This adaptation of Simon Gray's BUTLEY was part of the American Film Theatre series, conceived in the 1970s by producer Ely Landau and meant to be shown theatrically just like a play, with tickets sold in advance. Alan Bates stars as Ben Butley, a bitter and repressed English literature professor at a British university. Taking place during the course of one day in Butley's office, the acerbic professor's harsh exterior is torn down bit by bit as his world crumbles around him when he learns, nearly simultaneously, of his wife's intent to divorce him, his live-in homosexual lover's infidelities, and a hated colleague's success. Grounded by Mr. Bates' absolutely brilliant performance, BUTLEY is at once a very funny and tremendously moving film.

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