Wonderful Life

When the UK game show 'Pointless' asked contestants to name a Cliff Richard film in 2014, "Wonderful Life" would have won them the jackpot, because no one remembered this – Cliff's fifth film – fifty years on, and yet it was a film that changed things. After the poor reception and disappointing box office results of this one – it only eventually clawing its budget back in 1987 – Cliff abandoned his trademark quiff and instead went for a Beatle style comb forward. His support team of Melvyn Hayes, Richard O'Sullivan and Una Stubbs were dropped (although Una did later co-star with him in a TV adaptation of 'Aladdin') and there was a two year gap before Cliff and the Shadows (who had never been really used properly in his films) returned to the big screen with "Finders Keepers". And yet in 2015 I find myself strangely drawn towards this film despite – or maybe because of – its flaws of overproduction, poor acting, dull and unbelievable story and director Sydney J Furie's obsession with a new zoom lens. Susan Hampshire is so attractive. She bats her eyes and smiles and goes along with it all in a nice playful spirit – knowing it was rubbish bit determined to at least make people enjoy her performance. Cliff is Cliff. He sings some songs, most of which are terrible – but especially good is 'Matter Of Moments' – but Cliff never really looks at ease. Walter Slezak roars and shouts and gets it right. He plays a past it director with a sensitivity he hides until the end.

Many years later when I started writing about old films, I asked a friend to watch it for me and give me an opinion – but he called back a week later to say that although he tried, he had never gotten beyond the opening fifteen minutes.

Here's what I wrote about it in my book "What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)" when it arrived in Glasgow during week commencing 9th August 1964.

When the Beatles started dominating the charts, Cliff Richard's image took a bit of a dent and it certainly wasn't helped with the timing of the release of "Wonderful Life" at the ABC Regal and Green's Bedford. "The Young Ones" had been a breakthrough musical and "Summer Holiday" had seen him at his film peak, but "Wonderful Life" tried to repeat the formula once too often and the plot of a load of old looking youngsters working at a movie location making their own film looked just daft. On top of that coming to town a couple of weeks after "Hard Day's Night" accentuated the gap between what young people wanted to see now, compared to the sort of all-round-entertainment on show here with dance routines that went on too long, show songs like 'Home' which would have been booed off at a music hall and a lengthy sequence on the history of cinema which brings the film to a shuddering halt. The film had been troubled with weather problems in the Canaries and original support choice Dennis Price had been fired allegedly for drinking and replaced by Glasgow born Derek Bond, and the only Cliff hit song was 'On The Beach'. Susan Hampshire (who had had a small part in "Expresso Bongo") and Walter Slezak co-starred, but this put Cliff's film career on hold for a couple of years. "A Woman's Privilege" with it was one of the 'Scales Of Justice' series about a bachelor who sues a girl who dupes him.

Jim Doyle is the author of 'What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)', 'What We Watched In The 1970s (In The Cinema)" and 'What We Watched In The 1980s (In The Cinema And On Video)'

Wonderful Life was reportedly a huge hit in 1964 because of the immense popularity of its star, Cliff Richard. Sadly, it hasn't stood the test of time very well at all and when I caught up with it in 2024, it reflected very poorly on the movie-making of the day.

However, it is not without its merits. Around the beginning of the second hour of the movie, there is a humorous and nostalgic look at the history of the cinema, with Cliff, The Shadows, Susan Hampshire and Una Stubbs reviving memories of screen legends such as Charlie Chaplin, the Keystone Cops, Rudolf Valentino, the Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, Douglas Fairbanks, Rhett Butler & Scarlett O'Hara and all the way through to James Bond and Ursula Andress. Cliff and Susan Hampshire in particular shine brightly through this segment. And, indeed, Susan Hampshire shines brightly throughout the film.

If you can hold on through the corny plot, the movie nostalgia scene is worth waiting for. If you can't stand the nonsense in the first half of the film, fast-forward to this scene.

About half-way to two-thirds through this movie the kids get a crazy idea: "Let's make a movie!" Don't ask me why. Let's just say it's a cue for the only inspired bit in the flick: the kids get into costume and put on a shticky little history of the movies from The Little Tramp to James Bond. And even then the best parts are Susan Hampshire impersonating - in order - Ginger Rogers, Greta Garbo, Shirley Temple, Betty Grable, a Jet (not a Jet Girl - a Jet!) and a Bond Girl.

Someday, when Hampshire's doing a T.V. interview, somebody should throw these bits on screen and get her reaction. It should be priceless.

A truly nonsenscial muscial comedy, it's nevertheless Cliff Richard's best in the musical genre. ( He did a couple of dramatic films which were his best) A rather bland singer competing with his similar American counterparts Elvis Presley and Frankie Avalon, Richards fared no better than they in comedy and musical scripts. This one at least contains Susan Hampshire and Walter Slezak. What makes this movie so entertaining is the zippy pace and the surprisingly great dancing and choreography. The big dance number on the set by the whole crew is spectacular and rivals "West Side Story". Incidentally, the long-legged Richards keeps right up with the rest of them and does even better at it than his singing! The cute little send-up of the history of the movies is also very entertaining.

A great bit of sixties psychedelia, somewhat reminiscent of Barbarella and the original Casino Royale film. This is fun to watch if you leave your brain at home. For example, one minute they're dancing in a formal ball and the next they're dressed as cowboys or Hawaiian dancers - not only that but one second they're in the desert and the next on a boat pretending to be pirates! The songs were catchy and fun too, and one of them contained the worst rhyme I've ever heard, rhyming 'arabi', a made-up word were meant to imagine means 'Arabia' with 'be' - this only works if we change the word AND the stress AND the pronunciation!