Dry Rot

Dry Rot has its funny moments, but the trouble is it just seemed to go on forever, perhaps the gags got a little laboured towards the end of the film, but it still contains a few laughs. Only in it for a small part, but Peggy Mount makes a hilarious Policewoman, in the commanding, domineering battleaxe manner that served her so well. The principle leads are ok, Sid's perhaps the best of the trio, for my money he had more charisma and a better eye for comedy then the other two. Joan Sims is so likeable as hapless housekeeper Beth, but I suppose there were only so many trays she could drop. The script is really good, plenty of slapstick, feels like a grounding for the earliest Carry on films.

It's not a film I'd rush to watch again soon, but I liked it. Cheered me up, 7/10

Another attempt to translate a popular stage farce to the screen runs into a familiar problem. Getting the long central section in the boarding house to work, particularly the business with the horse behind the sliding panel, would require much more adroit direction and editing. The comedy in this part is not allowed to flow, dissipating amusing performances from veterans Joan Haythorne and Michael Shepley. Brian Rix is not seen at his best and his one-note, relentlessly gormless character soon becomes tiresome, though Sid James can't fail to raise a few chuckles. But it's quite a likeable British comedy of its day and the final slapstick chase sequence with Peggy Mount at her most terrifying ends the proceedings with a bang.

Laboured farce in which three hapless bookies attempt to fix a race in order to make a financial killing. Sid James is as dependable as always, but Ronald Shiner comes across as a second-string Stanley Holloway and Brian Rex is simply annoying (although he does manage to keep his trousers on most of the time). Joan Sims at least manages to wring a few laughs from the thin material as a none-too-bright housemaid.

The storyline revolves around a highly dubious betting scam in horse racing. Enter, Ronald Shiner, playing a bookie, who I was never keen on, because in this film, like so many of his film roles, he is constantly shouting and grinning. His presence on the screen simply grates - and as for Brian Rix, here is once again playing the gormless 'village idiot' character, which is enough to send audiences running to the exit door, long before the film has finished. 'Dry Rot' was a 'popular' farce that ran for many years at the Whitehall Theatre in London, however, it's transfer to the big screen, failed miserably as the dialogue was excruciatingly bad and the slapstick antics were simply cringeworthy. Sid James gives some mild relief in his usual role as a 'dodgy' spiv type character, but even his comedic acting skills can't save this film from being a total dud. 'Dry Rot,' even when it was released in 1961, looked dated, and sadly with the passage of time, it can only be considered a tedious museum piece.

Three not-too-bright bookies -- Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix and Sidney James -- decide to fix a race. They get a terrible horse and set it up to be a long shot, to bring in the punters, and lose. While waiting for the race, they set up in a house run by Michael Sheply and Joan Haythorne. The house is falling apart with dry rot, and supplied with many secret passages, as well as young lovers, a maid-of-all-work played by Joan Sims, and French farceur Christian Duvaleix, with frequent visits by policewoman Peggy Mount.

Director Maurice Elvey is completely out of his depth. I regret to say this, because I am fond of a lot of his work, but there are too many experts in farce pulling in all sorts of directions -- not to mention the horse, who pops up at the most inconvenient moment. For farce to work well, it has to run like clockwork, with a plot that seems to run out of control, until the finale, when everything comes together. That doesn't happen here. Instead, there are dangling plots -- we abandon the young lovers at the racetrack -- for a chaotic chase by the police of the three bookies atop a ladder on a firewagon driven by Duvaleix. The story falls apart in the need for yet one more laugh. It's a pity for such a talented cast and crew.