Please Turn Over

I still think this is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen after 40 years of viewing experience. Any fan of the "Carry On" series will be delighted. I think it is equal to "The Ladykillers" (Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom) which also is a "10".

Please Turn Over is one of those films outside of the Carry On franchise, but one that still "bares" the early hallmarks of that series. Brought to the screen by Peter Rogers and Norman Hudis, it's adapted from the Basil Thomas play, "Book of the Month" and stars Ted Ray, Jean Kent, Julia Lockwood, Leslie Phillips and Lionel Jeffries. Plot finds Lockwood as a teenaged writer who upturns the lives of the local residents when she has a steamy novel published. The kicker being that the characters in her book appear to be based on them! Suddenly everyone is viewing everyone else in a different light.

A sort of comedic take on Peyton Place, it's a film that meets the expectations of those who are familiar with the cast and production team. Without being smutty or bawdy, it's more a gentle farce with some seamy undercurrents. The fun is mostly mined by the alternative world created by Lockwood when the townsfolk turn into adulterers and egotists. Rogers fills out the cast with performers he would come to rely on, where the likes of Joan Sims and Dilys Laye steal scenes, while Ray and Phillips turn in jolly good shows. Nice crisp B&W photography by Ted Scaife as well.

Not essential but a pleasant enough experience with a glass of Port on a Sunday afternoon. 6/10

This film shows why we were good at making comedy a classic film with a great cast I love watching as it takes me back to a quiet time not like today where life is fast

A 17 year-old girl writes a tell-all best-selling book. Unfortunately, the folks in the town recognize that she's talking about them and soon chaos erupts throughout this small English town.

I was very surprised to see such fantastically high ratings for this comedy. While the three other reviews now listed give it scores ranging from 9 to 10, I really hated the film and cannot understand the praise. After all, a score this high would place it among the elite British comedies of the era--but I'd never consider this to be in the same league as the charming Ealing Comedies being made around the time when "Please Turn Over" debuted. Ealing's films are subtle--and subtle is NEVER a term I'd use to describe "Please Turn Over". In this film, the acting is VERY broad as is the writing--like a cheap sit-com. Overacting and overdoing it is definitely what I noticed immediately after the film began. Not as broad as "Benny Hill" but certainly very broad.

They say that it takes only one person to write a book but things are a bit different when it comes to making a film(whether it be adapted from a book or simply thought up). To make a film requires a whole raft of talents not the least the actors and actresses involved. From the director down everyone--and I do mean everyone--is concerned with the finished product.

When I saw 'Carry On Teacher' in my youth it was paired with this film and I noticed several members of the cast in both films: Leslie Phillips, Ted Ray, Joan Sims as well as a guest appearance by Charles Hawtrey(one of my favourites from the many Carry Ons he appeared in). Of course, the fact that behind the camera was the then screenwriter of the Carry Ons, Norman Hudis as well as Peter Rodgers and Gerald Thomas should have told me that I was viewing something that was a Carry On in all but name.

My reference to a book in the first paragraph is a direct referral to the original title of this piece. It was a successful stage play called 'Book of the Month' by Basil Thomas(any relation to Gerald, I wonder?). I never saw the play so cannot comment on the treatment of the storyline. However, in the film, the cast members are required to play two parts; one the 'normal' family whose lives are about to be turned upside down by the penmanship of their daughter, but also their 'alter egos' in the reading of the book. This plot point works brilliantly as the daughter twists her family's quirks on their head and gives them totally new characteristics.

I laughed myself silly at the antics portrayed on the screen and, although it was the support feature, I came away from the cinema thinking it was the better of the two films. Not that 'Carry On Teacher' wasn't funny--it was. It's just that I felt that 'Please Turn Over' had the edge over its more famous partner that day. Seeing it since then on TV and tape has given me no reason to change my mind.

If you get the opportunity to see this film, do so. I promise that you won't regret it--I never have. Maybe one day they'll put it out on a DVD(perhaps along with the previously mentioned 'Carry On Teacher').