What a Whopper

Sadly, despite a whole host of reliable British comedy actors in the cast list and some well known names behind the scenes (Terry Nation and John Barry) this is a pretty dreadful movie. Even by the low standards of pop star film vehicles, this is a yawn inducing non-event. Dull jokes about people misunderstanding each other, the heroines' clothes 'accidentally' coming off and stereotypical Scots rhubarbing in the background. Only for nostalgic Adam Faith fans I'm afraid or possibly "Carry On" fans wanting to catch Sid James and Charles Hawtry in their typical guises.

I don't see why this film as so many bad reviews, It's a pleasing British comedy of it's era (1961) with a cracking cast.

It's the type of film you'd get on BBC2 on a wet afternoon when I was a kid.

How can any film with Sid James, Spike Milligan (Who seems to be in the wrong film...), Charles Hawtrey not be an easy pleasing nostalgic view?.

Maybe I'm of the last generation that appreciates this type of film...I hope not.

I have just watched this film on b.b.c 2 , it was on a Wednesday morning at 10:30 which I feel is about right for this type of film, definitely a film of it's era with a good if somewhat unusual (in some aspects )cast. Spike Milligan seems to be a little out of place in this movie and Sid James as a Scottish hotel owner is a little strange as well,but if you can overlook the obvious flaws and not be to critical of this movie you can just enjoy an hour and a half of pure nostalgia spotting the various stars many of whom turned up later on in there careers on television,also surprised to see Terry Nation involved. p.s theme tune made me cringe!

I saw this film advertised in the paper but with no review. So I taped it off BBC2 then watched it having just seen that it had Adam Faith and Sid James in it. I would rate it as a 12 because although there is no swearing or actual sex scenes in it;the humour is mostly innuendo. This film is not mentioned in 1)the Virgin film guide

2)Halliwells Who's Who in the movies

3)Leonard Maltins movie & video guide. Which I have found to mean films they want to forget which are generally gems.Another example being "Langrishe go down" with Dame Judi Dench. Besides the afore mentioned "What A Whopper" also had Wilfred Bramble Charles Haughtrey, Spike Milligan and Clive Dunn make for an impressive if refreshingly UNPC mild comedy.

A young, raffish down-on-his-luck writer with a gimlet-sharp eye for the young ladies (Adam Faith) ambitiously hatches an ingeniously madcap plot to orchestrate a sighting of the infamously elusive Loch Ness Monster with a little help from his amiably eccentric, Nessie-faking beatnik chums in Gilbert Gunn's delightfully kooky 60s comedy caper! 'What A Whopper!' is not only endowed with a truly 'whopping' cast of iconic film and telly-box favourites, including Terry Scott, Clive Dunn, Wilfrid Brambell, Spike Milligan and bawdy comedy Lothario par excellence Sid James, and Blake's 7 showrunner Terry Nation's pratfall-perfect, wonderfully whacky, slapstick n' tickle script, while admittedly a small scale, frequently fishy cinematic affair is also a Loch of monster-sized laffs!

The soothingly nostalgic British comedy 'What A Whopper!' is atmospherically set against the bucolic majesty of mountainous, myth-laden Scotland, a suitably bracing backdrop for the hilariously outlandish hi-jinks and blissfully bonkers buffoonery of our bungling beatniks! Their intrepid attempt to contrive a media frenzy about the sudden return of the legendary lake dwelling diva Nessie not infrequently inspires some especially inspired lunacy by our endearingly shambolic, far from expert fraudsters! Frothily factor in some dreamy sing-along Adam Faith pop, alongside no less fine compositions by music maestro Laurie Johnson, heroically hyping up the crowd-pleasing multitude of amusingly silly rough N' tumble comedy shenanigans, all being breezily directed by the talented Gilbert Gunn guarantees that fans of vintage British comedy will find the galloping gag-fest 'What A Whopper!' a warmly-fuzzy feel-good delight from start to finish.