Your Past Is Showing

There's not a false move in this charming British comedy featuring Peter Sellers in multiple disguises, and Terry-Thomas in top form.

The script concerns a muckraker who's blackmailing several citizens by threatening to expose their dirty secrets in a new tabloid (which he assembles in a tacky houseboat on the Thames). Some of his victims decide to fight back, with humorous results, ending with a wacky scheme that ends with multiple twists.

The casting is perfect, including Peggy Mount, Kenneth Griffith, and a very young Joan Sims. And Michael Pertwee's script is ingenious and full of good lines. THE NAKED TRUTH (a/k/a YOUR PAST IS SHOWING) is a great example of the kind of film comedies that British studios were capable of turning out (seemingly effortlessly) in the 40s and 50s.

I'm a big Sellers fan and couldn't believe I'd never heard of this film (made shortly after SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH). Track this one down and enjoy a fun evening with some real characters.

This film solidified Peter Sellers' stardom as a comic actor of the first rank. He had appeared in other films prior to it, but THE LADYKILLERS was the only one prior to this that showed him to any advantage, as an inept "teddy boy" type.

Here he is "Wee Sonny MacGregor" a popular young entertainer on television, whose variety show has mostly elderly viewers who think of Sonny as the son or grandson they always dreamed about. Unfortunately for Sonny, one Nigel Dennis (Dennis Price) publishes "THE NAKED TRUTH", a tell all scandal sheet like "Confidential" or (despite their disclaimers) "The Enquirer". Mr Dennis has a nice, somewhat legal, offer. If you will help defray the expenses of his magazine, he will refrain from publishing details of what you don't want known. In his best, intelligent scoundrel style, Price reveals to dear "Wee Sonny" that he knows about the large amounts of rent money "Wee Sonny" has been making with some rotting tenements in London. The audience for "Wee Sonny" would not feel very comfortable with his image knowing about this.

Price has similar pieces of information regarding Peggy Blount, playing an "Agatha Christie" novelist - apparently one of her plots may not have been so original. Also Terry-Thomas, as Lord Mayley, is not as respectable as he lets on - he seems to have had several affairs his wife does not know of (although Georgina Cookson - Lady Mayley - has her occasional suspicions). Soon all three are considering the last resort for dealing with blackmail - doing in the blackmailer. Their problems are more than dealing with a brainy adversary. Blount tries to commit a murder (after all she's an expert in killing as a creative writer), only to come a cropper (all I'll say is Price ups his demands for payment as a result). Terry-Thomas seems to keep stumbling into the schemes of Blount and Sellers, to his own discomfort.

Best is Sellers though - he is certain he can commit the perfect murder because he is a "master of disguise". His assistant Kenneth Griffith keeps warning him that he has a tendency to overact, but "Wee Sonny" dismisses this. He tries to spy out Price playing an elderly dock expert, and only annoys the latter and makes Terry-Thomas suspicious. He flusters a gun shop owner by appearing as an Edwardian style country squire ordering enough ammunition for a regiment, not for a hunt. My favorite moment is when he tries to impress possible IRA members by speaking to them (as a fellow member) in perfect Welsh.

How they finally get rid of Price and his demands is as funny as one can expect, given the rest of the film. It is a comedy that will pay handsome dividends of laughter.

A particularly impressive and downright screwball Ealing farce. Not sure if it was made in Ealing, but it seems like it. It's such a shame that with the advent of "Kitchen Sink" gritty realism, beginning in the late '50s, Britain just seemed to stop making movies that were charming and fun. Our flair for droll comedy dried up in the '60s and give or take Mike Leigh's work, "Orphans" or "Withnail & I", hasn't returned. The characters are so well defined, with master character actor Peter Sellers again showing his virtuoso talents for adopting various persona. Terry-Thomas and the smooth Dennis Price are brilliantly assured with the material, but Sellers does steal the show, portraying a cynical yet whimsical celebrity perfectly. I love the bit where he does the Irish accent, and cliched talk and the Irishmen react with bemusement. This is only the second film I've seen with Sellers (Dr Strangelove being the illustrious other), but it seems few can match his acting range and comic touch. It would seem that "The Naked Truth" has been, to some extent, forgotten. A state of affairs as farcical as the film. Rating:- **** (out of *****)

A genuinely funny British farce dealing with blackmail and murder and splendidly played by a great cast of British comic actors, (Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Joan Sims and Dennis Price). Price is the blackmailer and Sellers, Terry-Thomas and Mount, together with model Shirley Eaton, (long before someone thought of painting her gold), are his victims who plan to murder him but, as with any good farce, things don't go quite according to plan. The underrated Mario Zampi directed from an original and highly ingenious script by Michael Pertwee. Perhaps you need a very British sense of humour to really appreciate this but if you are blessed with such a thing, it's a real treat.

Stars Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, and Peter Sellers are all quite good in this black comedy about blackmail and murder. There's a good remake in this material. Joan Sims is funny as Ethel and Georgina Cookson is gracious as Lady Mayley. Dennis Price seems an odd and bland choice for the blackmailer. Miles Malleson plays another vague vicar. Despite many disguises for Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount (in a role that seems to have be written for Margaret Rutherford), Terry-Thomas, and Joan Sims steal the show. And there is a surprise ending in a zeppelin! A must for fans of British Comedy and the great British eccentrics on 1950s films.