A Home of Your Own

A HOME OF YOUR OWN,released in the mid 1960's,started a trend of wordless featurette comedies in Britain(SAN FERRY ANN,THE PLANK,OUCH!,RHUBARB,etc.),and this,the first in such a style is arguably the best of them all.Jam-packed with familiar British comedy actors like Peter Butterworth,Bill Fraser,Bernard Cribbins and Richard Briers,it is sometimes a trifle repetitive and over-stretched,but has enough well-timed and genuinely amusing incident to linger in the mind long afterwards.Some of the situations and slapstick are perhaps rather obvious,but it is performed and directed with such vigour and panache that such minor quibbles are quickly forgotten.The undoubted highlight is a superbly done bit of comic business with the late,great Ronnie Barker as an increasingly enraged cement mixer.At this stage,Barker was still a relatively minor comic performer,but his work in this film helped his career further on to bigger things.His is probably the best performance out of many fine comic bits in the film.

It was originally released as a support feature to A SHOT IN THE DARK,the second 'Pink Panther' film featuring Peter Sellers and George Sanders.During the premiere,Sanders apparently told the film's producer Bob Kellett:''This film's bloody better that ours!.....''.An assessment that is perhaps a trifle unfair as A SHOT IN THE DARK undoubtedly has it's share of very funny scenes,but A HOME OF YOUR OWN is shorter and arguably a little sweeter.

I saw this movie first run at the Guild Theater on 50th Street in New York, around the corner of Radio City Music Hall. It was the bottom half of a forgettable double bill with an Aldo Ray movie entitled Johnny Nobody.

My father, mother, sister and I wanted to go to the show at the Music Hall but it was sold out. So, we went to the Guild. We used to see the best comedies there...all of the Ealing comedies would play there...Carry On, I'm Alright, Jack...Kill or Cure, Two-Way Stretch, etc.

So we endure the first Aldo Ray movie and then A Home of Your Own begins and seriously, on my word of honor, we laughed so hard and so loud, that the Guild's usher threatened to throw us out of the theater. It rocked us so hard that we still...40 years later...consider it the funniest motion picture we have ever seen.

I recently contacted Gannet Films and they are considering a general video and DVD release possibly late 2005.

It would make my parents very happy as they are now well into their upper 80s! We've been looking for it for 40 years.

I can only imagine reading the script and laughing out loud.

This masterful study of comic invention and timing is a must see for lovers of a good belly laugh and a remarkable observation of the "British workman" at his worst. Ronnie Barker as a frustrated concrete layer, Bernard Cribbins as a hapless stone mason, Bill Fraser as an, always peeing, ground worker and many more recognisable stars and bit players, all with their little comic moments. Satirical commentary on disorganisation and incompetence abounds, all watched over by a copper leaning on his bicycle. Of course this all predates health and safety rules and regulations, providing ample opportunity to indulge in shoddy workmanship and wild comic invention. The "burble" dialogue adds to the comedy and all the actors contribute to the merriment. Enjoy it in its entirety on YouTube and, occasionally, on TV.

I first saw this classic film about 1965. The second time I saw it was in the Queen's Cinema, Union Street, Aberdeen (now unfortunately a nightclub). I had intended to take my then girlfriend (now my ex-wife) to see Carry On Cleo at the Cinema House (unfortunately now also a nightclub). However, I got the cinemas mixed up and we entered the Queen's Cinema. As soon as we sat down I was in raptures, saying, 'I've seen this before'. It's a predecessor of Eric Sykes 'The Plank' and is very amusing. The scenes where the Electricity, Gas and Water companies dig up the same piece of road, install what they are putting in and repair the surface, watched over by the same policeman with his trusty bicycle is a comment on the lack of co-ordination of utility companies which I assume still continues to this day. The water divining scene where it is discovered that the hazel twig is twitching to Bill Fraser doing what was natural in a trench before portable toilets is a joy. Also Ronnie Barker laying the cement only for the tea boy playing his transistor radio loudly to leave tyre tracks from his dumper truck as he distributes the tea. Eventually this happens so often that Barker eventually throws a wobbly and dances over and throws himself all over the cemented surface. I think it's Bernard Cribbins who is the stone mason producing the plaque as when he is nearly finished he gives it one last chip and, of course, it shatters. Eventually when Fred Emney (as the Mayor) unveils the finished plaque there is a slight spelling mistake (Pubic Subscription instead of Public) which leads to shocked gasps from the various dignitaries assembled for the ceremony. I have not seen this movie for decades and would love it to be issued on a DVD as I could watch it over and over again. By the way, the main feature was Mr Moses with Robert Mitchum and Carrol Baker which my girlfriend had seen before but I hadn't. Perhaps our different tastes in movies had something to do with our eventual marriage breakdown - but I suspect there may have been other factors!!

He signs the contract for the architect-designed home to be built. He slips the ring on her finger. By the time they move into the house with their four children and another on the way, the workmen have come and gone -- well almost gone. We get to watch them at work, in between the frequent tea breaks.

There are a lot of polished comic actors on wordless view here. Bernard Cribbins gets a running gag as a stone mason with a good payoff. Ronnie Barker is driven mad as a perfectionist cement mixer whose work is tromped on before it can set. Ronnie Stevens takes a lot of physical abuse as the architect who best laid plans gang agley. Best, for my taste, is Peter Butterworth as an inept carpenter who looks like he was sketched by John Tenniel. Over ll, a funny gag and satire on the current state of the building trades in 1960s Britain.