Amore pizzicato

Not the rollicking comedy that it should have been from the legendary Carry On team but enjoyable enough to pass an hour and a half. A slight story involving classical music students from 1960, trying to win a scholarship. Hampered by the overbearing tutor, the ebullient James Robertson Justice, who else, the students get into all sorts of panic situations. Leslie Phillips, who I met to get his autograph when I was a boy and so have always had a soft spot for, is the central character here. He sparks off the ever lovely Liz Fraser and they form the pair with the most chemistry. Jennifer Jayne and Paul Massey are a bit dull as the other couple. Carry On standbys crop up regularly to inject some much needed laughs. We see David Lodge, Sid James, Lance Percival, Esma Cannon, Joan Hickson, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Eric Barker and even Jill Ireland a couple of years before she swanned off to Hollywood with Charles Bronson. I think the main let down is the rather staid classical music setting for a comedy of this type and less emphasis could have been applied to that and a bit more slapstick, would have made it a better film. Still, ok for me if only for Liz Fraser, Leslie Phillips and Sid James. Oh and Esma Cannon as a really funny deaf landlady.