Make Mine Mink

A warm view of the criminal temptation as seen through the eyes of the comic displaced. Fine team performances, particularly from the female cast members, topped off by a Terry-Thomas character out of his own flawed top-drawer. A real treat for those who like their view of the British as slightly off-centre, warm and hypocritical...which is not a bad summary of the national character. Kenneth Williams in an early appearance shines as a character that he never really succeeded in developing for the screen but which points to a keen comic enjoying himself in very good company. Billie Whitelaw playing against type is also a revelation in a role that hints strongly at the type of role that she made her own in films later in the decade

For no reason I can fathom, this title recently popped into the disordered clutter of my memory. I haven't seen it since those halcyon days in Southern California, before multiplexes, when admission prices were affordable on a frequent basis, and when the area where I lived had theaters that booked all sorts of films from all over the globe, or so it seemed. It's one of the few films I went back to see almost immediately, since the uproarious laughter it provoked obscured some of the dialogue during my first viewing.

Terry-Thomas and his female partners-in-crime are truly hilarious and, for me, the special bonus of two of my favorite British character actresses, Irene Handl and Hattie Jacques, appearing in a film together, made this one of those gems I'll never forget. The slapstick elements are handled with that special brand of wit for which English comedies are noted and the modest production values actually enhanced the fun. I note that it's not currently available from American purveyors to the U.S. video market, but a DVD is offered in the U.K. Guess it's time to discover what's involved in exchange rates, international shipping, and so forth. It should prove worth the effort to renew a happy memory.

Very odd film. The sort of film that only the British could make.

Terry-Thomas is cast out of his usual flash, boisterous role as the rather timid Major Rayne, down on his luck and living in a boarding house with the weirdest collection of women you're ever likely to see, including a very young Billie Whitelaw and a masterful Hattie Jacques.

By pure mischance, they embark on a campaign of fur robbery in order to support their landlady's charitable work. The film is a wonderful caricature of the down-at-heel gentry in Britain at that time, includes some very endearing characters and is genuinely funny in its naive fashion.

Recommended to any fan of the wonderful Terry-Thomas and British comedies of this era.

I liked this. I suggest you reserve it for a time when you want something that isn't much work in viewing (which means that 1960 is about the latest you can consider).

The structure is a familiar one: we watch a bunch of actors portraying unlikely characters who themselves play unlikely characters precisely as far away. The joke of course is in the overlap, and the competence of the first contrasted with the incompetence of the second. Its all about coats and appropriation.

There's an interesting performer here, one I haven't seen before. She plays a painfully reserved spinster who's occupation is mending broken china. Her character, Pinkie, is immensely inept and most of the polished humor (this was a successful stage play) is hers. We are introduced to her when the silly major breaks in on her bath because she has extended into his time.

This is moments after having the first long segment of the movie linger on the sexy, pretty maid. And we see a naked skinny old maid in the bath. The major is retired from his duty as commander of "portable baths."

That's the attention to detail you'll find in how this humor is constructed.

Anyway, Pinkie (with the wonderful name of Elspeth Duxbury) only lived a few years after this. Too bad.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Oddball British humor is as quirky as it gets in MAKE MINE MINK about a former military man (TERRY-THOMAS) who organizes an unlikely band of fur thieves in order to help fund an orphanage. It's screwball farce on the highest level, as only the British could do in the '60s about seniors in a rooming house who decide to spice up their lives by joining a robbery plan that goes awry.

Within a half-hour of various pranks involving a discarded mink coat, the eccentric roomers of a London boarding house decide to go in on a scheme of stealing fur coats to fund their favorite charity. A sub-plot develops involving BILLIE WHITELAW and a young policeman. She's reluctant to become his sweetheart because she has a police record and it could hurt his career. He scoffs at the idea. She, of course, knows nothing about the roomers' plans.

The plot deals amusingly with all of the bungled fur robberies and the interplay between the eccentric boarding house characters who adopt different disguises for every robbery. One of the most amusing sequences has Terry-Thomas believing he's stumbled upon a den of thieves and fences so he can sell some of the stolen goods--until he realizes the patrons are all members of the Salvation Army.

The fun is in the role playing and the clever script. It's played to the hilt by an ingratiating cast and ends on an ironic note after the burglar ring has sworn that they've committed their last crime.

Summing up: Mindless fun all the way.