The Adding Machine (film)

The Adding Machine
Opening titles
Directed by	Jerome Epstein
Written by	Jerome Epstein
Based on	The Adding Machine by Elmer Rice
Produced by	Jerome Epstein
Starring	Milo O'Shea Phyllis Diller Billie Whitelaw Sydney Chaplin Raymond Huntley
Cinematography	Walter Lassally Ronnie Fox Rogers
Edited by	Gerry Hambling
Music by	Mike Leander Lambert Williamson
Production company	Associated London Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	23 September 1969
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$500,000

The Adding Machine is a 1969 British fantasy comedy drama film produced, written, and directed by Jerome Epstein and starring Milo O'Shea, Phyllis Diller, Billie Whitelaw, Sydney Chaplin, and Raymond Huntley.

It is based on a stage production of the 1923 Elmer Rice play The Adding Machine directed by Epstein in Los Angeles in the 1940s.

The setting of The Adding Machine takes place on both Earth and in Heaven. For the film, Epstein set the earthly action in Manhattan in the 1930s during the Great Depression.

The movie was shot at Shepperton Studios outside London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Jack Shampan. It was distributed in the United Kingdom by Universal Pictures.

Plot

An accountant whose job is about to be taken over by a comptometer (a primitive adding machine) starts to re-examine his life and his priorities.

Cast

• Milo O'Shea as Mr. Zero
• Phyllis Diller as Mrs. Zero
• Billie Whitelaw as Daisy Devore
• Sydney Chaplin as Lieutenant Charles
• Julian Glover as Shrdlu
• Raymond Huntley as Smithers
• Phil Brown as Don
• Paddie O'Neil as Mabel
• Libby Morris as Ethel
• Hugh McDermott as Harry
• Bill Nagy as lawyer
• Carol Cleveland as Judy
• Bruce Boa as detective

Reception

Roger Greenspun wrote in the New York Times: "Virtually everything in this movie version is a bad idea poorly realized. Epstein's direction is straight pre-New Wave academic, with absolutely regular cross-cutting punctuated by occasional lyrical montage to indicate imagination. He has softened the play a bit, added a dumb discourse on violence, added a needless prison scene for Phyllis Diller, and moved the Elysian Fields to an amusement park. For frumpy Daisy Devore, Zero's long-lost office romance, he has miscast Billie Whitelaw, who would still look ravishing if she dressed in cast iron and took ugly pills for a year. Indeed, each member of the distinguished cast is in his own way unsuitable."

See also

• List of American films of 1969

External links

• The Adding Machine at IMDb
• The Adding Machine then-and-now location photographs at ReelStreets