Down Among the Z Men

As already stated, a fairly confusing mishmash of a film.

HOWEVER ! If you are a UK resident over the age of fifty, it *might* just make a bit more sense, as the Goons were the UK's greatest comedy team ever. I have no idea who "the good guys" were (other reviewer's comment), but the Goons were "Gods" in their day - and it's the "in their day" which is most relevant now. Sadly, the film has aged dreadfully, sorry lads.

Bentine as Purehart (whitehead, blackhead, whitehouse etc...) is probably the funniest character, even outshining the immortal Eccles for most of the time. Sellers could have easily played 6 or 7 more characters, easy, but that's the movie industry for you.

1952, early days for the Goons, and most of their fame still to come on BBC radio. Shame Blinbottle couldn't have joined up with Eccles for some naughty sossinges.

An advisory 7/10 for old fart UK types.

The dancing girls are the only polished act in this whole movie. Even the goons themselves were embarrassed about the final film (it was filmed at breakneck speed due to an extremely short filming schedule forcing them to improvise).

The only reason to watch this film is out of historical interest. It's amazing to see a then 27 year old Peter Sellers showing early signs of his incredible character range, something which would stand him in good stead in the years to come. Spike Milligan (who I once met) looks so young in this but is his usual zany self. Harry Secombe often seems a bit lost in this film, not having a proper script to follow and not knowing how to react to the improvisations going on around him. In some ways he was the most professional of the Goons.

And finally we see Michael Bentine, a man I associate with zany children's comedy from the 1970s. A unique looking individual who's appearance changed quite dramatically once he cut his hair and lost the beard ,Bentine left the goons soon after this movie was made so this film is a unique insight into the group before they became a trio.

It's a shame this film is almost unwatchable and not representative of the fledgling talent within. It tries to play out like a Marx brothers comedy, but contains none of the polish or acerbic wit of those films. However as a snapshot of what was to come it's an interesting curiosity.

I have always been a great fan of the Goons and Peter Sellers but this film is dreadfully unfunny.

One scene worth watching is the dancing during the women`s PT instructions class, the routine is similar to the Tiller Girls` style and very polished.

Although poor by today's standards it should be noted that this movie is the first time all the major characters of the Goon Show had worked together on screen. They had not yet worked out which routines worked well in radio but not in a movie. They would do better in subsequent efforts. It helps if the viewer knows something of the Goon Show radio series and, perhaps, has seen the TV series too. Making the transition from a radio program, where the listener's imagination supplies the scenery, to a television or film style is always difficult. The film has its moments, especially the chorus girl's dance routines and a flash-of-brilliance preview of Peter Seller's exceptional talent as he makes fun of an American general and his Staff Seargent under siege by the Germans. It's also apparent why Michael Bentine did not last long as a star although Jerry Lewis must have used this as a training film.

This independently-produced British army comedy is chiefly notable now as Peter Sellers' film debut and for being the only starring screen vehicle for comic radio performers The Goons (of which Sellers himself was a member). Actually, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated – given the unenthusiastic reviews online (chiefly because it's said that their material has been heavily diluted in the transition); still, it's not helped by the dated TV-style technique on display.

Curiously enough, the laughs come mostly from the characterization of a scruffy, absent-minded Professor played by Michael Bentine – the least-known and shortest-lived member of the group! Of the other three, Harry Secombe is the nominal lead – but his character doesn't have a distinct personality (at least in this incarnation); Spike Milligan is a private whose dopey countenance and voice seems to have been inspired by Goofy, the canine star of Walt Disney cartoons!; Peter Sellers, surely the Goon with the most prominent subsequent career (I've just acquired a number of his work from the 1960s and 1970s), is reasonably impressive – if basically playing it straight – as an elderly Major.

The plot has to do with a secret gas formula devised by Bentine, which is coveted by enemy agents who infiltrate the camp (looking out for him is a female member of M.I.5 passing herself off as Sellers' daughter); Secombe, then, is the everyman hero who unwittingly finds himself 'drafted'. Unfortunately, most of the second half (the film runs for a mere 71 minutes) is taken up by a putting-on-a-show routine showcasing a number of resistible song-and-dance performers – though the busy climax, at least, shows three of The Goons all dressed in similar outfits to confuse the villains (a gag probably lifted from The Crazy Gang's THE FROZEN LIMITS [1939], which I've recently watched)...while Sellers, somewhat irrelevantly, does a couple of impersonations on stage (a great talent he possessed and which he would constantly fall back on for the rest of his career).