Watching this old movie on BBC2 for the fourth or fifth time, it illustrates how times have changed since WW2 ended (as I was born). Fascinating as a social study but also interesting seeing how much better many films were than they are today. Oh yes we still get some greats but the vast majority, like music, are inferior - we need lines like "You'd skin a maggot, you would" in today's scripts.

For me Ealing was the Golden era for British cinema. Love Passport to Pimlico. My favourite Ealing comedy is The Ladykillers.

Downing Street Cat wrote:
For me Ealing was the Golden era for British cinema. Love Passport to Pimlico. My favourite Ealing comedy is The Ladykillers.

I love The Ladykillers, not the US remake.

People die in the movie but you are laughing at it, Brits do have a warped humour.

British comedy films have declined since the golden age of Carry-on in the 70s. I really don't find Richard Curtis funny at all. I know that they are extremely popular, but they don't raise a snigger with me. The Monty Python films had one or two funny scenes for me, but most of it didn't work, and was just silly. A fish called Wanda was just taking the piss out of people that stutter.

I can go off and watch "Passport to Pimlico" and come back to Wimbledon knowing that it will probably be no nearer to a conclusion than it is now.

robbiex wrote:
British comedy films have declined since the golden age of Carry-on in the 70s. I really don't find Richard Curtis funny at all. I know that they are extremely popular, but they don't raise a snigger with me. The Monty Python films had one or two funny scenes for me, but most of it didn't work, and was just silly. A fish called Wanda was just taking the piss out of people that stutter.

I can go off and watch "Passport to Pimlico" and come back to Wimbledon knowing that it will probably be no nearer to a conclusion than it is now.

I never got into Python, despite trying hard; I ended up falling asleep. I was given a complete M.P. box set, but I gave up after the first disc and sold it a year later on the quiet.

I do agree about 'A Wish Called Wander'; it's just cheap gags, despite being a box office hit. I saw some of it in the cinema, and there was a small group who looked awkward and almost in tears. I sussed before they left the theatre that they had stutters themselves. I felt sorry for them, and I left soon after, pretty much a protest. I expected more from Michael Palin. The 5 movies that stood out for me in 1988 were Naked Gun, Eight Men Out, Clean & Sober, Last Temptation of Christ, Big and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I didn't even enjoy Die Hard. I did like Big and I saw it a few times in the cinema.

I did enjoy Clockwise, but found Fierce Creatures to be unfunny, along with John Cleese's remake of Out of Towners; it was at the time when sex comedies were being brought back from the ashes.

The thing with Carry On if you've seen one you have seen the lot. My partner has the box set, but I end up falling asleep after 15 mins.

Green Man wrote:
robbiex wrote:
British comedy films have declined since the golden age of Carry-on in the 70s. I really don't find Richard Curtis funny at all. I know that they are extremely popular, but they don't raise a snigger with me. The Monty Python films had one or two funny scenes for me, but most of it didn't work, and was just silly. A fish called Wanda was just taking the piss out of people that stutter.

I can go off and watch "Passport to Pimlico" and come back to Wimbledon knowing that it will probably be no nearer to a conclusion than it is now.

I never got into Python, despite trying hard; I ended up falling asleep. I was given a complete M.P. box set, but I gave up after the first disc and sold it a year later on the quiet.

I do agree about 'A Wish Called Wander'; it's just cheap gags, despite being a box office hit. I saw some of it in the cinema, and there was a small group who looked awkward and almost in tears. I sussed before they left the theatre that they had stutters themselves. I felt sorry for them, and I left soon after, pretty much a protest. I expected more from Michael Palin. The 5 movies that stood out for me in 1988 were Naked Gun, Eight Men Out, Clean & Sober, Last Temptation of Christ, Big and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I didn't even enjoy Die Hard. I did like Big and I saw it a few times in the cinema.

I did enjoy Clockwise, but found Fierce Creatures to be unfunny, along with John Cleese's remake of Out of Towners; it was at the time when sex comedies were being brought back from the ashes.

The thing with Carry On if you've seen one you have seen the lot. My partner has the box set, but I end up falling asleep after 15 mins.

The early carry-ons like Cabby, Seargent, and Doctor were more like Ealing comedies, with no innuendo. In the 70s restrictions on what you could get away with were relaxed and Carry-ons took advantage of this. Everyone from Carry On Camping onwards were mainly double-entendre based, with partial nudity. Double Entendres can be quite funny and the characters were a joy. Towards the end they had to compete with the sex comedies of the 70s such as Confessions, and Mary Millington films, which were rubbish, but interesting to watch as a period piece.

Robin Askwith was an appalling actor and was not that good looking either. He has lived off the back of Confessions for about 50 years. I didn't like them but I preferred the Adventures off... despite being equally bad.

Groupie Girl is an interesting movie, they found more lost footage recently.

The censors relaxed the rules in the early 70s, so studios cashed in and the screen was littered with bouncing boobs and bare bottoms. Hence a string of bawdy sex comedies. Even horror movies became more about sex than horror-Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire etc;. See any cinema queue on wet Wednesday afternoons in 1973 and it would be mainly middle aged men in raincoats and spotty schoolboys deprived of eye candy-no video recorders or internet. When some of the horror movies were later shown on TV they cut out the rude bits. A bare bum!!!? OMG.

You filthy beast, Cat.

Green Man wrote:
You filthy beast, Cat.