Spart-3

Imagine this: A group of movie people get together and say, "Why don't we create a few pay days for ourselves by writing and producing an hilarious satire of Dumas and Dickens, cast it with solid actors, add a few authentic locations, and then, take the money and run?" Well, that may not be totally accurate, but a case could certainly be made for it. Here we have Donald Sutherland sleepwalking through his role, accompanied by Gene Wilder at his screamiest worst(*) and, to compound the fracture, they both have dual roles. Orson Welles was thrown in as the narrator to add luster to the cast. Amazing what an actor will do to keep working. (*) My worst nightmare would be to have to watch Gene Wilder and Alan Arkin in back-to-back movies, screaming me into dementia. Miss this if you can!

One would be hard-pressed not to laugh along with the Russell family in the final scene of this, my most favorite of British post-war comedies. It is a comedy in every sense, albeit one which points up several life lessons as it unfolds. Alistair Sim - whose roles have run the gamut from Headmistress of a girls' public school (the St. Trinian's series)to benign assassin (The Green Man) to the dramatic (the quintessential Scrooge in A Christmas Carol) once again proves here that he is without doubt the best of many comic actors in the English cinema. Surrounded by a cast of equal talents (Fay Compton, George Cole, Guy Middleton, A.E. Matthews, John Laurie, and the irrepressible Joyce Grenfell) Sim leads a Light Cavalry charge through a wonderfully woven plot. There are wonderful morals to be learned here also. If you haven't seen this gem, by all means get the video and fill that gaping void in your filmic experiences.