The Magnificent Two

The third and last of the Morecambe & Wise spin-off movies. It's better than THE INTELLIGENCE MEN but THAT RIVIERA TOUCH was the highlight of the trilogy. This one's solid enough, with an interesting revolutionary South American setting amid the usual mainstay plot of '50s and '60s British comedy, the mistaken identity. Some of the word gags are very funny, like "I'm going to siesta".

This was the last of the three films that television comedians Morecambe & Wise made for the Rank Organisation. I saw all three when they came out and thought at the time that this was the best of the three.. Looked at today, more than fifty years on, although I still find it enjoyable, it seems rather more problematic. It seems to be unsure which direction it is going in. On the one hand, with this basic story-line, you could make a much darker film, but that would require different leads, but if judged purely as a vehicle for Morecambe & Wise, then it seems unnecessarily violent. On a positive note, I did rather like the performance of Margit Saad as General Carla, the leader of the women's revolutionary army. In a film like this, it would be easy to make her a ridiculous figure, but in fact, she plays the part for the most part fairly straight in an under-stated manner which I found quite effective, although at times she seems to be in a different film to the two leads. In conclusion, I have seen much worse films starring TV comedians, eg Mr. Ten Per Cent starring Charlie Drake which came out at about the same time.. If you can cut this film some slack, then you may find things about this film that you can enjoy.

Despite their best efforts Morecambe and Wise never quite made the transition from small to big screen, and this third and final film they made for Rank in the 60's isn't that great.

For one thing it has an alarmingly high body count, which seems jarring when you consider that Morecambe and Wise had a big family orientated act.

The mistaken identity plot is as old as the hills and the sight of lots of bikini clad girls running about seems more akin to the 'Carry On' films than Morecambe and Wise.

This film, as with the other two, is regarded now as a cult classic, but I think for many Morecambe and Wise are still best loved for their TV work.

Eric Morecombe and Ernie Wise are a couple of toy salesmen who get off the train in the capital of a Latin American country. There's a revolution going on. When the head of the rebellion is killed, it turns out that Morecombe is his exact double. He is co-opted by the revolution. When they win, everyone is ecstatic. But when Morecombe starts babbling about free everything for everyone when the teleprompter goes out, he becomes a thorn to the people behind the revolution, and General Virgilio Texeira arranges for his assassination.

It's the sort of plot that has been used dozens, if not hundreds of time. The problem with this telling is that neither Morecombe nor Wise is permitted to do anything remotely amusing. Even Cecil Parker, as the British ambassador, isn't particularly good. He seems more in poor health than anything. Neither does it ever seem particularly dramatic. It's a thorough-going disappointment.

Two salesmen travel to a small South American Country to peddle their wares. However the country is in the middle of a major conflict between the Government led by Diaz and the rebels led by Torez. When Torez is accidentally killed the rebels mistaken pick up one of the salesmen, Eric, as he looks like Torez. Eric and Ernie are promised millions to carry on the charade once the rebels take charge. However once Eric takes charge he finds himself back in danger as scheming general Carillo plans to remove the impostor from his role.

This was Morecambe and Wise's final attempt at a movie career and it's easy to see why they called it quits. The plot relies on the old chestnut of the main character being a look-alike for someone else. After that the plot is silly but detailed, so detailed in fact that it covers a few twists and turns in allegiances. However the plot is too heavy and doesn't leave any room for Eric to do any of his improvisation-style comedy.

Their films were all pretty poor, but at least in "The Intelligence Men" the plot was loose and the scenes left room for Eric to do asides and the sort of stuff he did in the TV show. Here they aren't given any rope to do anything special and really the two lead roles could have been played by any comedians. The story is pretty unbelievable for the most part which is a shame because there's damn all laughs to be had. The conclusion which includes an all female army charging a fort wearing only red underwear is pure 60's sexist humour.

This is a very poor vehicle for two great comedians. Morecambe and Wise's TV show is a British masterpiece and it is still fresh decades later. They had an unique style that involved improvisation and the feeling that they weren't just telling jokes they were having a laugh as well. In their films much of this was lost, in The Magnificent Two there is almost none of their humour and it falls flat on it's face.

If you really want to experience this great double act at their best then you really need to check out their British TV show where they had as much fun as the audience. This film is a terrible waste of their talents - it's almost a crime.