Displaying items by tag: Arthur Howard

BOTTOMS UP

UK, 1960, 90 minutes, Black-and-white.

Jimmy Edwards, Arthur Howard, Martita Hunt, Sidney Tafler, Raymond Huntley, Reginald Beckwith, Melvyn Hayes, John Mitchell, Richard Briers.

Directed by Mario Zampi.

Bottoms up, especially for receiving a caning in old-style British schools!

Jimmy Edwards was a popular comedian on radio and television in the 1950s. He brings his schoolmaster character from those media to the big screen. Whether it appeals to later generations is a moot point.

And, looking back over the decades and attitudes towards discipline in schools, physical punishment, delivered by staff and other students, this comedy seems particularly old-fashioned. A past that is receding into long distance.

And, a critical look back at plot developments show a subplot concerning a Prince from a colonial country, blackface disguise, not accepted in later generations. And, the most mischievous of the boys is played by the son of a bishop.

The film could be seen as a male version of the popular St Trinians’ girls schools comedies, lots of misbehaving children, lots of frustrated staff, all kinds of slapstick comedy, all kinds of misadventures and plots, turning into a school battlefield and military strategies, humorous dialogue, lots play on words (those masters of English language in radio programs, Frank Muir and Dennis Norden, receive credits for the screenplay). And, some touches of innuendo – after all, this was the era when the Carry on series began.

Jimmy Edwards is huge, bluff, imposing, but also the victim of all kinds of pranks. The fall guy, so to speak, is his hapless assistant, so often the victim of pranks as well as their masters’ bullying, is played by Arthur Howard (brother of Leslie Howard). There is comedy with snobbery, especially with Martita Hunt (so memorable as Miss Havisham in Great Expectations) and the perennially rather snooty government official played by Raymond Huntley. Richard Briers, early in his career, is in the cast.

The film was directed by Italian born Mario Zampi who made a number of comedies in England, notably Laughter in Paradise with Alistair Sim and Too Many Crooks with Terry Thomas (and Carry on stars, Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw).

A curiosity item, broad British comedy in the 1950s and 1960s.