Quintett mit Harfe und Trompete

Peter Rogers produces, Gerald Thomas directs, it's got Sid James and Kenneth Williams in it, but it's not a Carry On.

It's got James Robertson Justice as the irascible professor who disguises his real opinions of his students by being offensive.

So it's a Doctor In The House movie, except that it's set in a music college (which happens to look immensely like University College London on the outside, and which has a dead ringer for the Conway Hall as its main theatre).

JRJ is fun to watch, but this is very drab fare indeed.

I just read three dismal reviews of this film from people with no sense of humor--obviously. Raising The Wind is much more clever than many of the Carry On films or other British comedies from the classic period. Of course, as a former music student, it's possible that I identify with it more than most, but I have shown it to others who laughed as much as I did. Once to an audience of 50, but then a comedy is always better with an audience, at least if it's timing is good, as in this case. When the orchestra ran away (speeded up) as Kenneth Williams attempted to show off his dominance as a great conductor, the audience had hysterics. There was rarely a better cast than this, and the characters are appealing. It's one of those films I wish I could live in. Give it a chance.

Not the rollicking comedy that it should have been from the legendary Carry On team but enjoyable enough to pass an hour and a half. A slight story involving classical music students from 1960, trying to win a scholarship. Hampered by the overbearing tutor, the ebullient James Robertson Justice, who else, the students get into all sorts of panic situations. Leslie Phillips, who I met to get his autograph when I was a boy and so have always had a soft spot for, is the central character here. He sparks off the ever lovely Liz Fraser and they form the pair with the most chemistry. Jennifer Jayne and Paul Massey are a bit dull as the other couple. Carry On standbys crop up regularly to inject some much needed laughs. We see David Lodge, Sid James, Lance Percival, Esma Cannon, Joan Hickson, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Eric Barker and even Jill Ireland a couple of years before she swanned off to Hollywood with Charles Bronson. I think the main let down is the rather staid classical music setting for a comedy of this type and less emphasis could have been applied to that and a bit more slapstick, would have made it a better film. Still, ok for me if only for Liz Fraser, Leslie Phillips and Sid James. Oh and Esma Cannon as a really funny deaf landlady.

I should confess right away that I spent two years as a student in a conservatory, and have spent all my life hanging around with musicians. I'm sure that influenced my positive opinion about this movie, and I can understand why other reviewers who don't share my background don't find it funny.

I knew I was going to enjoy it when the opening credits featured cartoons by the inimitable Gerard Hoffunung. The cast list also promised a host of Britain's most amusing character players. The script and score are by Bruce Montgomery, a fine mystery writer and film composer. And how odd that the opening scene outside the music school used the exact same filming location as was used for the hospital in "Doctor in the House." (Not to mention that the doctor's nemesis also plays the students' nemesis here, too.)

Of course, as others have pointed out, most of the actors are too old for their "student" roles, and the plot is fairly thin (but typical for a sitcom). What's funny for me are all the jokes and situations that any working musician will have had to deal with: overbearing teachers, time-wasting teachers, blabbing conductors, over-confident student hot-shots, conflict between "serious" and "pop" music, etc. If you don't know who Barbirolli and Sargent are, you'll miss a couple of jokes. (And you might not also catch the "skeletons on a tin roof" joke from Sir Thomas Beecham.) There's even a tip of the hat to Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, if you look carefully at the music school sign.

The 90 minutes breezed by, and the HD version available on Amazon Prime looked pristine on my iPad. Recommended highly for musical people; and fairly highly for fans of mid-century British comedy. Kenneth Williams alone is worth the price of admission.

It,s Interesting that the reviews here criticising it are British and the one who gives it the thumbs up is American and I agree with him this film is very good. It,s less smutty than the carry on films and not really slapstick It,s just good clean fun.

This may not be the greatest film ever made but it is good. A great cast and they do deliver they Hit the Right Note It,s funny and well written, Jill Ireland appears in one of her first roles as does Jim Dale Who after this film got the recommendation of Kenneth Williams to join the Carry on team, (His first Carry On, Cabby, wasn,t originally a carry on).

It seems that the British are the first to run British films down, thats sad.