Vice Versa

There's no film quite like Peter Ustinov's Vice Versa, the clever playfulness is constant and yet is never so overpowering as to bore you. I hadn't seen it for nearly 10 years before tonight but remembered most of the excruciatingly erudite and formal dialogue enunciated by the melodramatic caricatures of the ridiculously socially atrophied Victorians perfectly.

Father Roger Livesey and son Anthony Newley (in his 2nd film) make unfortunate hasty wishes holding the stolen mystical Garuda Stone changing their bodies around. The upshot being the young father is sent back to boarding school to astound the natives by the middle aged son who begins to astound his butler and doctor by his sudden propensity for sherbet and ginger ale. Their separate adventures form the film, delightfully and uniquely presented and acted. Favourite bits: The courtroom bursting into The Merry Wives Of Windsor and the swift justice meted out to the duelists because the judge had to get off to Rickmansworth; Reaching for the note on the floor of the school chapel but being startlingly and loudly spotted by headmaster James Robertson Justice - my favourite film of his.

I think it might possibly help to be British or have a working knowledge of the Boys Own Paper and Victorian penny dreadfuls to fully appreciate this, or maybe just keep in mind that this is a fond and gently relentless satire on the genre. In a unique whimsical class of its own, I've always loved this Vice Versa Version but it probably won't appeal to the more serious who prefer sober message to witty inconsequentiality - and of course masochists who would hate all 97 keenly watched minutes.

Roger Livesey ("Paul") is the wealthy but rather indifferent dad to "Dick" (Anthony Newley). The youngster hates the idea of going back to his boarding school, but his skinflint of a father is having none of it. When "Dick" tries a bit of emotional blackmail, his dad - clutching a mysterious stone from a temple in faraway India finds himself making a wish and now has the mental age of his son. His son, seeing an opportunity for some mischief takes hold of the stone and is soon his father in the body of a boy! What now ensue are an entertaining series of escapades as the youngster goes back to a school under the austere tutelage of "Dr. Grimstone" (James Robertson Justice) and the father tries to fit into a modern adult life of industry and duels - when all he really wants is lemonade and a kiss from "Dulcie" (Petula Clark). Livesey is on good form here as is the increasingly exasperated JRJ and Kay Walsh as the girlfriend of the father who finds herself continually perplexed by these unexplained developments. It is directed by Peter Ustinov and that's quite obvious after a while - it has a haphazard quirkiness and whimsy to it that provides for a slightly grander, more sophisticated, humour as the story moves along. It takes a swipe at the pompous and the shallow, and though it is probably twenty minutes too long, is still quite an enjoyable watch with some amiable characterisations and fun dialogue.

Peter Ustinov is a witty literary man. His first love is the theatre, which is a form of literature and he has always tried to bring this love to the cinema. This film is based on a picaresque novel he has made immortal. Its parent-offspring body-swap theme was reprised, pilfered, borrowed and plagiarized in an untold number of similar films (and novels) with titles like "Freaky Friday" (all three versions), "Vice Versa" (1988), "Big" (1988), "18 Again!" (1988), "Like Father Like Son" (1987) and "Dream a Little Dream" (1989). Because of its cast, rhythm and wit, this film owes much to the Ealing comedies and to Powell & Pressburger's "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp". Everyone in it shines and makes the dialogue sound like it was written by Oscar Wilde on marijuana. Even little Petula Clark bravely holds her own opposite Anthony Newley (who also wrote the music), Roger Livesey and James Robertson Justice, whose blustering personality makes this film a true comedy of hypocrisies. The film is full of audacious set pieces that send up the very concept of Britishness and propriety. Its charm is of course untranslatable in any other language. As a screenwriter and filmmaker of intelligence and invention, Ustinov shows he is easily the equal of René Clair and Sacha Guitry. A must-see.

VICE VERSA (1948), a sort of proto-FREAKY_FRIDAY story about a father and son switching places, is a delightful British comedy in the vein of, perhaps, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949), brought to you by theatrical Renaissance man Peter Ustinov, who wrote, produced, and directed the film (but does not appear on-screen).

The action is set around the turn of the century and involves a magic wish-granting stone, stolen from a temple in India. When young Dick Bultitude protests being sent back to his boarding school, his blustery father (holding the stone) makes an off-hand remark about wishing to be young again. Soon the elder Bultitude finds himself in the body of a schoolboy, the spitting image of his own son. And Dick grabs the stone and wishes to be grown-up, filling out the body of his middle-aged father. Understandably, everyone mistakes Dick for his father and vice versa, sending the father off to school in the boy's place and leaving the son to manage the father's affairs at home.

The dual performances by the two main actors are superb, with an adolescent Anthony Newley (later to star in DOCTOR DOLITTLE and write songs for WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY in a varied entertainment career) doing a spot-on imitation of Roger Livesey's Bultitude Sr. and Livesey in turn acting believably childish as a boy in a man's body. Each actor gives such a distinctly different performance after the body swap that it's no trouble believing that Newley IS a fifty-year-old man or that Livesey IS a boy of fourteen, despite the absurdity of it all. And from there the hijinks are a lot of fun.

Ustinov's film has a wonderful flair for comedy, from the charmingly old-timey title slides to the bookending narrative device that breaks the fourth wall, inviting the audience into the Bultitude home. The literate script uses stuffy British propriety to humorous effect, particularly through the characters of Paul Bultitude (the father) and James Robertson Justice's strict headmaster Dr. Grimstone. There's also a madcap farce of a duel and a subsequent courtroom scene that's a riot.

English comedy tends to fall into one of two types. The first involves the clever and often risqué use of the English language. The second involves physical or slap-stick humour. The best English comedies successfully combine both types and the 1948 version of Vice Versa is just such a comedy. To see the great Roger Livesey cavorting as a young boy is alone worth the price of admission. It is arguably easier for a young person to act old than it is for an old person to act young, mimicry being easier than regression. To carry either role off is, however, no mean feat. Anthony Newley is brilliant as the young Dick Bultitude imitating his fathers sophisticated and worldly ways. It is also great fun to watch the young Petula Clark years before she became a famous pop star. If you want to watch both the 1988 version of this story starring Judge Reinhold as well as the 1948 version, I would strongly recommend you see the 1988 version first. You will enjoy the 1988 version. The 1948 version of Vice Versa is however the definitive one. After seeing it you will be spoiled for all others.