The Odd Job

I remember see this film at our local Odeon on its general release. Then it disappeared from view.

To a certain extent you can see why,although it has its funny moments the film is not consistently funny.

The story,as mentioned elsewhere,has been used on previous films.

It is interesting to see David Jason in the role of the potential assassin. Graham Chapman is unconvincing.

The film becomes more frenetic and less funny towards the end.

THE ODD JOB is an extremely obscure low budget British comedy that offers a starring role for Graham Chapman, hot off the success of LIFE OF BRIAN. This one has a familiar and well-utilised storyline about a depressed man who, unable to take his own life, decides to hire a hitman to do the job. However, he changes his mind, and soon discovers that the hitman's dedication to the role is frighteningly intense. It's a story we've seen done before and there's not much here to get excited about, with Jason's performance too silly to be of interest. Only Chapman holds it together with his usual straight man persona.

Graham Chapman returns home for his fifth anniversary, to discover that wife Diana Quick is leaving him. He's dull. After driving around half of London, she stays at mutual friend Tony Sloane's home. Chapman gets drunk. The next morning, Miss Quick calls, and he decides to commit suicide, but can't figure out how. That's when odd jobs man David Jason knocks on the door. They decide that he'll kill him unexpectedly over the next few days. Then Miss Quick returns and he changes his mind. Jason, however, does an honest bit of work, even though he keeps killing the wrong person. He keeps trying to off Chapman, though.

Comedians trying to kill themselves dates back at least to Max Linder in LE PENDU. The idea of hiring someone to kill yourself and then changing your mind at least to Jules Verne in LES TRIBULATIONS D'UN CHINOIS EN CHINE, which was made into a movie by de Broca starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. So this has a long lineage.

What will surprise people is that Chapman, despite his Monty Python roots, is not particularly funny. He is, as Miss Quick notes, dull, and his reactions to the situations are bizarre rather than funny. He is the center around which the comic characters circle, especially Jason, but also cops Edward Hardwicke, and an assemblage of mobsters hired to protect him from his would-be assassin. Still, there are plenty of things to laugh at in this black comedy.

Very, very funny. Graham Chapman and David Jason are an inspired team, considering the problems hauling this movie into production. Chapman plays Arthur Harris, who gets depressed when his wife (Diana Quick) leaves him for slimy Simon Williams, and engages the bizarre odd job man to dispatch him into the next world. Then his wife returns, and Arthur changes his mind ... cue a sequence of situations featuring Arthur's attempts to evade being killed by Jason, being pursued by cynical policemen Edward Hardwicke and Bill Paterson, gangster Michael Elphick (brilliant), and flirty neighbour Carolyn Seymour. The scene in the restaurant is class, with Chapman in a feeble disguise to allay suspicion, and also the trip to the zoo is hilarious. Then, just as the odd job man finally gets the message (having killed several people by mistake), there is the oddest ending...

As a solo venture, this outstrips all the others various Pythons took on. Chapman was always the funniest and most inspired of the team anyway, and this is a natural extension of that. Excellent.

As a Life long Python Fan, and minor Featured cast member in one of their films, I loved this superbly Written, Acted and Directed film, which I have only just seen for the first time, as of 30/6/2022, made in 1978 London, the Graham Chapman humour shines throughout, and so no true python fan, or lover of 1970's UK comedy films should be disappointed ,an excellent job by Cast and Crew in making a comedy as only Chapman could, especially the ending, typical Graham Chapman style, , so glad I found this, I rate it 10 out of 10, both for it's over all enjoyment factor, and out of Loyalty to a much loved Monty Python Member ,the amazing Graham Chapman, fine acting and a comic legend, who sadly died age 48,on 4th October 1989.