Stiff Upper Lips

This film is a glorious tribute to so many 'stiff' period pieces as well as such comedies as 'Carry on up the Kyber'. It is also beautiful to watch with real locations used in the UK, Italy and India (rather than at the back of Shepperton studios).

While the plot may lag in some places, the references and in-jokes are so dense that you can blink and miss many of them.

The list of movies and television series that are lampooned is massive, but a few include 'Chariots of Fire', 'Brideshead Revisited', anything with Helena Bonham-Carter, 'Upstairs Downstairs', 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Gandhi'.

Peter Ustinov (Horace) letches like Sid James, Prunella Scales (Aunt Agnes) stands her ground like Joan Sims, Sam West (Edward) bumbles like Charles Hawtree and Robert Portal (Cedric) sneers almost like Kenneth Williams. Sean Pertwee (George) saves the day a la Jim Dale and Georgina Cates (Emily) is feisty like Barbara Windsor etc. etc.

The scene where Cedric meets Aunt Agnes is priceless, if only for the 'Daughter of Zeus' gag.

'Stiff Upper Lips' is definitely worth seeing more than once.

This is a hilarious film designed to appeal to Anglophiles, particularly those who enjoyed Fawlty Towers and Monty Python. It is a takeoff on all those wearisome and often thought-provoking Masterpiece Theater films many of us know well. Only the British themselves could have made such glorious fun of this genre. I would give this the highest rating possible.

I saw this film twice in the first week it came out. This was just as well, as it closed after a week, as nobody else saw it apart from me and a friend. I think that, apart from its DVD availability, it is just about unseen. This is what I would call 'a pity'.

Stiff Upper Lips has, especially in the first half, so many spot on gags that it becomes almost abstract. Death in Venice? Yes. Chariots of Fire? Yes. Maurice? Yes. Every Merchant Ivory film? You bet. And all these jokes are funny. Imagine Airplane, remade in Britain, with better jokes.

And the performances are spot on as well. Peter Ustinov is amusing as a slave trading plantation owner, Georgina Cates is fun as the 'heroine', who spends most of the film whinging, but the honours go to Robert Portal and Samuel West, in a pair of the funniest performances of all time. Every nuance, every line is finely judged. (Is that Forster you're reading? Yes, but I only read him for the landscapes.) Buy a DVD player, get this film, and enjoy.

"Stiff Upper Lips" pokes fun at the crustiness of the British upper crust as it follows a silly ensemble of aristocrats from England to Italy to India and back. Those who groan at puns and mutter "humph!" at wry humor will likely enjoy "SUL" while those who don't will suffer the opposite reaction. How enjoyable this film is will depend solely on the sense of humor of the viewer. Funny or not, "SUL" is undeniably a jolly well done spoof.

I have always admired the way Merchant/Ivory films have had at their core a sort of droll humour that has come through and made me smile. This movie has taken every little bit that had made me crack a smile during the "serious" Merchant/Ivory productions and made me smile and laugh so much my cheeks hurt by the end of the movie. There are so many sight gags that I couldn't keep track of them all, and the ones I did see were enough for me to recommend this movie. Here's a little hint, just before George rescues Emily from drowning, take a look at what he's carving, maybe that's why he was little too eager to divest himself of his clothes. Don't get me wrong, I loved Howards End and Room with a view, but I also loved The Naked Gun and Airplane as well, this is the perfect hybrid of the two genres. The acting isn't in the least bit Hammy, the actors play it straight the whole way through, which is what makes this so funny, Samuel West probably being the best thing about this movie. His brainless upperclass twit played to perfection makes this a good movie for Masterpiece theatre watchers with a sense of humour.