She'll Have to Go

I am adding reviews of all films I've seen that lack one at time of writing, here is the brief note I made at the time.... 'Good British comedy about a couple of poor brothers who's stately home has been left to a foreign cousin, what's the solution murder or marriage? Good.' It appears a fairly obscure title, mine is the 16th vote, though the director and many cast members will be familiar to anyone who knows British comedy of the 50's & 60's. I have no memory now of the film, but I did see it some 31 years ago in May 83, on BBC1, UK TV, check it out if you get a chance. I need to pad, the director Robert Asher is best remembered for his work on a number of Norman Wisdom films.

The comedy farce 'She'll Have To Go' about a pair of brothers who - when their indulgent lifestyle is threatened - plan murder, starts off quite brightly.

The dialogue between the brothers and their butler is fairly sharp and lively with some good chuckles to be had. Alas, director Asher doesn't seem to have confidence in the material as he inserts various 'wacky' visual tricks that are jarring and irritating.

In anycase the film gets weaker the longer it goes on. Notwithstanding Hattie Jaques' amusing performance, her journalist character could have easily been excised from the film without anything being lost. And the final 20 minutes or so are particularly tedious and dreary.

The film does gain an extra level of interest though with Anna Karina's presence and not just because she does well in her role. To see someone who is on the verge of becoming an icon of the cutting-edge French New Wave appear in an old-hat British stage farce mixed with a dollop of 'Carry On' style bawdy humour is curiously fascinating.

Brothers Bob Monkhouse and Alfred Marks have been written out of the will. Everything has been left to their second cousin, a convent-reared girl. They consider marriage, but neither of them seem very interested in the subject. Instead they decide to murder the woman. When it turns out to be Anna Karina, however, they become heterosexuals, when not botching their various murder attempts.

It's a very funny black comedy of the lowest variety, with plenty of sight gags, camera trickery, and out-and-out pratfalls. Hattie Jacques is on hand as a journalist, and Peter Butterworth is very funny as a doctor who has forgotten everything he knew about medicine, including the difference between a head and a foot. Miss Karina is present to wear an amazing strapless evening gown, to be very sweet, and to serve as the impervious target of the two inept would-be murderers.

Promising start has two idle brothers (Bob Monkhouse, Alfred Marks) living in genteel poverty in their hideous old manor house in Lambering, UK. They have no money but they do have a butler (Dennis Lotis). When a relative dies, they expect to inherit a fortune but discover the money has been left to a distant and unknown cousin in Corsica. They devise several plots to murder her, assuming she'll be an old hag. When Anna Karina shows up as cousin Toni, their thoughts turn to marriage instead. But she has other ideas.

Sort of a take on the classic comedy THE LADYKILLERS, the brothers go through a series of inept murder attempts of which the beauteous cousin seems unaware. Only fitfully funny, especially since Karina and her character are not funny at all. Things liven up a bit when a loony reporter (Hattie Jacques) pops in to get a story for her magazine, but she's not in enough scenes.

Bright supporting bits from Graham Stark as the dour photographer, Peter Butterworth as the myopic doctor, Clive Dunn as the chemist, and Pat Coombs as the lady at the railway station. That might be Dennis Lotis singing the horrid theme song. Story is based on a play.

A bit like a Carry On film but with less innuendo and not quite as funny. Plenty of amusing set pieces and this film would have satisfied cinema goers at the time but less so now.

Good enough to watch if you get the chance. Anna is illegally beautiful and has a natural beauty and charm that has largely disappeared due to women in the entertainment business these days insistent upon having surgery to all look the same, and not in a good way.

A small cast but with great performances all round. Very sexist of course which would have the feminists up in arms now but it was essential to the plot of the film of course.