As funny as this trio is, they really needed to be directed that less is more. Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix and Sidney James are all over the place in this racing track comedy where the three should have been on a horse and exhausted before they started filming this. The plot is so over the place that it seems like a race track has greyhounds and classic automobiles on it in addition to the horses. For some reason, the end up taking residence in a house with lots of secret panels, decaying walls (hense the titke) and other wackos popping in and out. As doors slam, pants fall down, panels open and genuine chaos takes over until the action moves back to the race track.
Some visuals work really well in keeping the audience entertained, excuse me but others take away from what little bit of a place there is. This reminds me of the old British forces that would lead a playwright to create "Noises Off", indeed, there are far too many noises here. The funniest did for me was the portly female police officer (Peggy Mount) being stunned by a gunshot and jumping into the arms of one of the men. Fortunately she pops in and out of the story, always deadly serious, and that makes her performance all the funnier. The horse race finale, which ends up on public streets, is funny, but just more evidence as to why farce is funny in smallwr doses. This is so non-stop buffoonery that after a while, it's headache inducing.
Some visuals work really well in keeping the audience entertained, excuse me but others take away from what little bit of a place there is. This reminds me of the old British forces that would lead a playwright to create "Noises Off", indeed, there are far too many noises here. The funniest did for me was the portly female police officer (Peggy Mount) being stunned by a gunshot and jumping into the arms of one of the men. Fortunately she pops in and out of the story, always deadly serious, and that makes her performance all the funnier. The horse race finale, which ends up on public streets, is funny, but just more evidence as to why farce is funny in smallwr doses. This is so non-stop buffoonery that after a while, it's headache inducing.