Sunday 23 August 2009

Have a Laugh! - Comedy Films

Today I’m looking at the genre of what I term “Comedy Films” and listed below are some of the comedy films I have. Some of these I’ve already dealt with under the “Classic Films”, “Westerns”, “War Films”, “Drama Films”, “Action Films” & “Thriller Films”, so I won’t go into any detail on those, however some of the “Comedy Films” I have not dealt with I will look at in a bit more detail.

All the films listed below have comedy listed as one of their categories.

Some of the “Comedy Films” I possess and enjoy include


Alfie
And Now For Something Completely Different
Animal Crackers 3*
Arsenic & Old Lace 3*
Ask a Policeman
Belles of St Trinians
Blue Murder at St Trinian's
Billy Liar 3*
Brassed Off!
Calendar Girls
Carry On Abroad
Carry on Behind
Carry On Camping
Carry On Christmas 1969
Carry On Christmas 1972 (also known as "Carry On Stuffing")
Carry On Christmas 1973
Carry On Constable
Carry on at your Convenience
Carry on Cruising
Carry on Dick
Carry On Henry
Carry on Jack
Carry On Nurse
Carry on Regardless
Carry on up the Jungle
Carry on Up the Khyber 3*
Carry on Loving
Carry on Matron
The Champion + Between Showers, The Bank, Mabel at the Wheel.
City Lights 3*
A Day at the Races 4*
Duck Soup 4*
Educating Rita
The Family Way
Four Chaplin Shorts
Four Weddings and a Funeral 3*
The Full Monty 3*
Genevieve 4*
The Gold Rush 3*
The Great Dictator
The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
The Happiest Days of Your Life 3*
Heaven's Above
Horse Feathers 3*
I'm All Right Jack 3*
The Immigrant/Easy Street/The Knockout
It's a Wonderful Life 4*
Kind Hearts & Coronets 3*
Ladies in Lavender
The Ladykillers 3*
The Lavender Hill Mob 4*
The Maggie
The Man in the White Suit 4
The Millionairess
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
Monty Python's Life of Brian 3*
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
A Night at the Opera 4*
No Sex Please We're British
Oh Mr Porter 4*
Only Two Can Play 3*
Passport to Pimlico 4*
A Private Function 3*
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes 3*
The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's
Pygmalion 4*
Shakespeare in Love 3*
Shirley Valentine
Some Like it Hot 4*
Ten ("10")
The Titfield Thunderbolt 3*
Top Hat 4*
The Tramp/Police/A Jitney Elopement
Waking Ned
Waltz of the Toreadors
Whisky Galore 4*
Wilt
Windbag the Sailor

When I started looking through my films by category I was quite surprised to see just how many comedy films I had listed. Comedy covers a broad spectrum when you think about it. There are the corny seaside picture postcard humour style of comedy films such as the “Carry On” Series, the more gentle humour such as Shirley Valentine, Ladies in Lavender A Private Function, the “madcap” style of the Marx Brothers, the gentle wistful humour [and sometimes pathos], as well as the slapstick of Charlie Chaplin, the manic Monty Python series, Peter Sellers and the Ealing Comedies.

So let’s have a look at a few comedies in more detail.









If you hate the Carry On films with then chances are you will hate this one as well. However for fans, then it is likely that you will love this film as it is one of the best of the series. The plot is very un-PC by today's standards (imagine having so many white actors playing Indians today?) but this isn't really important here





The plot is actually quite well developed for a carry on film and acts as a suitable framework for the jokes, allowing it to feel like a film rather than just a series of sketches and innuendo held together by the thinnest of threads.






1895. The British colonisation of Indian continues despite the threat posed by the Khasi of Kalabar and his loyal army of Burpers. Rebellion seems imminent when it is discovered that the feared 3rd Foot in Mouth Regiment (The Devils in Skirts) actually wear underwear under their kilts




When the Khasi receives proof of this he starts an uprising among Bungdit Din's Burgers against the British forces under Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond. However Captain Keene leads a small group of men deep into India in an attempt to stop the approaching massacre.





The plot certainly helps but it is the strength of the script that makes this such an enjoyable film. The film has so many really enjoyable lines that it is impossible to list them all; of course, if you don't like their breed of innuendo then you shan't like this but I do and this is as good and as honed as they got it.






. Lines such as `rank stupidity', `Fakir Off', `and up yours' and `I wouldn't trust him an inch' are all well scripted and display a higher class of innuendo (if you know what I mean): even character names are good if not subtle; Ginger Hale, Bungdit Din, Jelhi, Busti and Khasi to name a few. It helps of course that the cast are so talented at this type of comedy and deliver their lines with perfect timing and perfect facial expressions and reactions.






. Sid James and Kenneth Williams lead the cast and are easily the best two in the whole film - they have the best lines, the best reactions and the best timing. The rest of the Carry On regulars are all very assured and delivered the material with the ability of pro's; Charles Hawtrey, Terry Scott,Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth and Angela Douglas are all very good and it is true that this is almost a who's who of British comedy of the time. Roy Castle is good but he is very much a straight man in the piece.






Four Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British romantic comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant. The film was an unexpected success, becoming the highest-grossing British film in cinema history at the time, with worldwide box office in excess of $244 million, and receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

The film follows the adventures of a group of friends through the eyes of Charles, a debonair but faux pas-prone Englishman, played by Grant, who is smitten by Carrie, an attractive American played by Andie MacDowell, whom Charles repeatedly meets at weddings and at a funeral.







The first wedding is that of Angus and Laura (Timothy Walker and Sara Crowe). Charles and his collection of single friends are concerned that they will never get married. At this wedding, Charles meets Carrie for the first time and spends the night with her, but he regards it as a one-night stand. Carrie teases him that now they have slept together, they will also have to get married, and she is probably serious, unlikely as it seems. Then she goes back home to America.
The second wedding is that of Bernard and Lydia (David Haig and Sophie Thompson), a couple who got together at the previous wedding. This sequence features Rowan Atkinson in a small role as an inexperienced priest. The reception is not an enjoyable one for Charles. First, he encounters Carrie, who subsequently introduces Charles to her fiancé, Sir Hamish Banks, a wealthy politician from Scotland. Next, Charles finds himself seated at a table with several ex-girlfriends, as well as bumping into Henrietta (known among Charles' friends as "Duckface"), with whom he had a difficult relationship in the past. As the evening wears on, Charles inadvertently finds himself in Bernard and Lydia's hotel suite and is forced to hide in a wardrobe after the newlyweds suddenly stumble into the room and engage in a sexual romp on the bed. Believing that Carrie has left the reception with Hamish, Charles later runs into her (without her fiance), shortly after another emotional encounter with Henrietta. Charles and Carrie end up spending the night together.










During the interim period, Charles receives an invitation to Carrie's wedding in Scotland; and while shopping for a present in London accidentally bumps into her in a shop and ends up helping select her wedding dress. Carrie also astonishes him with a list of more than thirty sexual partners (he learns he is Number 32). He later tries to confess his love to her and hints that if her marriage is unsuccessful, he would like to have a relationship with her. However, he says it rather lamely, and the confession obviously comes too late.The third wedding is that of Carrie and Hamish at a Scottish castle. Charles attends, depressed at the prospect of Carrie marrying Hamish. As the reception gets under way, Gareth instructs his friends to go forth and seek potential mates; Fiona's brother,Tom (James Fleet), stumbles through an attempt to connect with the minister's wife, while Charles' flatmate, Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman), strikes up a conversation with a tall, attractive American. As Charles watches Carrie and Hamish dance as husband and wife, he reveals his feelings about Carrie to his friend Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is crestfallen and confesses that she has always loved Charles since they first met years ago. Charles is surprised and empathetic, but does not requite her love.






"In the name of the Father, the son and the Holy Goat!




Charles falls for Carrie






At the wedding Matthew's lover Gareth (Simon Callow) dies suddenly of a heart attack: Matthew (John Hannah in one of his first screen roles), is called but does not reach him before he dies.





The funeral is that of Gareth. At the funeral, Matthew recites the poem Funeral Blues ("Stop all the clocks...") by W. H. Auden, commemorating his relationship with Gareth. After the funeral, Charles and Tom have a discussion about whether finding that one true love is just a futile effort, and speculate that perhaps Gareth and Matthew were the only real "married" couple within their group.






The fourth wedding is that of Charles, who has decided to marry Henrietta out of desperation. However, prior to the ceremony, Carrie arrives and reveals to Charles that she and Hamish are no longer together. At the altar, when the vicar asks if anyone knows a reason why the couple should not marry, Charles's deaf brother David (David Bower) uses sign language to announce that Charles doesn't love Henrietta. Henrietta punches Charles and the wedding is abruptly halted.
At the end, Carrie visits Charles, who is recovering from the debacle, to apologize for attending. Charles confesses that he has finally realized the person he would like to spend his life with is not the woman he was about to marry. He doesn't want to get married at all, but he does want Carrie to be his partner. The couple then vow that they will never, ever, marry.
The end credits include a montage of photographs documenting the futures of other characters in the film. All are shown on their individual wedding days, except for Fiona, who is shown (satirically) with Prince Charles. The happily - unmarried Carrie and Charles are pictured with their baby boy




"Four Weddings and a Funeral" is one of the best comedies in recent years.

Richard Curtis's films have sometimes been criticised for giving a too cosy, conservative view of British society. "Four Weddings and a Funeral" seems to take place in an England of eternal summer, a land which consists almost entirely of green and pleasant countryside and the more exclusive districts of London and which is populated solely by members of the upper and upper-middle classes. The script does cross the border into an equally idealised Scotland of mists, tartans and Highland flings, but even these scenes were actually shot in Surrey.


Hugh Grant is the perennial best man in this hugely successful British comedy set at various social functions. Grant is perfect as the chronically late Charles, who falls for Carrie (Andie MacDowell) at one wedding and then spends the rest of the film awkwardly attempting to woo her. Charles is clumsy, accident-prone (he manages to lose the ring at Angus's wedding), much given to profane language and can be appallingly tactless, especially about his former girlfriends. The other main character, Carrie, can perhaps be seen as a female Charles, someone who is on the same journey as him but who has travelled slightly further.


In between, this richly humorous look at the British upper middle class at play features all those classic wedding nightmares (the bumbling priest - a great cameo from Rowan Atkinson as a nervous trainee priest who keeps fluffing his lines during one of the weddings. ["Awful wedded wife", or "Holy Goat" for "Holy Ghost"]. a tactless toast from the best man, the awkwardness of being seated at a table with all your ex-girlfriends) dressed up in lovely hats and gowns.


However, it is the funeral of the title that provides the movie with its poignant heart.
The film can be seen as the story of Charles's journey to emotional maturity. He has had a number of brief affairs, all of which have petered out precisely because he is afraid of his emotions. His relationship with Carrie initially goes the same way and she marries a richer and older man. The change in Charles's character is partly due to the fact that he sees his carefree bachelor world disappearing as most of his friends get married, but the event which seems to have the greatest effect on him is Gareth's funeral.


Most of the action of the film takes place either at, or immediately before or after, one of the four church services mentioned in the title. The main character, Charles, is a well-to-do young man, probably educated at public school, and clearly a member of the professional classes, although we never actually discover what his job is. The film starts with a wedding at which Charles is best man to Angus, one of his old friends, and at which he meets Carrie, an attractive young American woman.


The film then traces the ups and downs of the relationship of Charles and Carrie, via two more weddings (the second of which is Carrie's own, after she and Charles have split up), the funeral of Gareth, another friend of Charles who suffers a heart attack while dancing at Carrie's wedding, and one final marriage ceremony.


The most heart-gripping scene in the entire film is John Hannah's recital of W.H. Auden's poem "Stop All The Clocks" which is a moving eulogy read by Matthew, Gareth's gay partner at Gareth's funeral. Charles realises the strength of the love that Gareth and Matthew shared for one another and comes to appreciate that such a relationship is something to be valued. It provides the necessary balance to all the funny scenes throughout the film. This balance is also visually supported by the choice of location, a grey, rainy Inverness in Scotland provides quite a contrast to the rolling English meadows and sunny London. Pure genius.


The story is well thought out and it is supported by a very talented cast of characters. Hugh Grant is absolutely fantastic in his leading role as the (almost) eternal bachelor Charles. His interaction with all the supporting characters, Tom, Fiona, Henrietta, David etc. is outstanding. There are star performances by actors like Kristin Scott Thomas as Fiona, James Fleet as Tom, Simon Callow as Gareth, and not least John Hannah as Matthew.


The film is, however, more than simply a study of relationships - it is also very funny with some superb lines. Hugh Grant can be very amusing, and I also liked David Bower as Charles's deaf brother David, the late Charlotte Coleman as his impudent younger sister Scarlett and Anna Chancellor as his ex-girlfriend Henrietta (also known as Duckface), whose embarrassing emotional incontinence perhaps explains why Charles is so keen to distance himself from his feelings. I was impressed by Simon Callow as Gareth, loud, extrovert and excessively hearty (like most characters Callow plays).


To sum up, this is a very good film indeed; proof that the British cinema can produce romantic comedies as good as Hollywood at its best.


Australian Film Institute:
Best Foreign Film

British Comedy Awards:
Best Comedy Film


Most Promising Actor (Hugh Grant)

Evening Standard Awards:
Best Actress (Kristin Scott Thomas)
Best Screenplay (Richard Curtis)



Writers Guild of America (WGA):
Best Screenplay - Original (Richard Curtis)

Writers' Guild of Great Britain:
Film - Screenplay (Richard Curtis)




The film was voted the 27th greatest comedy film of all time by readers of Total Film in 2000. In 2004, the same magazine named it the 34th greatest British film of all time. It is number 96 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".







Duck Soup is a 1933 Marx Brothers anarchic comedy film written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, with additional dialogue by Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin, and directed by Leo McCarey. First released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on November 17 1933, it starred what were then billed as the "Four Marx Brothers" (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo) and also featured Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, Louis Calhern and Edgar Kennedy. It was the last Marx Brothers film to feature Zeppo, and the last of five Marx Brothers movies released by Paramount.[1]
Compared to the Marx Brothers' previous Paramount films, Duck Soup was a box-office disappointment, although it was not a "flop" as is sometimes reported
While critics of Duck Soup felt it did not quite meet the standards of its predecessors, critical opinion has evolved and the film has since achieved the status of a classic. Duck Soup is now widely considered to be a Marx Brothers masterpiece.
In 1990 the United States Library of Congress deemed Duck Soup "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.








The wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) insists that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) be appointed leader of the small, bankrupt country of Freedonia before she will continue to provide much-needed financial assistance. Meanwhile, neighboring Sylvania is attempting to take over the country. Sylvanian ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) tries to foment a revolution, woos Mrs. Teasdale, and attempts to dig up dirt on Firefly by sending in spies Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx).
After failing to collect worthwhile information about Firefly, Chicolini and Pinky infiltrate the government when Chicolini is appointed Secretary of War after Firefly sees him on the street selling peanuts. Meanwhile, Firefly's personal assistant, Bob Roland (Zeppo Marx) suspects Trentino's questionable motives, and counsels Firefly to "get rid of that man at once" by saying "something to make him mad, and he'll strike you, and we'll force him to leave the country." Firefly agrees to the plan, but after a series of personal insults exchanged between Firefly and Trentino, the plan backfires and Firefly slaps Trentino instead. As a result, the two countries reach the brink of war. Adding to the international friction is the fact that Firefly is also wooing Mrs. Teasdale, and likewise hoping to get his hands on her late husband's fortune.
Trentino learns that Freedonia's war plans are in Mrs. Teasdale's possession and orders Chicolini and Pinky to steal them. Chicolini is caught by Firefly and put on trial, during which war is officially declared, and everyone is overcome by war frenzy, breaking into song and dance. The trial put aside, Chicolini and Pinky join Firefly and Bob Roland in anarchic battle, resulting in general mayhem.






The end of the film finds Trentino caught in a makeshift stocks, with the Brothers pelting him with fruit. Trentino surrenders, but Firefly refuses to stop throwing until they run out of fruit. Mrs. Teasdale begins singing the Freedonia national anthem in her operatic voice and the Brothers begin hurling fruit at her instead.






The Gold Rush is a 1925 silent film comedy written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin in his Little Tramp role. The film also stars Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite. Chaplin declared several times that this was the film that he most wanted to be remembered for.






The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) travels to Alaska to take part in the Alaska Gold Rush. Bad weather strands him in a remote cabin with a prospector who has found a large gold deposit (Mack Swain) and an escaped fugitive (Tom Murray), after which they part ways, with the prospector and the fugitive fighting over the prospector's claim, ending with the prospector receiving a blow to the head and the fugitive falling off a cliff to his death.






The Tramp eventually finds himself in a gold rush town where he ultimately decides to give up prospecting. After taking a job looking after another prospector's cabin, he falls in love with a lonely saloon girl (Georgia Hale) whom he mistakenly thinks has fallen in love with him. He soon finds himself waylaid by the prospector he met earlier, who has developed amnesia and needs the Tramp to help him find his claim by leading him to the cabin.
Particularly famous scenes include:
The Little Tramp, starving, having to eat his boot, a prop made of licorice.
The Little Tramp showing a dance to his imaginary dinner guests using two bread rolls stabbed with forks.
A house teetering on the edge of a cliff, before its occupants, Chaplin and the prospector, manage to scramble out.




One sequence was altered in the 1942 re-release so that instead of the Tramp finding a note from Georgia which he mistakenly believes is for him, he actually receives the note from her. Another major alteration is the ending, in which the now-wealthy Tramp originally gave Georgia a lingering kiss; the sound version ends before this scene.






"And Now For Something Completely Different!`




Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 comedy film written, directed and largely performed by the Monty Python comedy team. It tells the story of Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman), a young Jewish man who is born in the same era and location as Jesus Christ and subsequently mistaken for the Messiah.
The film contains themes of religious satire which were controversial at the time of its release, drawing accusations of blasphemy and protests from some religious groups. Some UK towns and some countries banned its showing, with a few of these bans lasting decades. It also contains elements of political satire targeted at far-left groups.
The film was a box-office success, grossing fourth-highest of any film in Britain in 1979 and highest of any British film in America that year. It has remained popular since then, receiving positive reviews and being named 'Greatest British comedy film of all time' by several magazines and television networks.





Brian Cohen is born in a stable a few doors from the one in which Jesus is born, a fact which initially confuses the three wise men who come to praise the future King of the Jews. They manage to put up with Brian's boorish mother Mandy until they realise their mistake. Brian grows up an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea, even after learning his father was a Roman Centurion - Naughtius Maximus - who raped Brian's mother ("You mean; you were raped?", "Well, at first, yes"). While attending Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he becomes infatuated with an attractive young female rebel, Judith. His desire for her and hatred for the Romans lead him to join the People's Front of Judea (PFJ), one of many factious and bickering separatist movements who spend more time fighting each other than the Romans. The group's cynical leader Reg gives Brian his first assignment: He must scrawl some graffiti on the wall of the governor's palace. Just as he finishes doing this, he is confronted by a passing centurion who, in disgust at Brian's faulty Latin grammar ("Romanes eunt domus", or "the people called 'Romanes' they go the house"), forces him to write the grammatically correct message ("Romani ite domum" or "Romans, go home") 100 times. By dawn, the walls of the fortress are covered in text. When the Roman guards change shift at daybreak, the new guards try to arrest Brian, but he manages to slip away with the help of Judith.Brian then agrees to participate in a kidnapping plot by the resistance, which fails miserably (due to a clash with an "enemy" separatist faction intent on the same mission) and forces him to go on the run again. This time, he doesn't evade capture and is summoned before Pontius Pilate. He tries to get away with it by claiming his Roman heritage, as the son of Naughtius Maximus. The captain of the guards refuses to believe the authenticity of the name. Pilate does not understand his doubt, to which the captain remarks that it would be like someone being named "Sillius Soddus or Biggus Dickus." Fortunately for Brian, the guards collapse into a giggling fit after an irate Pilate reveals that one of his best friends is a high-ranking centurion genuinely named Biggus Dickus (with a wife, Incontinentia Buttocks) and he makes his escape




Following a series of misadventures (including a brief trip to outer space in an alien spaceship), the fugitive winds up in a lineup of wannabe mystics and prophets who harangue the passing crowd in a plaza. Forced to come up with something plausible in order to blend in and keep the guards off his back, he babbles pseudo-religious nonsense which quickly attracts a small but intrigued audience. Once the guards have left, Brian tries to put the episode behind him, but has unintentionally inspired a movement; he grows frantic when he finds that some people have started to follow him around (Man: "We have walked many miles to see you, oh great Messiah. What do you wish?" Brian: "BUGGER OFF!"), with even the slightest unusual occurrence being hailed as a "miracle." After slipping away from the mob (who are busy persecuting a "heretic" - actually a hermit that Brian unwittingly disturbed) and spending the night with Judith, he opens the curtains the following morning to discover that an enormous mass of people, proclaiming him the Messiah, has formed outside his mother's house. Appalled, Brian is helpless to change the people's minds, as his every word and action are immediately seized as a point of doctrine.
The hapless Brian cannot even find solace back at the PFJ's headquarters, where people fling their afflicted bodies at him demanding miracle cures. Reg even claims that he has booked a session at the Mount for him. After sneaking out the back, he is finally captured and scheduled to be crucified. Meanwhile, a huge crowd of natives has assembled outside the palace, spurred on by the general feeling in the community that Brian's fellow "prophets" have been exacerbating. Pilate (together with the visiting Biggus Dickus) tries to quell the feeling of revolution by granting them the decision on who should be pardoned. Instead, Pilate is just fed various names that begin with the letter R, intended to highlight his speech impediment ("Vewy well. I shall welease Wodewick!") Biggus Dickus then attempts to take control of the situation by reading out the prisoner list, but the combination of his severe lisp and every prisoner having a name starting with S (e.g. Samson the Sadducee Strangler) causes the assembled hordes to collapse to the ground in laughter.
Pilate eventually orders Brian's release, but (in a moment parodying the climax of the film Spartacus), various crucified people all claim to be "Brian of Nazareth" - one man stating "I'm Brian and so's my wife" - and the wrong man is released. Various other opportunities for a reprieve for Brian are denied as one by one his "allies" (including Judith) step forward to explain why they are leaving the "noble freedom fighter" hanging in the hot sun. Condemned to a long and painful death, Brian's spirits are lifted by his fellow sufferers, who break out into song with "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".




The Life of Brian has regularly been cited as a serious contender for the title 'Greatest British comedy film of all time', and has been named as such in polls conducted by Total Film magazine in 2000,[25] the British TV network Channel 4 in 2006[26] and The Guardian newspaper in 2007.[27] Rotten Tomatoes lists it as one of the best reviewed comedies, with a 98% approval rating from 44 published reviews.
As well as this, the BFI declared it to be the 28th best British film of all time, in their equivalent of the AFI's original 100 Years...100 Movies list. It was the seventh highest ranking comedy on this list (four of the better placed efforts were classic Ealing Films). Another Channel 4 poll in 2001 named it the 23rd greatest film of all time (the only comedy which came higher on this occasion was Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, which was ranked 5th).[29]
In addition to this, the line, "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!", spoken by Brian's mother Mandy to the crowd assembled outside her house, has been voted by readers of BOL.com the funniest line in film history. This poll also featured two of the film's other famous lines ("What have the Romans ever done for us?" and "I'm Brian and so's my wife") in the top 10.




Heavens Above! is a 1963 British satirical comedy film starring Peter Sellers, directed by John and Roy Boulting, who also co-wrote along with Frank Harvey, from an idea by Malcolm Muggeridge.
The plot features Sellers as a humble, caring vicar accidentally assigned to the comfortable country village of Orbiston Parva, in place of Ian Carmichael's upper-class cleric, with whom he shares a name. His belief in charity and forgiveness set him at odds with the selfish locals, whose assertions that they are good, Christian people are belied by their behaviour and ideas. He creates social ructions by hiring a new churchwarden, giving away food, taking in a homeless lower class family, and opposing the building of a new factory in the village. However, all his good works lead to trouble.





This is one of the classic British comedies of the 1960's Peter Sellers is superb as the Rev Smallwood a socialist priest mistakenly sent to an upper-crust English village. Eric Sykes and Cecil Parker excel in their roles, Sykes as the lay about, work dodging Smith and Parker as the holier than thou archdeacon. Irene Handle and Ian Carmicheal also make appearances in this film in their typical roles played to perfection."Heavens Above!" is a barbed satire that cuts both ways, ridiculing organized religion for its complacence and its unrealistic aspirations and humanism regarding the perfectibility of man, especially the working-class kind. Though far from the funniest Peter Sellers comedy, it certainly is worthy in its own unique way.Sellers plays Rev. John Smallwood, an Anglican prison chaplain accidentally assigned to the affluent community of Orbiston Parva. A sincere man of faith, Smallwood tries to drum up a little church fervor from his largely lapsed congregation, preaching the Gospel as Living Word rather than as aural wallpaper for weddings and funerals. Yet every earnest effort only stokes greater amounts of selfishness, even brutality."There aren't enough real Christians about to feed a decent lion," Smallwood laments.At the same time, he must deal with the miserable quality of the clergy around him, like his own bosses in the Church of England hierarchy who strain only to keep their rich donor base happy and generous or the odd Pentecostal preacher who offers up damnation-filled sermons: "It's only the fires of hell that keep the churches warm.""Heavens Above!" is a comedy of despair. If there is a God, it seems to say, He has better sense than to waste His time with blighted human riffraff like the Smiths, an itinerant family who leeches off Smallwood while feigning piety. Sellers is terrific, though in a largely straight performance, pulling us in with his naive gentility to the point where a lot of the gags turn painful when he is the butt of humor. The closest Sellers gets to laugh-getting - other than when Smallwood unknowingly snacks from a bowl of dog treats - is the opening, where he provides an uncredited voice-over as an American narrator introducing us to the uninspiring sight of Orbiston Parva. However much he stumbles and is tripped up, Smallwood is simply too nice a character to laugh at.





For all the apparent agnosticism in "Heavens Above", there's a strain of true religious belief in Smallwood's situation. Perhaps it's because the idea came from Malcolm Muggeridge, the last faith-friendly satirist England has produced. Smallwood is presented as a man of good works, but also doctrinal zeal. His scorn for the local pep-pill product "Tranquilax", it seems, is largely due to its proclaiming itself the "three-in-one restorative". For him, the only 3-in-1 restorative is the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost."Heavens Above!" is also interesting for the fact it catches Sellers just on the cusp of becoming an international star, still relatively round in body, making one of his last films aimed exclusively at his home British market. Like the later "Hoffman" and "Being There", this shows just how well Sellers could carry a film without resorting to silly accents or slapstick.The film's directors, John and Roy Boulting, do well to set Sellers up with an ace supporting cast recognizable from other Sellers productions of the period, including George Woodbridge and Cecil Parker as a pair of agreeably venal curates; Irene Handl and Eric Sykes as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, heads of a scruffy, thieving clan; and Kenneth Griffith as the fire-and-brimstone preacher.





Passport to Pimlico is a 1949 British comedy film made by Ealing Studios. Margaret Rutherford, Stanley Holloway and Hermione Baddeley star under the direction of Henry Cornelius.
The script was written by T.E.B. Clarke and demonstrated his usual logical development of absurd ideas. Some scenes in which the residents are refused passage out of their district into London by the authorities, and rely on supplies thrown over the dividing wall by well-wishers, were very topical because the film was made during the Berlin Blockade.

The film was inspired by a true incident during World War Two, when the royal family of the Netherlands (including the pregnant Princess Juliana) fled to Canada. Under Dutch law, a royal heir had to be born in the Netherlands in order to be eligible for succession to the throne. To accommodate this, the Canadian government passed a special law making her room in a Canadian maternity ward officially part of the Netherlands.

The film was screened at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, but not entered into the competition.


A bomb left over from the Second World War blows up in Miramont Gardens in the Pimlico district of London after some local children roll a tractor tyre down a hole. The explosion reveals a buried cellar from the manor house that gave Miramont Gardens its name, in which artwork, coins, jewellery and an ancient parchment document are found. Professor Hatton-Jones (Margaret Rutherford) authenticates it as a royal charter of Edward IV that ceded the house its estates to Charles VII ("the Rash"), the last Duke of Burgundy, when he sought refuge there several centuries ago after being presumed dead at the Battle of Nancy. As the charter had never been revoked, Pimlico is legally part of Burgundy. Local policeman P.C. Spiller (Philip Stainton) observes, "Blimey! I'm a foreigner!"


The British government has no legal jurisdiction and requires the Burgundians to form a committee according to the laws of the long-defunct dukedom before negotiating with them. Ancient Burgundian law requires that the Duke himself appoint a council. Without one, all seems lost - until a young man from Dijon (Paul Dupuis) steps forward and proves that he is the heir to the dukedom. He duly forms a governing body; one of its members is the shrewd shopkeeper Arthur Pemberton (Stanley Holloway).





Very quickly, Burgundy (followed soon after by the rest of London) realises that it is not subject to post-war rationing and other bureaucratic restrictions, and the district is quickly flooded with entrepreneurs, crooks and eager shoppers. A noisy free-for-all ensues, which Spiller, the Chief (and only) Constable of Burgundy, finds himself unable to handle. Then the British authorities close the "border" with barbed wire. Having left England without their passports, the bargain hunters have trouble returning home - as one policeman replies to an indignant woman, "Don't blame me Madam, if you choose to go abroad to do your shopping."
The Burgundians decide that two can play this game and stop an underground train dead in its tracks. "The train is now at the Burgundy frontier." explains an agent of the newly formed customs and excise department. They proceed to ask the passengers if they have anything to declare.
The infuriated British government retaliates by breaking off negotiations. Burgundy is isolated, like post-war Berlin, and the residents are invited to "immigrate" to England. But the Burgundians are "a fighting people" and, though the children are evacuated, the adults stand fast. As Mrs. Pemberton (Betty Warren) puts it, "We've always been English and we'll always be English; and it's precisely because we are English that we're sticking up for our right to be Burgundians!"
Pimlico is cut off from electricity, food and water (though there's plenty of gin and crisps). The water problem is solved by a covert raid late one night, refilling the reservoir with hoses attached to the nearest fire hydrant on the British side of the border. Unfortunately, the food supply is spoiled when the cellar where it is being stored becomes flooded, and it appears that the Burgundians are beaten. Just in time, three Burgundian youngsters learn about this crisis and toss food across the border, setting an example for sympathetic Londoners; they begin throwing food parcels across the barrier in an improvised "airlift", echoing the one that ended the Berlin Blockade. Soon, others get into the act. A helicopter drops a hose to deliver milk. Even swine are parachuted in (possibly a reference to the expression "when pigs fly"




Meanwhile, the government comes under public pressure to resolve the problem. It becomes clear to the bumbling British diplomats assigned to find a solution, Gregg (Basil Radford) and Straker (Naunton Wayne), that defeating the Burgundians would be no easy task, so they decide to negotiate. The sticking point turns out to be the disposition of the unearthed treasure. At last, the local banker (Raymond Huntley) hits upon a novel solution: "A Burgundian loan to Britain!"
With negotiations successfully concluded, an outdoor banquet is prepared to welcome Burgundy back into the fold. Just as Big Ben strikes the hour of reunification, the Burgundians realise they truly are back in England, when the clouds part after a loud clap of thunder, and the heat wave is brought to a swift end by a torrential downpour, sending everyone scurrying for cover.

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