I was expecting a bit more from this 1970 film starring Peter Cook and a host of other British comedy stalwarts including John Cleese. There was a certain amount of originality and some flair with the direction but decent enough though the script was, the jokes just weren't that funny. On reflection this came just as British comedy was about to change drastically and was probably left high and dry as a consequence. There are several Python people here and on a couple of occasions it seems like some crazy anarchy might be about to break out but we are grounded by the old traditionalists like Ronnie Corbett and Arthur Lowe and writers writing specifically for them. Sad to say that maybe the biggest problem is that Cook who takes the lead so manfully is crashingly irritating as he brings everyone around him down in a most one note performance. Worth seeing, of course, because of how interesting it is to see this transitional film and all those wonderful comedy people beginning to wonder just what is about to hit them.
