The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film

Just watched this early Richard Lester short starring Peter Sellers on YouTube. It's basically a silent one with a music score and speeded-up images done for humorous effect. Sellers is both a photographer and a hunter here. I also noticed Graham Stark-who I've seen in the Pink Panther movies with Sellers-in this film. There were a few comic touches-like that man using a horn with a needle running around a tree stump as that needle touches a record on the stump or duel of two men with one carrying a sword and the other carrying a gun with another guy with a horn in his ear in between them-that I thought was highly amusing while others-like a woman "washing" on the grass-was a little lame. Still, since The Beatles hired Lester to helm A Hard Days Night because of this short, I'd at least recommend The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film for historical purposes.

"The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film" is not a film as such, but it is a short series of clips with a comical slapstick theme. This 'film' got Richard Lester recognised and paved the way for him to direct the first Beatles film: 'A Hard Day's Night".

Richard Lester directed and wrote the music for his first film in 1959. This film was entitled The Running, Jumping, & Standing Still Film. It was intended to be viewed only by those who had aided in its production. Since the film was intended to be viewed by Lester and his partners alone, a small amount of money and time was invested. The sole purpose of this film is entertainment, but the main reason for its existence is the fact that it served as an experiment to work the camera. The film cost 70£ to make, and it was filmed in sepia-toned film stock in a field on a couple of Sundays. All of the shots that were filmed were included in the finished production; the finished production is eleven minutes in length.

The Running, Jumping, & Standing Still Film is a comedy about English Sundays and the small hobbies that people do to pass the time. All of the events in this film take place in a field. A few of these comical events include a woman scrubbing a lawn, a man running around a tree stump with a needle to play a record, a photographer developing film in a pond, an artist aided in painting by the numbers on a model's face, a man building a tent, an athlete running over the tent, and a duel between a man with a knife and a man with a gun. Not only does the film poke fun at the hobbies that people do to pass the time away, but it also pokes fun at English culture when compared to American culture. Another one of several events in this film includes a group of men and a kite, which has been constructed out of the flag of the United Kingdom. One of the men jumps inside the kite while the other men attempt to fly it, and the kite breaks. According to Neil Sinyard, author of The Films of Richard Lester, this event symbolizes the United Kingdom as lesser in power and technology when compared to the United States during the space age. According to this scene, the British fly primitive kites while the Americans, the world-power after World War II, fly highly-advanced rockets and space shuttles.

This odd short was so beloved by The Beatles that they chose its director, Richard Lester, to direct their movie, A Hard Day's Night. Damned if I know why.

Basically this is a bunch of people running around in a field. While billed as a comedy, I was half-way through its 10-minute run before I laughed at anything. It wasn't just that there wasn't anything funny; there wasn't anything that indicated to me that it was supposed to be a comedy. It was more like an experimental avant-garde short.

Eventually there are a couple of funny gags, but those ten minutes crawled by. I don't know what the Beatles saw in it, but it escapes me.

Its just mad. I'm a big fan of Sellers. This just blows everything else out of the water. When it comes to craziness this beats anything. Well almost anything. It makes No sense! please note it is not actually on this DVD its on another DVD in the UK REGION 2 The Peter Sellers Story... As He Filmed It please note this DVD also contains a short film called 'I Say, I Say, I Say' as well as a documentary about Peter Sellers, this includes an interview never seen before as Sellers confiscated the film the day after it was shot at his home in Ireland, feeling that it was too revealing about himself. Interesting Stuff I'm Sure You'll Agree. Anyway go watch "The Running Jumping Standing Still Film" Watch it just to say you have. If You are a fan of Milligan/Sellers/Secombe You must watch If You are a fan of short films or a student watch it. Its just so odd!!

This British comedy one-reeler, an Academy Award nominee, is renowned for being director Lester's debut and as one of the few films to showcase "The Goons" (represented here by Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan). A collection of silent and somewhat surreal skits, it obviously owes a lot to the likes of Chaplin, Keaton and Tati - yet, its irreverence also looks forward to the whole "Swinging Sixties" trend and the Monty Python brand of fooling that would be established a decade on. In that respect, it is something of a milestone as well, even if on the surface it appears both silly and amateurish!

In fact, the most inventive bit has Sellers wearing goggles and flippers while toting a hunting rifle which he intends catching fish with and the most amusing being Milligan acting as a human gramophone! By the way, Lester himself (recognizable, if anything, by his bald head) appears as an eccentric artist who labels his female model's face according to the colour of paint he will be utilizing on his canvas!; also on hand is Leo McKern - with whom the film opens and ends, for no very good reason....but such is the 'anything goes' attitude on display here!