Benny, der Pechvogel

For once, a protagonist who doesn't smoke! I swear, they love their cigarettes in Great Britain, and it seemed in every sex comedy, someone is lighting up.

One of the movies from the British-made "Adventures" series, this one is actually a good one. A likeable Lothario plumber named Sid is having trouble paying the bookies and must get 1000 pounds paid to them or "else". In between plumbing jobs, he works for a small-time crime boss who gives him "jobs" to do, and they all go wrong for him. As with all movies in this series, people go naked, but here, there aren't any sex scenes for once, but there are some funny scenes created from the situations the plumber gets into.

Stephen Lewis, who played Inspector Blakey from "On The Buses", has a small role as Sid's boss, the aptly named B.A. Crapper. Yes, this is a very British film, with some people's accents being very difficult to decipher, but it's still worth seeing, although it's probably unavailable in the U.S. If you live in a British Commonwealth country, you'll find it.

The third and last of director Stanley Long's 'Adventures of...' sex comedies, Plumber's Mate sees Christopher Neil once again taking the lead, this time as opportunistic, randy, Jack-the-lad Sidney South, who, up to his neck in debt and facing a severe pummelling, takes on a series of illegal jobs to try and earn some much needed readies. Meanwhile, a gangster and his crony want a word with Sid about a missing toilet seat that is far more valuable than it seems...

Another attempt by Long to emulate the success of the popular Confessions series, Plumber's mate misses the mark thanks to a lack of decent laughs and a central character who is nowhere near as lovable as Robin Askwith's hapless chump Timmy Lea: as amiable as he may seem, Sid is still a gambler, a misogynistic love-rat, and a petty criminal, willing to flout serious laws in order to save his own bacon. It's hard to side with such a no-hoper, or to find his desperate antics all that hilarious.

That said, while nowhere near as funny or as good-natured as the convivial Confessions films, Plumber's Mate still manages to be mildly diverting nonsense thanks to its endless stream of full-on nudity from a bevy of beauties, and a fun supporting cast that features many faces that will be all too familiar to fans of 70s British TV (Stephen 'Blakey' Lewis, Willie Rushton, Elaine Paige, Arthur Mullard, and Christopher Biggins, to name but a few).

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

As you might guess from the title, this movie is about the adventures of a plumber's assistant. In real life it's not exactly a profession where you'd expect a lot of hot sex action, but, of course, it is in movies like this. Aside from the vaguely sexy, plumbing-related hijinks though, there's a genuine plot where our hero "Sid South" (Christopher Neil)owes serious gambling debts to a pair of hulking loan sharks, and gets mixed up with a recently-paroled convict (after he fixes the, um, plumbing of the man's wife)in trying to retrieve a golden toilet seat (or rather a toilet seat with stolen gold concealed in it). There's nothing wrong, of course, with a sex comedy having a plot per se, but this unfortunately is not a very funny one.

These "Adventures of" films are naturally a cheap knock-off of the then-popular "Confessions of" series of sex comedies with Robin Askwith. The whole series is a couple steps down from the genuinely entertaining "Confessions of" series, but this film is also another step or two down from the first film in the series "Adventures of a Taxi Driver". It's a conceit in these films that blue-collar slobs somehow get more sex action than rock stars. The problem is that Neil often acts like a whiny, spoiled rock star and quickly loses the every-man sympathy of the audience. In the opening scene, for instance, he wakes up in his grungy, vermin-infested flat with a pretty nice-looking girl (evidently a one-night stand), who unaccountably considers him to be some kind of catch. But he kicks her to the curb like he's Rod Stewart (actually he leaves her bare-assed naked on the curb after his motorbike rips her dress off).

Neil has zero charisma in his role, but most of the female characters don't really have roles at all. They're all pretty cute, but they put in little more than undraped cameos. Suzy Mandel, for instance, was such an appealing actress that she sometimes appeared on the posters of movies she wasn't even in (like the French film "Pussy Talk"). Later, she went to the US and ended up in a big-budget XXX film,but they actually let her use a body double for the XXX scenes. Anyway, she's pretty much wasted as one of a quartet of "tennis girls" who catch the protagonist after he decides to use the ladies' shower for no real reason while on a job (in real-life he'd probably be reported as a sex pervert, but of course that's not what happens here. . .). The only characters I liked were the male character actors like the two loan sharks and "Sid's" boss. Their lower-class Brit accents were often virtually unintelligible, but they were at least funny.

Compared with the tacky 'Confessions of' series, the first two 'Adventures of' films felt a little more classy with actual plots. This however is horrible. It's a humourless, very poorly made crime film with an exceptionally unpleasant lead character.

Christopher Neil, who was the taxi driver in the first movie plays an absolutely detestable character. He's a cruel, spiteful and ignorant sexist yob. Sexist! OK, you wouldn't expect a film like this to be particularly woke but in a so-called comedy you wouldn't expect such aggressive misogyny - or for that to be a basis of humour. There's also a plot which is the dullest crime story imaginable. That introduces a series of unlikeable, unfunny boring characters. These help to drag the tedium out for what seems hours.

Is it worth watching for the sexy ladies? No. The progression of characterless one-dimensional naked cardboard cutouts are as erotic as Chinese shadow play. The knickerless girl on the motorcycle at the beginning however is pleasant but the rest of the supposed erotica is just crude, dirty and cheap looking.

I'm obviously not a prude or I wouldn't be watching this but this is a vile, shabby excuse for entertainment which makes you feel dirty and annoyed that you wasted an hour and a half on.

Elaine Paige made her film debut in this British sex film.At the time the British film industry was in a very poor state.Often sex films were the only opportunity for actors to appear on screen.So that is the reason that Richard Caldicott appears.This film is a smaller budgeted version of the Confession series,which in turn took over when the Carry Ons had their day.This film is actually amusing in parts unlike the Confessions which were unfunny and crass.There is one very funny shot of a amateurs wobbling breasts.However Arthur Millard in his last film does rather exhibit his acting limitations.Rather redolent of the period.