Produced by Darcy Conyers and Brian Rix. A Rix-Conyers Production. Filmed at Shepperton Studios. No U.S. theatrical release. U.K. release through British Lion: 12 February 1961. Australian release through British Empire Films: 25 August 1961. 7,349 feet. 82 minutes. Cut by the Australian censor by approximately 92 seconds.
SYNOPSIS: It's a set-up of craft and graft. 'Chippendale Charlie' (Reginald Beckwith) forges the antiques. Cecil Gibson (Ronald Shiner) flogs 'em. There's only one flaw in the fiddle. They've no- one to carry the can if things go wrong. Until Bertie Skidmore (Brian Rix) joins the firm. Bertie's the perfect idiot. He's so gormless that when he discovers he's sold a fake four-poster he rushes after the customer, Wolfie Green (John Slater), to confess. Cecil is horrified, jumps into the van alongside Bertie, grabs the steering-wheel — and crunches into a steam-roller. They give Cecil a beautiful send-off. Dignified service. Flowers from his friends, weeping from his widow.
At the funeral Bertie meets Julie (Dora Bryan), Cecil's widow. They fall in love, the business prospers honestly, and they marry. It might have been a deliriously happy honeymoon. But a beady-eyed parrot — a wedding gift from a well-wisher — pole-axes Bertie by speaking to him during the reception. In the late Cecil's voice!
COMMENT: Freely adapted from the stage play, "The Love Birds", by Basil Thomas, this British farce boasts an excellent cast of guaranteed-to-please comedians, including a delightful study by Kynaston Reeves of a deaf J.P. and another by John Le Mesurier (pronounced "Messer-ra"_ as his harassed clerk.
The director's sense of timing is faultless (especially the scenes in Miss Hawkesworth's) and he drives the film along at a cracking pace.
Mind you, this is the sort of film in which a character can't carry a suitcase without dropping it on someone's toe.
SYNOPSIS: It's a set-up of craft and graft. 'Chippendale Charlie' (Reginald Beckwith) forges the antiques. Cecil Gibson (Ronald Shiner) flogs 'em. There's only one flaw in the fiddle. They've no- one to carry the can if things go wrong. Until Bertie Skidmore (Brian Rix) joins the firm. Bertie's the perfect idiot. He's so gormless that when he discovers he's sold a fake four-poster he rushes after the customer, Wolfie Green (John Slater), to confess. Cecil is horrified, jumps into the van alongside Bertie, grabs the steering-wheel — and crunches into a steam-roller. They give Cecil a beautiful send-off. Dignified service. Flowers from his friends, weeping from his widow.
At the funeral Bertie meets Julie (Dora Bryan), Cecil's widow. They fall in love, the business prospers honestly, and they marry. It might have been a deliriously happy honeymoon. But a beady-eyed parrot — a wedding gift from a well-wisher — pole-axes Bertie by speaking to him during the reception. In the late Cecil's voice!
COMMENT: Freely adapted from the stage play, "The Love Birds", by Basil Thomas, this British farce boasts an excellent cast of guaranteed-to-please comedians, including a delightful study by Kynaston Reeves of a deaf J.P. and another by John Le Mesurier (pronounced "Messer-ra"_ as his harassed clerk.
The director's sense of timing is faultless (especially the scenes in Miss Hawkesworth's) and he drives the film along at a cracking pace.
Mind you, this is the sort of film in which a character can't carry a suitcase without dropping it on someone's toe.
