Smashing Time

look, if you are looking for deep meaning - or songs that make you want to sing along, then you're looking in the wrong place.

but if you want a kitschy look (i bet even at the time of release!) at the mid-sixties, then look no further! come on! lynn redgrave as a pop-starlet? rita tushingham as a supermodel?? michael york as a photog???? what could be better??? the scenes of lynn belting out her "hit" song are worthy of admission alone! i was also grateful for some of the shots of carnaby street in it's hayday - god, i just wish i were there! this is a movie that mike myers very obviously borrowed from to create austin powers. it has a lot of the same sensibilities.

see the original - maybe skim by most of the songs... but enjoy the ride!

'Smashing time' is a well-made English comedy, set in the famous Swinging London of the mid-Sixties. And shot in the same city in the same period, adding extra authenticity.

This film is just fun, without any pretense. The hilarious interaction between Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave, successfully coupled as girlfriends, makes it work. Some of its scenes are clearly inspired by Laurel and Hardy.

'Girlfriends', I said. This friendship between the two heterosexual female leads is devoid of any sex. Such a formula wouldn't probably sell today, but back in the Sixties it did. A friendship of this kind makes this film's core.

Shortly after seeing this film in 1991 I was offered my 'dream' job and found myself heading down from the north to live in London for the first time. Just like the two girls in this crazy movie.

I loved this when I first saw it. And when I watch it now, it also captures some of the excitement that I felt back in '91.

London is a magical place with a unique feel. I was on a 'high' for the first few months, with a tingle down my spine whenever I walked around famous places. Even now I can't walk down Carnaby Street without visualising Lynn Redgrave skipping down it in the fast-cut musical sequence in Smashing Time. Many of the songs are, to be honest, quite bad. But they are also rather catchy and so stick in the mind.

There are many satirical swipes at the culture of the time. The photographer (Michael York) is David Hemmings in Blow Up. Rita Tushingham is the model Twiggy and Lynn Redgrave is pop star Helen Shapiro. The TV show is Candid Camera.

The '60's slang is also set up. The girls search for a 'switched on' pad and Anna Quayle runs a shop called 'Too Much'. When Rita Tushingham asks if customers won't be put off by the name (in the sense that the goods are 'too' expensive) the true meaning of the phrase is explained to her. The goods are just 'too much' (ie. mind blowing).

John Clive is at his best as the rather camp and slightly Jewish owner of Sweeney Todd's pie restaurant. The pie fight itself is well executed with some neat comic touches, such as the 'queen' who shoots himself when his fashionable suit is hit by a flying pie.

Indeed, Smashing Time is something of a gay cult classic. Murray Melvin appears as a gay character (as he did a few years earlier in A Taste of Honey, again with Rita Tushingham).

Other familar faces of the period include Arthur Mullard, Irene Handl and Ian Carmichael and there are interesting glimpses of locations as they were 30 years ago -- including the railway station at St. Pancras.

This is definitely a film you will want to watch again and again. You'll never tire of the musical and comic set pieces.

Unfortunately it is very rarely shown on TV in Britain. I haven't seen it on terrestrial TV since 1991 and it is not currently available on either video or DVD in the UK.

G.

I can't believe Leonard Maltin dissed this picture -- it's a rare gem of trippy brilliance, influential as hell on arbiters of style like "Absolutely Fabulous" and the "Austin Power" series. Lynn Redgrave (!), fresh out of "Georgy Girl", bumbles through looking like a great big blonde lovable cow in a succession of astonishing wigs, while her costar Rita Tushingham (!!) veers back and forth from frumpy/frowny to slapstick/mime to The Face of the 60's. The humor is broad and scatological, but cutting when its satire -- sample song lyric: "I can't sing, but I'm young!!" If you can find it, grab it.

Rita Tushingham is head and shoulders above anything in this film and the film as a whole. Lynn Redgrave gives a decent performance but her role doesn't allow for anything much more than camp laughs.

These two are the stars and do keep you watching but as you watch you find yourself dropping to the films level and into its rhythm. Maybe, I wasn't into either its humour or pace because I was watching it for the first time over half a century after the audience it was made for. I have watched many films in the past from this era, 'Up The Junction' for example, that I enjoyed without seeming to have to adapt to the time and there's others so that it's age isn't an excuse. I just found that the humour was predictable and silly at first. However, as mentioned, as it went on I got quite engrossed and I can only put that down to the quality of the lead characters.

Not a film I would recommend but one I would be embarrassed to say I liked.