Displaying items by tag: John Laurie

MR TEN PER CENT

UK, 1967, 84 minutes, Colour.

Charlie Drake, Derek Nimmo, Wanda Ventham, John Le Mesurier, Anthony Nichols, Noel Dyson, John Laurie, George Baker, Una Stubbs.

Directed by Peter Graham Scott.

Dear oh dear!

The diminutive comedian, Charlie Drake, was very popular on British television in the 1960s. He also made four films, slight comedies, not particularly well received by critics or the public, The Cracksman being the most successful.

This, his final starring role, is for diehards only, his complete fans. Yet he continued to have a successful career on television and was appearing in supporting roles in various films for the next 30 years.

In retrospect, many audiences will find his performance highly contrived, often very silly, trying too hard.

The film opens with his explaining Swan Lake while working on a building site, pairing with a policeman. Later, with an eye on the portrait of Oscar Wilde, he fancies himself as a dramatist, posh accent though mixing vocabulary, and later will fancy himself advising on how he his play should be produced. But, the play is highly dramatic, comes across as farcical. The unscrupulous entrepreneur, played by John Le Mesurier, decides to profit by investing in a commercial failure. His chosen director  is played by Derek Nimmo, himself a very eccentric performer (most successful in television’s Oh Brother).

The would-be playwright interferes with the rehearsals, is taken in by a financier, does not realise how he is being used – but, eventually, ousted from the play, tries to sabotage the London performance, audiences flocking to see and laugh at the farcical play.

Only Charlie Drake’s fans will be persuaded by the last sequence, where the audience realises that he is sincere, hopeful, and applauds him.

The same theme was far more successfully handled by expert Mel Brooks the following year with his comedy classic, The Producers, with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder (as well as the musical version in the 2000s with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick) – and we all remember the extraordinary song and dance routine, Springtime with Hitler!

THE GHOST OF ST MICHAELS

UK, 1941, 82 minutes, Black-and-white.

Will Hay, Charles Hawtrey, Claude Hulbert, Felix Aylmer, Raymond Huntley, John Laurie, Hay Petrie, Brefni O'Rourke.

Directed by Marcel Varnel.

An example of popular comedy produced in the UK in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Will A, the scientist and astronomer in training and hobby, was popular as a comedian in a series of small-budget films at the time. He was revered and audiences now watching his films will be interested in his status and impact at that time. But, it seems quite dated.

This is a wartime story, an indication of spies operating in England and Scotland. It is a story of a transfer of school students to an old Castle in Scotland, travelling by ferry to an island, and the old Castle reputed to have ghosts. (Those interested in screenwriting might note that one of the contributors here, John Dighton, made the school comedy, The Happiest Days of Your Life almost 10 years later.)

The comedy is very broad, farcical, the suggestion of ghosts and eerie music, especially agitated by the Scots staff member, John Laurie. And, in fact, there are two deaths, not by ghost but by a spy. In the two deaths are of the serious characters in the film, two headmasters, Felix Aylmer and Raymond Huntley, playing straight rather than comic roles.

However, in retrospect, the surprise of the film is the presence of Charles Hawtrey at the age of 26, already a strong career in film and radio, really the commanding presence of the film even over Will Pay. He portrays a very precocious student, shrewd, mischievous, a touch self-righteous, the contributing strongly to the solution of the mysteries. It would be another 15 or 16 years before he made his first Carry on film, starring in 23 of the series. And, his style in 1941 certainly prefigured his comic abilities in his Carry on career.

One for the historical record and for film history buffs.