The Ups and Downs of a Handyman

It never ceases to amaze me why people are so sanctimonious about this genre of film (the Radio Times is just the same). I loved it! It's packed with all the classic seaside postcard humour that made Carry On and Benny Hill (yes, the late comic genius Benny Hill - Charlie Chaplin thought so) that makes films like this so watchable time and again. Yes, it's lightweight, but that's its triumph: it's just a story about a jack-the-lad having a good time with the girls. I'd swap with him!!

By the way, any film featuing Valerie Leon is worth watching for her alone. Her beauty is simply out of this world.

Mind you, the theme tune is absolutely awful........

Let's just say that this one is pretty ugly. The sex scenes are terrible, the ladies won't cause even the likes of Christina "The Alien" Aguilera to lose any sleep in the beauty department, there are scenes that were stolen from "Benny Hill" (including the famous speed running scenes), and yes, the theme song is awful. Still, it's wicked fun to watch Barry Stokes (as The Handyman) find sex everywhere he goes. At least that's what you'll find in the "real world". You'd be lucky to spend an afternoon with Christina "The Alien" Aguilera.

This film has recently been given what I would describe as a sneak showing on a local TV channel. It was shown at a normal evening viewing time and was just listed as a British comedy, with no mention of sex-comedy or adult film to be found in my program guide. I believe the best British comedies, such as "Passport to Pimlico", are unmatched and I decided to watch it. I was quite startled to find that it was an unabashed and totally uninhibited sex comedy, with at least as much nudity as in any other film I remember seeing. I was recently amused to read a newspaper report about an author who has published a book listing nude appearances in films, and detailing their duration and the anatomical features displayed. I found it very hard to credit that someone should spend their time creating such a reference work, or that having done so they could find anyone willing to spend money buying it. However the article was quite serious and the author, when interviewed, reported that he could process most films very quickly - the only one which had taken him a considerable time to review fully had been "Showgirls". It appears that he has never seen this film which features far more nudity than "Showgirls"!

This film is a farce, comparable in many ways with the British "Carry On" series of films. It is probably best regarded as a more modern replacement for the Victorian erotic postcards that used to be so popular a century ago. The main story is of a young couple who have to move to a small country town where work is not plentiful. The husband attempts to make a living as the local handyman, but his shop window advertisement somehow conveys a message to the lonely women who see it, that he is offering other types of services. His role is supplemented by a series of kinky characters including an elderly man who enjoys spanking girls (a very Victorian theme), an amateur glamour photographer looking for models, and an incredibly inept policeman, all are portrayed outrageously to create a comedy with very broad humour. There is no real acting as all the characters are caricatures, but the film is reasonably well made and - if you are prepared to watch this type of humour - is enjoyable to view at least once. My personal view is that such films are far less socially harmful than most of the unnecessarily violent action/adventure films which today hardly ever raise the public's eyebrows. However anyone buying it, or seeing it in a cinema or on TV should be aware of what to expect. Viewers with other expectations are likely to class it as an example of the ultimate turkey.

Normally this would be a film which would leave a viewer with nothing to think about, but in my case I found myself facing the weighty question of whether this film is likely to be released again soon as one half of a two feature DVD for home viewing; and if so what could be chosen as a suitable companion film to pair with it? Perhaps "Can you keep it up for a week?" might have made a possible pairing; but although this is in my view a much less successful film, it has somehow already made DVD status on its own.

Smut-master general John Sealey's D. I. Y inspiring 'The ups and downs of a handyman' (1975) with delightfully ahndsum, well-bonkable couple Barry Stokes & Gay Soper is a righteously sleazy slap n' tickle celluloid sensation!! Cor!!! They're all at it hammer n' tongues, mayte! This delightfully retrograde filth is fleshly endowed with some of the very breast of British 70s talent! Rib-tickled for your pleasure!! Not 'arf!!!!

Very bad sex British sex comedy from the 1970's. The film has reasonable amounts of nudity, but it is most remarkable for the truly appalling attempts at comedy. Did people find this sort of thing funny then? Or would they not show films in the cinema if they were just 90 minutes of nudity? But worst of all is the films title song - it must rank as one of the worst of any film, any time.