Penny Points to Paradise

I have seen most of the films of Peter Sellers and recently went to YouTube to see if they had any of the missing ones. Several of his early films are there...and it's obvious they were intended to be seen by British audiences. So, it's not exactly fair to say my score of 3 is for everyone....more for how enjoyable the film would be to Americans. And, with the very thick accents (with no captions) and British vaudeville-style comedy, it was a chore to see this one. To put it bluntly, I disliked it. It didn't help that the film was mad in only three weeks and featured an upright piano score....the sort you'd expect to see if you were watching a broad slapstick comedy from bygone days. Overall, a real chore to watch and little indication of the brilliance Sellers would show in later films...and in this one, he's just a supporting character.

For its first nine-and-one-half minutes, "Penny Points To Paradise" is the most inauspicious cinematic experience imaginable, featuring limited comic acting, bad jokes, and a non-existent story.

Then we cut to a dining room where a certain major is sitting at table, and just like that, we have before us the beginning of one of the greatest comedy careers in movie history.

After that, however, "Penny Points" returns to being a rather dull affair.

Peter Sellers either has two or four roles in this, his first ever movie, one more or one less than he did in "Dr. Strangelove". None are key roles. One, the Major character, is a bit of a schemer whose main bits are fumbling the meaning of the word "Spondulicks" and cadging drinks for stock shares in a dubious entity called "The North Pole Coconut Corp." Sellers also has another brief speaking part, as a fast- talking Canadian salesman, while his other two roles are as a non- speaking runner and a spectator at a shotput meet during a brief fantasy interlude. From such stones the builders rejected...

Far more at the fore are Sellers' two main co-stars, from what was then known as "Crazy People" and would become "The Goons." Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe dominate this movie, the latter much more than the former. There's rather too much of Secombe, in fact, mugging and gurning his way through every scene like Micky Dolenz on speed. Of course, his repartee is a darn sight weaker than your average "Monkees" episode.

"Take away her blond hair, and what do you got?" he's asked.

"The most beautiful bald-headed woman in Brighton," he answers.

Or when his character explains his reluctance about leaving his vast fortune in a bank. "I don't trust banks...Even the blood bank's asking for donations!"

At least Milligan is relatively sedate here, not trying to outdo Secombe in the Silly Faces Dept. like he would in the later Goon Show film "Down Among The Z Men."

The story, what there is of it, follows Harry's character, named "Harry" for easy reference, as he tries to hold on to his 100,000-quid in soccer-match winnings (the "Penny Points" of the title) while various sharpies try to make off with it. Chief among them is the counterfeiter Haynes, played with grandiloquent stuffiness by Alfred Marks, who makes the most of what was also HIS first-ever film appearance. In fact, Marks comes across more interesting here than Sellers.

The film shows all signs of being made very much on the cheap. Look closely (or not so closely) at the finale at Louis Tussaud's Waxworks show, where the actors move around a set filled with people imitating wax models. I figured it was a set-up for a joke, but no, we are meant to think these "waxworks," blinking eyes and all, are exactly that. Someone found it easier to rent real humans than wax dummies. Being England in the 1950s, I'm not surprised.

Director Tony Young went on to remake "Goon Show" episodes for British TV as "The Telegoons;" here he appears "by permission" of producer Alan Cullimore, who in turn appears "by permission" of Tony Young. Must have been quite a set. Young sets the right anarchic precedent for directors of Sellers film comedies to follow; he manages some impressive Brighton scenics but seems utterly adrift when it comes to establishing story. Much of the film is left to various actors, especially Secombe, playing to the camera as a squeamish doctor or a wild ape. One female cast member does a pretty good Bette Davis, though why she's playing the role is something we don't get much of an answer for.

That's the takeaway on "Penny Points," in fact, a lot of playing to the camera. Sellers himself is largely lost as the one actor not guilty of overacting. He had his miscues in later films; here his fault lies not in his own performance than failing to stand out in a film he was better off avoiding in the first place.

British actors peter sellers and spike milligan. The first 25 minutes, it's mostly a bunch of silly vaudeville bits, some of them even silent movie type gags, where the piano plays as the physical slapstick humor is shown. Now, we finally see a plot begin to unfurl. Harry (secombe) has won the sweepstakes, and a flim flam artist (sellers, playing two different roles) is out to find the stash of money. Then more vaudeville bits under the guise of a hypnotist. There are about 40 minutes of actual story, and another 40 of filler and silliness. The first feature film directed by tony young. It's all ridiculous and amateur hour. Can't really recommend this one, although it is early sellers and milligan, so their fans should see it, for historical reasons.

Harry Secombe has won a hundred thousand pounds in the football pools, but he and Spike Milligan choose to take their Brighton holiday at the same shoddy guest house...and the gold diggers and con artists come a-trooping, including Peter Sellers in two roles.

The three of them had just taken the airwaves by storm with CRAZY PEOPLE; the following year it would become THE GOON SHOW. This movie is right in the mold, with old jokes, retired majors, and a musical interlude. It also has some silent pantomime sequences with organ accompaniment. While it occasionally veers into the surreal humor of the show, it's neither particularly original nor well put together. Still, it offers Secombe's third screen appearance, Milligan'sfirst and Sellers first in a manner of speaking.... he had done two voices in earlier pictures.

"Penny Points to Paradise" is the first feature film to star the three members of the popular "The Goon Show" that aired on British radio from 1951 to 1960. But this is a comedy with a very thin plot that bounces all over the place, from parodies of silent films and vaudeville, to slapstick and antics. That latter was the style of Red Skelton, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers. It may yet have appealed to some in 1951, but by the mid-20th century most of these types of comedy were fast becoming a thing of the past. And, aside from an interesting cast, this film has very little going for it in the 21st century.

The leads here all had talent, and all audiences will know Peter Sellers who went on to worldwide fame with a considerable number of great comedy films. The plot for this film is very skimpy and the screenplay is even worse. The movie starts off as a parody of silent films, with bouncy piano playing included. But that soon becomes annoying, and it repeats for two more scenarios in the film. Those include car scenes and chases reminiscent of the Keystone Kops.

No doubt Harry Secombe was very good as a comedian in his day, but most of his varied antics and changes in persona don't go over well many decades later. He very closely resembles Red Skelton at times. Sellers has two roles, but neither of those have any good comedy. Marks is somewhat funny just for his persona as the big guy shyster who's full of himself, but his accomplice, Digger, can do little more than spew what are supposed to be comical complaints.

While Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers had been in a few films before, this was the first film of Spike Milligan. Only four other members of this film cast had or would have much of a career in cinema. Alfred Marks is the shyster Edward Haynes; Bill Kerr is his accomplice, Digger Graves; Vicky Page is Sheila Gilroy; and Sam Kydd is the cross-eyed porter. Most of the rest of this cast have no other films to their credit, including hazel Jennings who plays the Landlady with a considerable part. Marks and Paddie O'Neill, who plays Christine Russell, would marry the next year, for life, and have two children. O'Neill likely gave up the cinema to be a homemaker, but she clearly shows the talent to have had an entertainment career.

The only thing that keeps this film from a complete bore is the scenario toward the end when most of the cast wind up fleeing and chasing in a wax museum. The frequent posing and costume changing to fit into various wax displays is amusing. Here are a couple of lines - the best of the humorous dialog in the script.

Landlady, "There's a lovely view of the sea from the window if you stand on a chair and lean well out"

Spike Donnelly, "Listen, big guy, you're a terrific man. You're a financial lizard." Edward Haynes, "Wizard, laddie, wizard."