and that this is the first night in six years that they have not slept together. Monty, a romantic, believes this explanation and leaves after apologising for coming between them. In private, Marwood furiously confronts Withnail.

Cast

Richard E. Grant as Withnail

Paul McGann as "...& I" (Marwood)

Richard Griffiths as Monty (Montague H. Withnail)

Ralph Brown as Danny

Michael Elphick as Jake

Daragh O'Malley as Irishman (aggressive pub visitor)

Michael Wardle as Isaac Parkin (farmer)

Una Brandon-Jones as Mrs Parkin

Noel Johnson as General (bar owner)

Irene Sutcliffe as Miss Blennerhassit, Tea Shop Waitress

Llewellyn Rees as Tea Shop Proprietor

Robert Oates as Policeman 1

Anthony Wise as Policeman 2

Eddie Tagoe as Presuming Ed

Production

Development

The film is an adaptation of an unpublished novel written by Robinson in 1969–1970 (an early draft of which sold at auction for £8,125 in 2015). Actor friend Don Hawkins (who had starred in the 1970 film Tam Lin with Robinson) passed a copy of the manuscript to his friend Mordecai (Mody) Schreiber in 1980. Schreiber paid Robinson £20,000 to adapt it into a screenplay, which Robinson did in the early 1980s. When meeting Schreiber in Los Angeles, Robinson expressed concern that he might not be able to continue because the writing broke basic screenplay rules and was hard to make work as a film. It used colloquial English to which few Americans would connect ("Give me a tanner and I'll give him a bell."); characters in dismal circumstances and a plot prodded by uncinematic voice-overs. Schreiber told him that that was precisely what he wanted. On completing the script, producer Paul Heller urged Robinson to direct it and found funding for half the film. The script was then passed to HandMade Films and George Harrison agreed to fund the remainder of the film.

Robinson's script is largely autobiographical. "Marwood" is Robinson; "Withnail" is based on Vivian MacKerrell, a friend with whom he shared a Camden house and "Uncle Monty" is loosely based on Franco Zeffirelli, from whom Robinson received unwanted amorous attentions when he was a young actor. He lived in the impoverished conditions seen in the film and wore plastic bags as Wellington boots. For the script, Robinson condensed two or three years of his life into two or three weeks. Robinson stated he named the character of Withnail after a childhood acquaintance named Jonathan Withnall, who was "the coolest guy I had ever met in my life".

Early in the film, Withnail reads a newspaper headline "Boy lands plum role for top Italian director" and suggests that the director is sexually abusing the boy. This is a reference to the sexual harassment that Robinson alleges he suffered at the hands of Zeffirelli when, at age 21, he won the role of Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet. Robinson attributed Uncle Monty's question to Marwood ("Are you a sponge or a stone?") as a direct quotation of Zeffirelli. The headline "Nude au pair's secret life" was an actual headline from News of the World on 16 November 1969.

The end of the novel saw Withnail committing suicide by pouring a bottle of wine into the barrel of Monty's shotgun and then pulling the trigger as he drank from it. Robinson changed the ending, as he believed it was "too dark".

Pre-production

Peter Frampton worked as make-up artist, Sue Love as hair stylist and Andrea Galer as costume designer.

Mary Selway worked as casting director.

McGann was Robinson's first choice for "I" but he was fired during rehearsals because Robinson decided McGann's Scouse (Liverpool) accent was wrong for the character. Several other actors read for the role but McGann eventually persuaded Robinson to re-audition him, promising to affect a Home Counties accent and quickly won back the part.

Actors Robinson considered for "Withnail" included Daniel Day-Lewis, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh and Edward Tudor-Pole. Robinson claims that Grant was too fat to play Withnail and told him that "half of you has got to go". Grant has denied this.

Though he plays a raging alcoholic, Grant is a teetotaller with an allergy to alcohol. He had never been drunk prior to making the film. Robinson decided that it would be impossible for Grant to play the character without having ever experienced inebriation and a hangover, so he "forced" the actor on a drinking binge. Grant has stated that he was "violently sick" after each drink and found the experience deeply unpleasant.

Filming

According to Grant's book, With Nails, filming commenced on 2 August 1986 in the Lake District and shooting took seven weeks. A rough cut was screened to the actors in a Wardour Street screening room on 8 December 1986. Denis O'Brien, who oversaw the filming on behalf of HandMade Films, nearly shut the film down on the first day of production. He thought that the film had no "discernible jokes" and was badly lit. During the filming of the scene in which Withnail drinks a can of lighter fluid, Robinson changed the contents of the can between takes from water to vinegar to get a better reaction from Grant. The film cost £1.1 million to make. Robinson received £80,000 to direct, £30,000 of which he reinvested into the film to shoot additional scenes such as the journeys to and from Penrith, which HandMade Films would not fund. The money was never reimbursed after the film's success. Ringo Starr is credited as a "Special Production Consultant" under his legal name, Richard Starkey MBE.

The film was shot almost entirely on location. There was no filming in the real Penrith; the locations used were in and around nearby Shap and Bampton, Cumbria. Monty's cottage, Crow Crag, is Sleddale Hall, near the Wet Sleddale Reservoir just outside Shap, although the lake that Crow Crag apparently overlooks is Haweswater Reservoir. The bridge where Withnail and Marwood go fishing with a shotgun is over the River Lowther. The telephone box in which Withnail calls his agent is beside Wideworth Farm Road in Bampton.

Sleddale Hall was offered for sale in January 2009 with a starting price of £145,000. Sebastian Hindley, who owns the Mardale Inn in Bampton, won the auction at a price of £265,000 but he failed to secure financing and the property was resold for an undisclosed sum to Tim Ellis, an architect from Kent, whose original bid failed at the auction.

Exterior and ground floor interior shots of Crow Crag were shot at Sleddale Hall in Cumbria and Stockers Farm in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, and the bedroom and stair scenes of Crow Crag were also filmed in Hertfordshire. Stockers Farm was also the location for the Crow and Crown pub.

The King Henry pub and the Penrith Tea Rooms scenes were filmed in the Market Square in Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, at what is now The Crown Inn Stony Stratford and Cox & Robinson pharmacy, respectively.

Music

The film score was composed by David Dundas and Rick Wentworth. The film features a rare appearance of a recording by the Beatles, whose 1968 song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" plays as the titular duo return to London and find Presuming Ed in the bath. The song, written and sung by George Harrison, was able to be included in the soundtrack due to Harrison's involvement as a producer.

"A Whiter Shade of Pale" (live) – King Curtis – 5:25

"The Wolf" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 1:33

"All Along the Watchtower" (reduced tempo) – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – 4:10

"To the Crow" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 2:22

"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (live) – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – 4:28

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" – The Beatles – 4:44

"Marwood Walks" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 2:14

"Monty Remembers" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 2:02

"La Fite" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 1:10

"Hang Out the Stars in Indiana" – Al Bowlly and New Mayfair Dance Orchestra – 1:35

"Crow Crag" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 0:56

"Cheval Blanc" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 1:15

"My Friend" – Charlie Kunz – 1:28

"Withnail's Theme" – David Dundas and Rick Wentworth – 2:40

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 85 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann prove irresistibly hilarious as two misanthropic slackers in Withnail and I, a biting examination of artists living on the fringes of prosperity and good taste."

Film critic Roger Ebert added the film to his Great Movies list, describing Grant's performance as a "tour de force" and Withnail as "one of the iconic figures in modern films".

Robinson won the Best Screenplay award at the 1988 Evening Standard British Film Awards.

Legacy

It is widely regarded as being one of the greatest British films ever made, and its influence has been cited by several filmmakers as directly inspiring their work, among them Shane Black's The Nice Guys, James Ponsoldt's The End of the Tour, Todd Sklar's Awful Nice, Jay and Mark Duplass's Jeff, Who Lives at Home, John Bryant's The Overbrook Brothers, David Gordon Green's Pineapple Express, Alexander Payne's Sideways, and Tom DiCillo's Box of Moonlight.

In 1999, the British Film Institute voted Withnail and I the 29th greatest British film of all time. In 2001, Withnail and I was ranked 38th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Films poll. In 2008, the film was ranked number 118 in Empire's 500 Greatest Films of All Time list. A 2009 poll by The Guardian among film critics and filmmakers voted it the second best British film of the previous 25 years. In 2011, Time Out London named it the seventh-greatest comedy film of all time. In a 2014 poll, readers of Empire voted Withnail and I the 92nd greatest film.

In 2016, Games Radar voted Withnail and I the 16th greatest comedy film of all time. In a 2017 poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine, the film was ranked the 15th best British film ever. The line "We want the finest wines available to humanity, we want them here and we want them now", delivered by Richard E. Grant as Withnail, was voted the third favourite film one-liner in a 2003 poll of 1,000 film fans.

There is a drinking game associated with the film. The game consists of keeping up, drink for drink, with each alcoholic substance consumed by Withnail over the course of the film. All told, Withnail is shown drinking roughly 9+1⁄2 glasses of red wine, one-half imperial pint (280 ml) of cider, one shot of lighter fluid (vinegar or overproof rum are common substitutes), 2+1⁄2 measures of gin, six glasses of sherry, thirteen drams of Scotch whisky and 1⁄2 pint of ale.

In 1992, filmmaker David Fincher attempted to create an unofficial reunion of sorts, when he attempted casting all three of the film's main characters in Alien 3. McGann and Brown appeared; however, Grant turned down his role, which eventually went to Charles Dance, who played the character of Clemens in the "spirit of Withnail".

Stage adaptation

On 12 October 2023, it was announced that a stage adaptation would premiere at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre from 3 to 25 May 2024, adapted by Robinson and directed by Sean Foley.