Amazon.com video review:
John Cleese has always maintained that Fawlty Towers was inspired by a real hotel that was run by a proprietor who treated guests as an inconvenience to running a business. No one in the world, however, can possibly match the sheer insolence and incompetence of Basil Fawlty, perhaps the most brazenly rude character in the history of customer disservice. "A Touch of Class," the series pilot, finds Basil bemoaning the riff-raff he's forced to deal with when he signs in a Lord Melbury. Immediately melting into an embarrassingly obsequious toady, Basil is blinded by nobility and becomes the perfect patsy for the old con man. In "The Builders," Cleese proves there are no limits to what lengths Basil Fawlty will go to save a few quid. Enlisting a resistant Polly in his plot, he quietly fires the respectable carpenters hired by his wife, Sybil, and brings in a cheap crew with a history of disaster. Sure enough, they wind up walling up the entrance to the dining room, sending an insanely outraged Basil into a frenzy as he tries to correct the blunder before Sybil returns. Davis Kelly (Waking Ned Devine) costars as the genial but incompetent O'Reilly. Basil smells hanky-panky in the air in "The Wedding Party," when he signs in an unmarried couple and soon sees foreplay in every innocent kiss and embrace. Meanwhile, a sexy French antique dealer sends Basil into red-faced vexations with her flirtations and Manuel's birthday results in a drunken binge and a morning-after hangover that only adds to the bellhop's usual incompetence at the morning breakfast service. When Sybil overhears that "The Hotel Inspectors" are in the area, Basil makes an about-face in his brusque treatment of a demanding guest, falling all over himself to cater to the guest's every whim while he boorishly insults every other customer. When he discovers his mistake he makes up for lost insolence in a campaign of comic terror. --Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
John Cleese has always maintained that Fawlty Towers was inspired by a real hotel that was run by a proprietor who treated guests as an inconvenience to running a business. No one in the world, however, can possibly match the sheer insolence and incompetence of Basil Fawlty, perhaps the most brazenly rude character in the history of customer disservice. "Gourmet Night" is Basil's brilliant idea to raise the quality of the clientele of his dingy little establishment, but when his new cook gets blind drunk, he responds by importing the food from another restaurant, with the usual Fawlty foul-ups. Basil's fevered flogging of his sputtering car is a surreal series highlight. In "The Germans," perhaps the best-loved episode of the series, John Cleese hits all-time heights of impertinent provocation when his wife, Sybil, is in the hospital for an ingrown toenail (much to Basil's glee). Simple instructions not to mention "the war" to the German guests sends Basil into a flustered frenzy of conversations that all wind back to WWII, culminating in his stork-like goose step as he offers his impersonation of Adolf Hitler. "Communications Problems" finds Basil once again plotting behind his wife's back, this time for a little off-track betting. His horse comes in, but his effort to hide his winnings becomes complicated when a guest is robbed and Basil's sneaking and sudden handful of cash make him the prime suspect. Complicating matters is dotty Major Gowan, the reality-impaired resident whose forgetfulness only lands Basil in worse trouble. Basil's prudish hypocrisy gets a workout in "The Psychiatrist" when a handsome young chap sneaks a girl into his room. Compounding Basil's strange behavior is the discovery that another guest is a psychiatrist, sending Basil into a tizzy as he is sure the man is analyzing his every utterance. As his attempts to catch the adulterers in the act turns into a bedroom farce, Basil finds himself caught in a position both compromising and absurd--his duck-walking climax has to be seen to be believed. --Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
John Cleese has always maintained that Fawlty Towers was inspired by a real hotel that was run by a proprietor who treated guests as an inconvenience to running a business. No one in the world, however, can possibly match the sheer insolence and incompetence of Basil Fawlty, perhaps the most brazenly rude character in the history of customer disservice. In "Waldorf Salad," an American guest slips Basil good money to keep the cook late for an after-hours dinner, but Basil pockets the cash and attempts to deliver the meal himself in a calamitous comedy of errors. As he pretends to berate and beat the nonexistent cook for his mistakes, his manic bits of street theater grow into an absurdly schizophrenic shouting match. Only Basil Fawlty could keep up a conversation with a dead man and never even notice his state. In "The Kipper and the Corpse," Basil is sure that the man died from the hotel's bad food. When a doctor declares otherwise, he leaps into gloriously insensitive explosions of joy, but his problems are just beginning. Where to hide the body as they await the coroner while keeping the whole thing a secret from his customers? Just about everywhere, it turns out, and the room-hopping farce that ensues ensures that the dead man is the worst-kept secret in the hotel's hilarious history. Basil blithely pretends to have forgotten about "The Anniversary" as Sybil drops hint after hint to Basil's blank stares, but secretly he's plotted a surprise party. Unfortunately his act is too convincing and Sybil storms out before the event and Basil forces Polly to play the part of his wife, unexpectedly bedridden, for his puzzled guests. An even more puzzled Sybil returns to see the farce. Nothing turns Basil Fawlty's rude behavior into panicked fawning and manic desperation like a confrontation with authority, and the surprise arrival of the health inspector in "Basil the Rat" has him flip-flopping between penny-pinching opportunism and hysterical self-preservation. When Manuel's Siberian hamster, which turns out to be rat, escapes into the hotel, a poison-laced cut of veal set out to kill the creature becomes mixed up with the dinner cuts. When they fear the fatal flank has landed on the inspector's plate, they launch into an impromptu game of dining-room switcheroo. --Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com Essentials:
Basil Fawlty, as created and performed by John Cleese, is the
rudest, most boorish, most hilariously obnoxious man on the face of the
planet. What a natural for a TV sitcom! His screen wife, Sybil (Prunella
Scales), put it best in the episode "The Psychiatrist": "You're either
crawling all over them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them
like some Benzedrine puff adder." He mockingly replies, "Just trying to enjoy myself, dear." With his gangly frame and contortionist abilities, Cleese
brilliantly punctuates Basil's outrageous faux pas with absurd gymnastics
and turns Three Stooges-style pokes and kicks into a slapstick ballet.
Scales's Sybil is the genial but obliviously chatty voice of reason and
Andrew Sachs mangles the English language as the Spanish bellhop Manuel,
whose struggles with simple directions results in comic lunacy reminiscent
of Robert Benigni. After a six-episode run in 1975, Cleese and
cowriter and costar Connie Booth (who plays Polly, the maid all too often
pulled into Basil's ridiculous plans) reunited the cast in 1979 for another six episodes without missing a punch line. The four-volume collection
contains all 12 shows, interspersed with interview segments featuring Cleese
discussing the genesis of the series and anecdotes about the individual
episodes. Remember to watch the opening credits of each show to spot the
creative misspellings on the hotel sign (my favorite: "Fatty Owls").
--Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
In "The Builders," John Cleese proves there are no limits to what lengths Basil Fawlty
will go to save a few quid. Enlisting a resistant Polly
in his plot, he quietly fires the respectable carpenters hired by his wife,
Sybil, and brings in a cheap crew with a history of disaster. Sure enough,
they wind up walling up the entrance to the dining room, sending an
insanely outraged Basil into a frenzy as he tries to correct the blunder before
Sybil returns. Davis Kelly (Waking Ned Devine) costars as the genial but
incompetent O'Reilly. Basil smells hanky-panky in the air in "The Wedding
Party" when he signs in an unmarried couple and soon sees foreplay in every
innocent kiss and embrace. Meanwhile, a sexy French antique dealer sends
Basil into red-faced vexations with her flirtations and Manuel's birthday
results in a drunken binge and a morning-after hangover that
only adds to the bellhop's usual incompetence at the morning breakfast service.
Basil's prudish hypocrisy gets a workout in "The Psychiatrist" when a
handsome young chap sneaks a girl into his room. Compounding Basil's
strange behavior is the discovery that another guest is a psychiatrist, sending
Basil into a tizzy as he is sure the man is analyzing his every utterance.
As his attempts to catch the adulterers in the act turns into a bedroom
farce, Basil finds himself caught in a position both compromising and
absurd--his duck walking climax has to be seen to be believed. --Sean
Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
John Cleese has always maintained that
Fawlty Towers was inspired by a real-life hotel he stayed in
during his Monty Python years that was run by a proprietor who treated
guests as an inconvenience to running a business. No one in the world,
however, can possibly match the sheer insolence and incompetence of
Basil Fawlty, perhaps the most brazenly rude character in the history
of customer disservice. When Sybil overhears that "The Hotel
Inspectors" are in the area, Basil makes an about-face in his brusque
treatment of a demanding guest, falling all over himself to cater to
the guest's every whim while he boorishly insults every other customer. When
he discovers his mistake he makes up for lost insolence in a campaign
of comic terror. In "The Germans," perhaps the best-loved episode of
the series, John Cleese hits all-time heights of impertinent
provocation when his wife, Sybil, is in the hospital for an ingrown
toenail (much to Basil's glee). Simple instructions not to mention
"the war" to the German guests sends Basil into a flustered frenzy of
conversations that all wind back to WWII, culminating in his storklike
goose step as he offers his impersonation of Adolf Hitler. "A Touch
of Class," the series pilot, finds Basil bemoaning the riff-raff he's
forced to deal with when he signs in a Lord Melbury. Immediately
melting into an embarrassingly obsequious toady, Basil is blinded by
nobility and becomes the perfect patsy for the old con man. --Sean
Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
Only Basil Fawlty could keep up a conversation with a dead man and
never even notice his state. In "The Kipper and the Corpse," Basil is sure
that the man died from the hotel's bad food. When a doctor declares
otherwise he leaps into gloriously insensitive explosions of joy, but his
problems are just beginning. Where to hide the body as they await the
coroner while keeping the whole thing a secret from his customers? Just
about everywhere, it turns out, and the room-hopping farce that ensues
ensures that the dead man is the worst-kept secret in the hotel's hilarious
history. "Gourmet Night" is Basil's brilliant idea to raise the quality of
the clientele of his dingy little establishment, but when his new cook gets
blind drunk he responds by importing the food from another restaurant, with
the usual Fawlty foul-ups. Basil's fevered flogging of his sputtering car
is a surreal series highlight. In "Waldorf Salad," an American guest slips
Basil good money to keep the cook late for an after-hours dinner, but Basil
pockets the cash and attempts to deliver the meal himself in a calamitous
comedy of errors. As he pretends to berate and beat the nonexistent cook
for his mistakes, his manic bits of street theater grow into an absurdly
schizophrenic shouting match. --Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
Nothing turns Basil Fawlty's rude behavior into panicked fawning and
manic desperation like a confrontation with authority and the surprise
arrival of the Health Inspector in "Basil the Rat" has him flip-flopping
between penny-pinching opportunism and hysterical self-preservation. When
Manuel's Siberian hamster, which turns out to be rat, escapes into the
hotel, a poison-laced cut of veal set out to kill the creature becomes
mixed up with the dinner cuts. When they fear the fatal flank has landed on the
inspector's plate they launch into an impromptu game of dining-room
switcheroo. Basil blithely pretends to have forgotten about "The
Anniversary" as Sybil drops hint after hint to Basil's blank stares, but
secretly he's plotted a surprise party. Unfortunately his act is too
convincing and Sybil storms out before the event and Basil forces Polly to
play the part of his wife, unexpectedly bedridden, for his puzzled guests.
An even more puzzled Sybil returns to see the farce. "Communications Problems" finds Basil once again plotting behind his wife's back, this time for a little off-track betting. His horse comes in, but his effort to hide his winnings becomes complicated when a guest is robbed and Basil's sneaking and sudden handful of cash makes him the prime suspect. Complicating matters is dotty Major Gowan, the reality-impaired resident whose forgetfulness only lands Basil in worse trouble. --Sean Axmaker
