Don't Just Lie There, Say Something!

This is bad even for a Brian Rix farce. I bought a boxed set of Leslie Phillips DVDs for £10 in a sale and this one was in it along with 'The VIP' and 'Doctor in Trouble' (both with James Robertson Justice). I can't think why. Phillips did so many much better films and I can't see why anyone thought it worth the effort to transfer this one onto disc. The cast contains some of the great stalwarts of the British film industry such as Joan Sims, Derek Griffiths, Joanna Lumley, Peter Cellier and the Goodies' favourite newsreader Corbet Woodall but even they can't bring it up to standard. Even the worst Carry Ons were ten times better than this garbage. An absolute stinker.

Nobody really makes this type of film anymore, and the film world is a lot poorer for it in my opinion. Certainly we could do worse as a nation to make more comedy like this than to made endless "Lock, Stock..." gangster clones. Basically, it's a film version of a typical stage farce, with everything you'd expect bar the local vicar. I'll admit it's not everyone's cup of tea but suspend your disbelief.

It does sag in places (!) as the lie-upon-lie builds up, but what many people don't seem to notice is the slick interplay between the leads, the funny dialogue, and Leslie Phillips in full "well he-llo" mode. There is also the advantage of a great supporting cast, of whom Joan Sims typically shines in a thankless "nagging wife" role. Her advice to someone getting married "pray... watch..." is delivered superbly.

It's the type of thing that would never trouble an Oscar jury, but if some of the recent winners are anything to go by (hello Monsters Ball, Cold Mountain....), this can only be in its favour.

Basically, this is a fun film that you can see time and time again. You can't say that for a lot of films. Thrillers get less thrilling when you know whodunnit, for example.

To use the words forced, stagey, inane and desperate to describe this film would be a severe understatement. The majority of this film seems to consist of characters hiding under beds or in closets, running around in their underwear or less or putting on "funny" accents to get themselves out of compromising positions (and I use the term loosely).

The characters in this film are incredibly dumb but there's a method behind this. They have to be dumb otherwise if they acted like sensible human beings all the plot strands would be tied up in about 20 minutes.

This is the sort of film they don't make anymore and with good reason.

This type of humour had made people laugh for centuries. It's not clever, it doesn't make you think, it's not even got the sophistication of a Carry On film! It's the most basic, simple and innocent type of humour - it's just funny.

Brian Rix had been doing this sort of thing for years so his act was honed to perfection. Likewise Leslie Phillips had played this character so much, it had become his life. They were both phenomenally popular in the 50s, 60s and 70s but today such 'caveman humour' is considered decidedly un-cool.

Despite my preconceptions, within five minutes I was literally laughing out loud. My other preconceptions which was shattered was how 'clean' this was. Although made during the tacky, smutty Confessions of and Adventures of films, this is remarkably nudity free and even swear word free.... it could easily have been made ten or twenty years earlier... or even been a 1930s pre-code comedy.

The highlight of this picture is the living goddess, the impossibly sexy, the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Katy Manning! Yes, that's Jo, Dr Who's companion from the early 70s. Golly, she was pretty and she's pretty funny in this too.

Although you might think this isn't your cup of tea, give it a go; if you don't laugh, just tell St Peter when you get to the Pearly Gates and he'll give your an hour and a half of your life back.

This film showed the sad direction in which the film industry was headed.This film was released at a time when Rank closed hundreds of Odeons and Gaumonts including my local.An acknowledgement that they had run out of ideas to compete with television.Actors agreeing to appear in rubbish such as this was their acknowledgement that they were not going to bother with the quality of the script just play the part and take the money.Brian Rix typically spends most of his time with his trousers off.His type of broad farce doesn't come over well on film and this film represented the tail end of his film career.Most of the rest of his acting career was spent at the Whitehall Theatre