michaelcalvess

Really damn good performances from Annabella Rich (Incessant) and Cy Henty in this (largely) two-hander, and the music is really good, in particular the two great original songs written for the film; 'tis a pity, then, that Deadly Display is scraped so thin over a feature-length runtime, because there's a good chance that this would have absolutely shone as a short.

Still need to watch Carlo Lizzani's original The House on the Yellow Carpet, as well as Steve Sibley's earlier remake of the said film. It was absolutely lovely meeting him at Horror-on-Sea and I'm looking forward to seeing more of his work.

It is said the comedy is only funny if the character doesn't "know" he's in a comedy, and Baker is taking his life really seriously. Utterly desperate for attention, of any kind, he's getting through from day to day, actually broke but pretending to be well off. His "fame" is far in the past, he's out of work, nobody really wants anything to do with him, but he doesn't give up. He's trying to present himself as an important celebrity, or a successful womanizer, but his constructs fail comically.

The way it's shot as a fly-on-the-wall documentary, works really well. The scripts are very well-written, so everything flows perfectly, which means it's never anything less than gripping. The celebrity guest appearances are a great idea, with the Johnny Depp's scenes being particularly enjoyable.