Yes. To answer the question.
Why yes? Well it starred the wonderful acting of Harry H Corbett and Ron Barker yet - amazingly - this duo appear awkward and contrived whilst working together in this film. Harry on his own is pure screen gold.
Probably thought at the time to be marketed as a ribald comedy - it isn't. Nellie chasing a grown man with a knife down the Rickmansworth cut - followed by Eric Sykes taking snaps of the domestic- isn't very funny or laugh out loud. Dreadful. Eric Sykes playing a jolly naval Jack Tar barely amuses me but clearly had more talent in his naval than I will ever possess. Sad to see such a cameo by a great that could produce 'The Plank'.
Harry H is amazing and died tragically, far too soon. Ronnie went on to work with another Corbett in the golden years of British comedy TV. Both pure talents of gold.
The story line is as weak as the canal embankments found at the time - with the waterways on the point of extinction and about to go into decay and recession. Cuts to cuts were on the way in 60s Britain, transport water and railways destroyed by the bent bureaucrats. What a miserable sodding place England was in the swinging sixties! Perhaps the film reflects this POV, enlivened by the slap and tickle that ensured a more hopeful future Generation X. Galton and Simpson could always write well and pathos came naturally to these talented scriptwriters. So why not forgive the film lacking real joie de vivre that Genevieve and Titfield can provide? Watch it more than once and it will grow on you.
Luckily this film has preserved a happy jaunt down memory lane and possibly helped to inspire enthusiasts wishing to keep open the 200 year old waterways of industrial England.
The film would have to be on the shelf today of any self-respecting canal boats' DVD collection - alongside 'Genevieve' and 'The Titfield Thunderbolt'. It has none of the charm of those two fine films outside of the film's unique backdrop. But what a list of stars all great in their own way. Derek Nimmo, Hugh Griffith and the truly scrumptious Julie Foster. It is a remarkable film of a bygone yesteryear and those British stars - so moving. MaKEs US ALL wanna be on those boats once in your life, eh? I love it.
Why yes? Well it starred the wonderful acting of Harry H Corbett and Ron Barker yet - amazingly - this duo appear awkward and contrived whilst working together in this film. Harry on his own is pure screen gold.
Probably thought at the time to be marketed as a ribald comedy - it isn't. Nellie chasing a grown man with a knife down the Rickmansworth cut - followed by Eric Sykes taking snaps of the domestic- isn't very funny or laugh out loud. Dreadful. Eric Sykes playing a jolly naval Jack Tar barely amuses me but clearly had more talent in his naval than I will ever possess. Sad to see such a cameo by a great that could produce 'The Plank'.
Harry H is amazing and died tragically, far too soon. Ronnie went on to work with another Corbett in the golden years of British comedy TV. Both pure talents of gold.
The story line is as weak as the canal embankments found at the time - with the waterways on the point of extinction and about to go into decay and recession. Cuts to cuts were on the way in 60s Britain, transport water and railways destroyed by the bent bureaucrats. What a miserable sodding place England was in the swinging sixties! Perhaps the film reflects this POV, enlivened by the slap and tickle that ensured a more hopeful future Generation X. Galton and Simpson could always write well and pathos came naturally to these talented scriptwriters. So why not forgive the film lacking real joie de vivre that Genevieve and Titfield can provide? Watch it more than once and it will grow on you.
Luckily this film has preserved a happy jaunt down memory lane and possibly helped to inspire enthusiasts wishing to keep open the 200 year old waterways of industrial England.
The film would have to be on the shelf today of any self-respecting canal boats' DVD collection - alongside 'Genevieve' and 'The Titfield Thunderbolt'. It has none of the charm of those two fine films outside of the film's unique backdrop. But what a list of stars all great in their own way. Derek Nimmo, Hugh Griffith and the truly scrumptious Julie Foster. It is a remarkable film of a bygone yesteryear and those British stars - so moving. MaKEs US ALL wanna be on those boats once in your life, eh? I love it.