Displaying items by tag: Graham Crowden

WE JOINED THE NAVY

UK, 1962, 104 minutes, Colour.

Kenneth More, Lloyd Nolan, Joan O’Brien, Jeremy Lloyd, Dinsdale Landon, Derek Fowlds, Mischa Auer, John Le Mesurier, Lally Bowers, Laurence Naismith, Andrew Cruickshank, Walter Fitzgerald, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, Esma Cannon, Kenneth Griffith, Warren Mitchell, Graham Crowden, Cameos: Michael Bentine, Rodney Bewes, Dirk Bogarde, Sid James.

Directed by Wendy Toye.

British comedy at the beginning of the 1960s, broadening of humour, the period of the beginning of the Carry on series… And, glancing at the cast list, quite a number of names of popular British actors of the time and those who were emerging (and a couple of celebrity cameos, particularly Dirk Bogarde as Dr Simon Sparrow, his character in the Doctor series, where he played with Kenneth More). Sid James does a chuckling variation on his Carry on characters. Notable supporting performances from Kenneth Griffith and, especially, Warren Mitchell. And for fans of veteran actress, Esma Cannon, this is one that definitely should be seen, decked out in official royalty costume and with an accent!

There are several Americans in the cast because of the screenplay, notably Lloyd Nolan, first appearing in American films in the mid-1930s, a 50 years career, his last film Woody Allen’s Hannah and her Sisters.

Much of the screenplay now seems very corny. And there is a great deal of farce. There are interview sequences for inept candidates for the Navy. There are plenty of training sequences. But, with Kenneth More as the central character, always speaking out and being transferred to other jobs, put in command of three potential officers, Jeremy Lloyd (actor but later writer of such television series as Are You Being Served and ‘Ullo ‘Ullo), Dinsdale Landon and Derek Fowlds who came to prominence as the meek public servant in Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.

There are sequences in the Riviera, clashes between the Brits and the Yanks, more farce about romance for Kenneth More.

Finally, an intervention in an African revolution, Kenneth Griffiths, often so meek on screen, as a yelling and ranting revolutionary, veteran Mischa Auer as two characters leading the country, extremely eccentric.

This comedy has, some humour, but a great deal of silliness as well.

UP THE CHASTITY BELT

UK, 1972, 94 minutes, Colour.

Frankie Howerd, David Kernan, Nora Swinburne, Godfrey Winn, Bill Fraser, Anna Quayle, Graham Crowden, Anne Aston.

Directed by Bob Kellett.

Slapstick in the Middle Ages.

Frankie Howerd was a popular comedian on television and in cinema in the 1960s into the 1980s. His best known series was U[ Pompeii which led to a film of the same name, directed by Bob Kellett who also directed this film and a variation on the Up theme, World War I, Up The Front.

This film was much more lively than the other two Up pictures, the Middle Ages offering a greater variety for stories – medieval life amongst the aristocracy, amongst the poor, the crusades, Robin Hood…

Frankie Howerd actually has the opportunity to act as two characters here, twins, one, Richard the Lionheart, the other, Lurkalot, brought up amongst the pigs and acting as a servant in the Castle of the Sir Coardy Custard (later to be challenged by Sir de Bombast). And, various names accordingly.

It also offers Frankie Howerd the opportunity to take on a number of impersonations throughout the film including participating in a joust, disguising himself as a female, wandering from Europe to the Middle East, discovering that the Crusaders were being hosted by Saladdin who was creating a harem for them. (Some of the jokes seem particularly sexist now, some racist.)

Of course, Frankie Howerd is continually talking to the audience, straight to camera, commenting on the film and its progress and what is suitable or not. There is a surprise at the end when the screenplay turns Robin Hood and his merry men, including Friar tuck, into a very gay troop.

For Howerd fans to enjoy – and a reminder of some of the trends in British comedy, especially at the end of the 1960s, becoming more open, explicit and permissive into the 1970s.