Displaying items by tag: Reginald Beckwith

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.

DENTIST ON THE JOB

UK, 1961, 88 minutes, Black-and-white.

Bob Monkhouse, Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton, Eric Barker, Richard Wattis, Ronnie Stevens, Reginald Beckwith, Graham Stark, Charles Hawtrey.

Directed by C.M. Pennington-Richards.

A star vehicle for Bob Monkhouse, popular film and television star. Good-looking, presentable, but playing characters who seem rather smugly satisfied with themselves.

This is a sequel to Dentist in the Chair. It was released in 1961, the years when the Carry on series was emerging. And, quite a number of Carry on stars appear, especially Kenneth Connor, in the central role, along with a cameo by Charles Hawtrey, and key roles by Eric Barker and Shirley Eaton. The other main character is played by Ronnie Stevens.

The film could have been called Carry on Dentist, Carry on Advertising, or, even, Carry on Toothpaste!

The film is about a campaign for a new toothpaste which is not doing very well, Richard Wattid the very prim executive, Reginald Beckwith one of the sales representatives. Because a dentist, qualified, will be taken off the register for promoting a product, Monkhouse and Stevens are tricked into signing up to promote this toothpaste. So, all the usual shenanigans, quite some ogling, lots of sexual innuendo.

However, Kenneth Connor, is an ex-convict has plenty of opportunities to do his impersonations, projects and, then American accent. Shirley Eaton obviously enjoys this kind of role. And, Eric Barker, has two roles, two cousins.

Lots of knockabout comedy, parody of filming commercials, and a completely impossible situation whereby the doctors prepare take to a recorded message substituted for one going into space which will advertise the toothpaste all over the universe! There is some comment on security but, a more security-conscious public will think that these episodes, because not to be taken too seriously, are absolutely impossible.

Along with the Carry on series and other small comedies, this was British comedy on screen in the early 1960s.