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List Price: $19.98Amazon.com's Price: $14.99 You Save: $4.99 (25%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0794051290823
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: BBC Warner
Manufacturer: BBC Warner
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: BBC Warner
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 29, 2007
Running Time: 78 minutes
Sales Rank: 29518
Studio: BBC Warner
Theatrical Release Date: 1975
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The Naked Civil Servant created a furor in 1975 when it premiered on PBS in North America with viewers threatening to yank their support of their local stations. It was a film ahead of its time about a man even more ahead of his time. The Naked Civi Servant is based on the autobiography of Quentin Crisp a man struggling to live an openly flamboyant gay lifestyle during a time when homosexuality was against the law in Britain. His outlandish behavior shocked the intolerant pre-WWII British society and provoked frequent homophobic attacks but Crisp staunchly refused to compromise his lifestyle and went on to become a cult celebrity and an international gay icon a 20th-Century Oscar Wilde. This colorful heartwarming coming of age tale is by turns funny and tragic.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794051290823 Manufacturer No: E2908
Amazon.com:
Between Oscar Wilde and Boy George, Quentin Crisp was the most important gay icon in England. The TV movie The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp's autobiography and broadcast in 1975, had a significant social impact in the cause of gay rights, and it's easy to see why. Packed with witty aphorism but also unflinching in its portrayal of the verbal and physical abuse Crisp received for being an openly effeminate homosexual; throughout most of Crisp's life, simply being flamboyant was a political statement, one not always appreciated by other gay men who sought to pass unsuspected. The film briskly moves from when he stumbled into London's gay demimonde to his bohemian social world and career as an artist's model to a particularly superb scene when he was put on trial for solicitation. The Naked Civil Servant also brought the brilliant John Hurt, who played Crisp with intelligence and humanity, to wide acclaim. Hurt has since appeared in movies as diverse as Alien, The Elephant Man, V for Vendetta, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but Crisp remains a signature role for this unique actor. The fortuitous combination of Crisp and Hurt makes The Naked Civil Servant essential viewing. Extras on the dvd include a short television piece in which Crisp interviewed Tina Brown when she was editor of Vanity Fair and a sweet, reminiscing commentary by Hurt, director Jack Gold, and producer Verity Lambert. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - So Gay. So What?
How many people have led better lives thanks to dear Quentin Crisp? As a young fey gay man in the 1980's coping with AIDS and society that basically thought my friends and I deserved to die, Crisp was a gift from above. I read ALL of his books and he saved my life- not with gooey "gay is great" style PC posturing, but with an unvarnished wisdom that taught me the gay facts of life.
Like how I would never lead a normal life and that I should be gratful for that because normal life is ... Read More
Rating:  - Quentin Crisp (and John Hurt): A fine combination of wit, honesty, humanity and mascara
"Do you think a homosexual elephant has a terrible time of it?" Most of us undoubtedly have asked that question at one time or another, but I doubt if any except Quentin Crisp have asked it with such innocent interest. Crisp was, in his own words, an unregenerate degenerate. He was an English homosexual who saw no reason why he shouldn't be who he was. He was effeminate. He dressed flamboyantly, favoring broad-brimmed fedoras and flowing scarves. He wore make-up and hennaed his carefully coifed hair. ... Read More
Rating: - The Sublime John Hurt...
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This made-for-television BBC film from the mid-'70s is worth viewing for John Hurt's acting skill alone.
I saw this on PBS' Masterpiece Theater over thirty years ago and was mesmerized.
Hurt was hot off the set of I, Claudius where his portrayal of Caius ("Caligula") is a wonder of the art of acting wherein he combined hubris, langour, madness, and humour--what a confection!
I, Claudius
Hurt is of course a working actor, and unfortunately he has not always ... Read More
Rating: - Revisiting Quentin Crisp
"The Naked Civil Servant"
Revisiting Quentin Crisp
Amos Lassen
Last night I figured it was time to drop in on Quentin Crisp again as I hadn't seen "The Naked Civil Servant" in about 12 years. The film was first broadcast on Public Television in about 1975 and caused quite a sensation. Quentin Crisp was a British gay man who came out in the 1920's and he, himself, introduces the film about his life but with John Hurt playing him. The film follows his life as he found ... Read More
Rating: - Done to a Crisp
I knew Quentin Crisp at the end of his life (for about twenty-six months, we ending up going out to a dinner, flick or play with a party of friends practically every weekend), and John Hurt has him down pat in this glorious film. CIVIL SERVANT, in either its English tv incarnation or book version, was most Americans' introduction to the unique Mr. C., and remains both a great jumping-off place to begin exploring Crisp-World, and one of the best film biographies ever. Like Henry Higgins' definition of good ... Read More
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