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Reviews
Down Among the Z Men (1952)
Rubbish
This attempt to transfer the Goon Show humour from radio to the big screen fails dismally. It was made early in the Goon Show's run and before the GS had developed it's later format of one story per show. The film seems to be made up of sketches which don't flow together well and are in most cases cringe inducingly poor. For a better Goon film seek out The Case of the Mukkinese Battlehorn which does the job far better. Better still buy the Goon Show tapes or CDs.
The Goodies (1970)
One of the funniest shows
One of the funniest UK comedy shows. The episode "Bunfight at the OK Tearooms" features the best western saloon bar poker game scene ever filmed (using toast for cards and biscuits as chips then pies and cakes and finally a three-tier wedding cake as the stakes got higher). The poker game is played entirely to piano music with no dialogue. The celebrity safari park one was great too. Especially when they released Tony Blackburn back into the wild and someone shot him. The show was derived from the radio show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again which was also part of Monty Python's ancestry featuring John Cleese in the cast and Eric Idle and Graham Chapman among the writers.
The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn (1956)
Excellent Goon Humour
Basically, this is the nearest you're going to get to a filmed Goon Show (1950's British radio programme). A lot of the jokes are lifted directly from Goon Shows. It's a pity Harry Secombe wasn't in it but Dick Emery is excellent. Peter Sellers excels as Quilt, Commissioner Gervaise and Henry Crun running a pawn shop (with Minnie off screen telling him there's someone knocking at the door). Milligan plays Brown or White depending which bit of the film (I think that was a re-write error) but it's Eccles. He also does a superb silent actor looking for the labour exchange skit and is the Police Sergeant assisting Inspector Quilt (and, of course the voice of Minnie Bannister). Dick Emery plays the museum curator and Maurice Ponk ("nothing to do with the story but we wanted you to see what a real idiot looks like"). It's long while since I've seen this film so I can't be certain but I think Emery plays Plackett (Willium Mate), the museum guard though it might be Sellers as the character was most often played by him on radio and the "they kept walloping me on the head" bit is from The Missing Prime Minister/10 Downing St and Sellers played Mate in both those radio shows
If you can't find the film on video, at least get some Goon Show CDs or tapes. The BBC and EMI both released some. The BBC set with 1985 on it is my favourite. The EMI one with Dishonoured is another good choice (featuring The Dance of the Seven Army-Surplus Blankets)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Wonderful film
This has to be my all time favourite movie. It is the story of Clive Candy (Roger Livesey), a British Army officer, from 1902 to 1942. It is told as a flashback in three sections - 1902, 1918 and 1942. Deborah Kerr plays three women in his life, Edith Hunter, who he falls in love with in 1902, Barbara Wynne, who he marries in 1918 and Angela/Johnny his driver in 1942. Anton Walbrook plays Theo who fights a duel with Candy in 1902 and then becomes friends with Candy and Edith and marries Edith. They meet briefly in 1918 when Theo is being sent back to Germany from a British POW camp. In 1942 they meet again although both Edith and Barbara have died by then. When Theo sees Johnny he realises why Clive chose her to be his driver. Other excellent perfomers include John Laurie as Candy's WWI driver and later his butler. Some of the lines must have meant a lot to Emerich Pressburger, particularly when Theo explains why he left Germany so late after the Nazis came to power and the bit when Theo says it must be hard losing your wife abroad and Candy replies "It wasn't abroad, it was Jamaica" which summed up the David Low cartoon character Col Blimp's attitude to the world and particularly the British Empire. The film is not a war story, though it features a soldier. It is not a sloppy romance, though it features a man looking for his ideal woman. It more than either or both put together. It is without doubt due to the consummate skills of Powell and Pressburger every bit as much as the excellent performances they coaxed out of the superb cast. Winston Churchill hated the film and tried to have it banned as it featured a sympathetic German character when Britain was at war with Germany. I am so glad he failed.