Love Thy Neighbour

Another Hammer film adaptation of a popular TV show, this time around the controversial race comedy LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR. I've never watched the TV series so I can't comment on that, but this is about what you'd expect from the early 1970s. I was pleased to see that the racist protagonist is the butt of the joke but even so the endless playground insults and racist taunts become quickly wearying. A shame, as the union storyline is promising and some of the acting pretty decent, particularly Rudolph Walker in what must have been a difficult role. The opening sequence, a sort of running street riot between white and black neighbours, is quite startling.

Terrible dated film Grreat supporting roles by Tommy Godfrey, Keith Marsh & Patricia Hayes. Very politically incorrect now - & I suspect then. Not worth a watch

Good comedy of a popular television series that ran in England in the 1970's. a Somewhat controversial in its day,kept the British viewers glued to their television sets. This popular series is now available on DVD in the United Kingdom. Individuals who have region-free DVD players can order these DVD episodes from the video on-line shops in the U.K. People whishing to watch clean violent free entertainment will probably enjoy these DVD episodes. Video tapes of Love thy neighbour are also available. Jack Smethurst,Rudolph Walker,Nina Baden-Semper,and Kate Williams are the main actors in this series. Rudolph Walker appeared in the popular series,The blue thin line about 25 years later. He has also appeared in several episodes of the popular British police series,The Bill. After this series began in England,the U.S.A.and Australia produced their own versions. After a few episodes in the U.S.A. the series was cancelled. The Australia version was quite popular in Australia.

It is hard to believe that this passed for mainstream entertainment 50 years ago as this big screen version of the popular long running ITV series contains enough racial slurs, offensive language, bigoted views and inappropriate behaviour to send millennials and the woke brigade into a complete meltdown. By today's standards it is a very problematic situation comedy about two warring neighbours constantly trading insults about their colour, creed and general differences in a game of unpolitically correct one-upmanship which was watched and adored by millions who thought nothing of it at the time.

While the comedy is now out dated and a product of the 1970's it's not quite as offensive as at first it may seem. Sure there are cheap gags, low brow humour and racial stereotypes in abundance but the black characters always give as good as they get from their white counterparts and the humour is spirited rather than oppressive. The white protagonist Eddie Booth often comes off worse as his racial name calling, tyrannical outbursts and small minded attitude is often to his own detriment.

In real life Jack Smethurst and Rudolph Walker were friends but they do what the script asks of them in portraying relentlessly bickering neighbours, often put in their place by their respective wives Kate Williams and Nina-Baden Semper, to make them see the error of their ways. There was never any malice or racial hatred intended in Vince Powell's scripts (who was also responsible for the sitcom Mind Your Language 1977) but it did hold up a mirror to a British society coming to terms with the immigration policy of successive Governments at that time with the integration of ethnic groups moving into working class areas causing some societal and cultural conflict.

I grew up watching the TV series so the comedy here is not as jarring for me and I love it when comedy shows get the big screen treatment, however plot wise this doesn't stray too far from the TV series like some movie versions do, although there are more scenes shown at their factory workplace, but all the elements that made the TV show a success are present here.

Flush from the success of three On the Buses movies Roy Skeggs, the producer of Hammer Films, successfully adapts another British TV sitcom on a low budget with a no frills workmanlike production as Hammer, the company typically known for horror and science fiction, continued to diversify into comedy to compete with the likes of the Carry On series and Confessions films with similar bawdiness and saucy postcard humour, most of which featured well known British comedy actors. Here we have the likes of Patricia Hayes, Arthur English, Bill Pertwee, Melvyn Hayes and Bill Fraser making guest appearances.

The humour in Love Thy Neighbour is certainly not for everyone and anyone under the age of 40 should proceed with caution.

Love Thy Neighbour is the film based on the British TV sitcom of the same name. The film came out in 1973 and is about two couples, one black, one white who are neighbours on the same street in London and is about both the mens attempts at one-upmanship based on their mutual dislike of each others races. Its a piece of cinematic history from a decade before pc and its not a racist film per see as the biggest bigot is the white man and usually comes off worst in both this film and the TV series it is based on. I doubt very much that today's younger audiences will fund it acceptable, let alone funny due to its subject matter and script but for those of a certain age it can be very funny in a very British early 70s way and well worth a watch as both a comedy and as a study of how Britain used to be 50 years ago.