Nicht jetzt, Liebling

I recall that this film was made using a multi camera system.So that two or three cameras would be used to save time on setups.I also believe that it was taped,edited and then transferred to film.Ray Cooney who wrote this takes a rare leading role.He also co directs with David Croft of Dads Army fame.The problem is that he acts as if he is on the stage.Every line accompanied by a gesture.Compare this with the more restrained performance of Leslie Phillips.There are a lot of well known actors in this.Cicely Courtneidge making her last screen performance and Jack Hulbert his penultimate one.Jackie Paolo makes an appearance,then at the height of his TV wrestling fame.The problem is that the play may have been funny on stage but lacks sparkle on film.

Sets its stall out immediately with an over the titles nip-slip & a bare-chested bather, OK, so this is an adult 'Carry On' a la '70's 'Confessions of an etc etc', unfortunately & obviously, this has none of the charm & sparkle of that iconic film series.

The editing is bizarrely poor & the direction's not much better, they must both have just been chucked out of film school. It's difficult not to feel sorry for poor Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims & Babs to have needed to do this, but work was work then & I'm sure they had fun together. To add to the discomfort, modern audiences will find the situation of a top furriers very uncomfortable, fur coats are indeed lovely, but they're probably best left with their original owners!

Honestly don't bother, even if you love films of this period, stick to something better & revisit a Carry On or similar.

Leslie Phillips made a number of bedroom farces in the early to mid-1970s. These were DOCTOR IN TROUBLE, DON'T JUST LIE THERE, SAY SOMETHING, NOT NOW, COMRADE, Spanish FLY and this film. NOT NOW DARLING is probably the best of the five films. Unlike the two of the remaining four films to be based on a stage production, this one doesn't go to great lengths to hide its stage origins.

The plot is simple as most farces start from a basic idea - a furrier wants to buy his girlfriend an expensive mink coat but is worried about her husband finding out. So he tries to sell the coat at a huge discount, hoping the husband will fall for it. One event after another leads to things spiraling out of the furrier's control, with his assistant noting "what a tangled web we weave" (an often used line in Cooney's farces) about halfway through the film.

Leslie Phillips is perhaps at his best in this film. He seems to have a ball of a time as the fast-paced film goes on. His caddish screen persona is perfectly suited to the role and I really couldn't imagine anyone else being able to play the part so well, not even the late, great Sid James.

In many reviews of the film I've read, people have said that Ray Cooney was wrong to take on the role of Crouch himself. I disagree completely. Cooney is brilliant as Crouch and steals every scene he's in with such glee. He livens up the film immensely and it's just as well that he gets such a great deal of screen time with Phillips because they make a great double act.

Julie Ege is fantastic as Janie, the girlfriend of the furrier. She really fits into the world of this CARRY ON-style humour as though she had been in it throughout her career. She is also shown topless several times and fully nude in the uncut version.

Joan Sims and Barbara Windsor bring their CARRY ON personas along and it blends perfectly with the humour of the film.

Derren Nesbitt is brilliant as the bloke who the furrier tries to dupe into buying the mink coat. The expressions on his face as he reacts to the various things happening around him are simply hilarious.

The rest of the cast - Bill Fraser, Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge and Trudi Van Doorn - are all great too in their supporting roles.

I think the sheer genius of the film itself, though, arises from the fact that 80 per cent or so of it takes place not only on a single set, but in just one room. It's incredibly difficult to translate stage works of this kind to the big screen at the best of times. So Ray Cooney is to be applauded for making such a phenomenal success of it. In a book about Tony Tenser and the films of Tigon (who distributed NOT NOW DARLING), Cooney planned to make a series of NOT NOW... films, in the same vein as the CARRY ON gang had their series. The NOT NOW... films were obviously intended to be cheekier outings, closer to the UP POMPEII! film with Frankie Howerd. Sadly only two films were made. That is a great shame because I would have loved to have seen at least half a dozen of these films made. I've read many of Cooney's farces and they are all incredibly funny and hold your attention like this film does.

One other thing I haven't mentioned yet is that I read the play and didn't think it was as good as the film. The faster-pacing, the cheekier dialogue and the perfect choices of casting lead to the film being better than the stage version itself.

Finally, make sure you see the uncut version of the film, which can only be found on a DVD with a pink cover, distributed by a company called WHAM. All of the other DVD versions and VHS releases are the cut UK cinema version, which cuts out many of the best cheeky lines as well as most of the nudity.

Overall, NOT NOW DARLING is a masterpiece of farce, one of my all time favourite comedies. For fans of 1970s British comedy (particularly the CARRY ON films and Benny Hill), this is a must-see.

Farce doesn't film well. There's are very few exceptions to that axiom (Peter Bogdanovich's "Noises Off" (1992) is one of them.) What can be hilarious on the stage often falls totally flat on the big screen. The sheer physicality of madcap farce gets lost as does the frenetic excitement inherent to the genre. Even the classic Feydeau farces "A Flea in Her Ear" (1968) and "Hotel Parasdiso" (1966) failed to deliver the goods, despite their star casts.

Farce became a mainstay of the British theatre where for decades there was hardly a time when some farce wasn't pulling in the crowds in the West End. Noted farceur Ray Cooney enjoyed particular success with a string of hit plays which were performed all over the world and have become staple fare for amateur dramatic societies.

It's seems only natural that a stage success should be put onto the big screen. "No Sex Please We're British" (1973), "Not Now Comrade" (1976) and "Don't Just Lie There Say Something" (1974) were all lame affairs and Cooney's "Run for Your Wife" (2012) bombed.

In the light of that preamble, 1973's "Not Now Darling" is something of a miracle. One of the reason's for the success of the movie is that it is in fact not really a movie at all, but rather a filmed stage play. The wise decision was made not to open it out, something screen adaptions felt obliged to do in an attempt to avoid staginess. Opening out a farce drops the pace which can be ruinous. "Not Now Darling" remains a rare record of British farce at its best.

Cooney was at the top of his game, penning smart and funny dialog delivered here by some true pros, all, or almost all, with vast stage experience, and all exhibiting spot-on timing, First and foremost is the great Leslie Philips, doing pretty much what he always did: the charming cad. He is partnered by Ray Cooney himself, in a hilarious turn. They are wonderfully supported by Carry On stalwarts Joan Sims and Barbara Windsor, together with seasoned stage performers Moira Lister, Bill Fraser and Derren Nesbitt. Rounding out the top-notch cast are the husband-and-wife veteran stage and screen stars Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge (her last screen performance) who are a joy to behold.

And then there's former beauty queen Julie Ege. No self-respecting sixties farce was without one or more sexy ladies who did little besides show off their bodies. Unlike her co-stars, Ege had no stage experience at all and after a brief and very minor screen career, returned to her native Norway and became a nurse. She had previously been signed to Hammer films who hoped "Creatures the World Forgot" would shoot her to international stardom as their "One Million Years B. C." had done for Raquel Welch. It was not to be. Ege's finest hour on screen is without doubt her appearance in "Not Now Darling". She is stunning to look at and turns in a very competent and funny performance and seems to be enjoying every minute.

Farce isn't for all tastes. While considered a lowbrow genre, done well it clearly demands dramatic skill, impeccable timing, physicality and great teamwork. "Not Now Darling" has all of those and shouldn't be missed by fans of the genre.

It has been a quarter-century since I saw this movie, which was making a far-east tour of military bases in the early 70's (1974?), and I thought then (and still think so now) that it was one of the funniest movies I had ever had the pleasure of seeing. Although it was probably not as well made as some movies, it made up for that in hilarious content. I can still remember how much I laughed and enjoyed myself. Don't know if you can (or will) use these comments, but I've been looking for this picture ever since I first saw it, and just wish I could find it again. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best), I would rate this film a 9 or 9.5.