Rires au paradis

A nice sly comedy that has similarities to Brewsters Millions. When Henry Russell (Hugh Griffiths) dies, known during his lifetime as a practical joker, he sets his beneficiaries a task that they must achieve before they can gain a share of their inheritance of £50,000. The tasks are related to some character weakness.

Alastair Sim who writes thrashy crime stories, long term engaged to Joyce Grenfell has to get himself arrested and spend 28 days in jail. George Cole a hapless and bullied bank clerk as to stick up the bank that he works for.

Fay Compton has to work as a maid to the curmudgeonly John Laurie without getting fired. The caddish Guy Middleton has to marry the first single woman he meets.

Sim and Cole have the funniest escapades, Middleton passes over a young Audrey Hepburn to pursue the second eligible woman he encounters. The characters discover something about themselves while pursuing their tasks, it is a nice bit of light whimsy.

When the film begins, an elderly man is dying...and he commits a prank on his way out of this world. But it's not his final prank...that comes in his will. When it's read to his four relatives, they're each told they'd receive 50,000 pounds...provided each do something odd and specifically tailored to them. His haughty sister is told that in order to collect, she must become a domestic and serve as one for a year. His cousin, the writer, must act out his dime novels...and get himself incarcerated for 28 days. His meek relative must hold up a bank with a fake gun...and his playboy cousin must marry the first woman with which he strikes up a conversation! And, all of these must be completed without telling anyone why they are doing it!

What made this one especially good is that, for the most part, the folks all learned a positive lesson from all this and there were also a few laughs along the way. Worth seeing and clever.

This has got to be a classic of Ealing comedies.

Alistair Sim is at his best, the scene with the window (Fact-he ad-libbed most of the scene too)is proof that actors like him are few in between.

I saw this when I was a nipper as my father said that he enjoyed it when it first came out and even though I've seen it quiet a few times it's still fresh and amusing. Watch it and anything else with Mr Sims, this is British at it's best.

After a wealthy eccentric dies, he leaves his very sizable fortune in equal portions to four relatives, but they can only claim the money if they each perform a difficult task. Former military officer and gentleman (and secret crime novelist) Deniston Russell (Alastair Sim) must spend 28 days in prison. Ill-tempered Agnes Russell (Fay Compton), often cruel to her own servants, must herself become a servant. Milquetoast bank teller Herbert Russell (George Cole) must rob his own bank, and his own boss, at gunpoint. And gambler and ladies man Simon Russell (Guy Middleton) must wed the first woman he speaks to. All four struggle to complete their tasks, each with unique and unexpected outcomes.

I wasn't much looking forward to this one, as I only recorded to see Audrey Hepburn's brief turn as a cigarette girl. Depending on the source, this was her movie debut, and it doesn't amount to much although she's very cute. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find this a charming little comedy with some winning performances and enjoyable plot turns. Sim steals the show as a proper gent utterly befuddled at trying to become a criminal, attempting a variety a minor offenses in an attempt to earn the requisite 28 days in the clink. Any fans of British comedy that missed this the last time it was shown would do well to try and catch it on its next showing.

One would be hard-pressed not to laugh along with the Russell family in the final scene of this, my most favorite of British post-war comedies. It is a comedy in every sense, albeit one which points up several life lessons as it unfolds. Alistair Sim - whose roles have run the gamut from Headmistress of a girls' public school (the St. Trinian's series)to benign assassin (The Green Man) to the dramatic (the quintessential Scrooge in A Christmas Carol) once again proves here that he is without doubt the best of many comic actors in the English cinema. Surrounded by a cast of equal talents (Fay Compton, George Cole, Guy Middleton, A.E. Matthews, John Laurie, and the irrepressible Joyce Grenfell) Sim leads a Light Cavalry charge through a wonderfully woven plot. There are wonderful morals to be learned here also. If you haven't seen this gem, by all means get the video and fill that gaping void in your filmic experiences.