George and Mildred

George and Mildred is a truly unfunny film. This attempt to translate the successful TV series to the big screen was a dismal failure, as is so often the case.

The wit and clever one-liners from the TV shows have gone missing. The plot is a typical English farce of confused characters and mistaken identities, which is neither funny enough nor weird enough to provoke many decent laughs.

Die-hard George and Mildred fans might want to see this final episode of the pair's output (Mildred died of hepatitis before the film was released), but others should invest their time more wisely.

George and Mildred is one of the greatest sitcoms to come from the "70's" decade.Like Bless this house,this sitcom is a Domestic one.This feature length movie though decides to take a trip down memory lane for the couple.

Mildred decides that she and george will celebrate their anniversary of their wedding in a posh hotel.The catch is George gets himself into trouble and hilaritys pursue.

It is not up to the standards of its small screen counter-part but is still a funny and good film.

George is his usual self in this film and provides some great laughs especially with his screen time at the start and end with the fourmiles.

The original cast are still present,which is a good sound start,and some well known comic actors also are present,for example "Carry On Matron" star Kenneth Cope as the bumbling hit man.

The film though is relived on DVD, with oddly a 15 certificate (why???) and i would say is harmless family fun just like its small screen counter-part.

Its drawbacks though is that it ends pretty sharply, and i do wish the fourmiles featured a bit more.

I think if the film took a different angle such as "A holiday with the Fourmiles and George's friend in pursuit" might have fetched a better plot,but all the same it was a fair BIG screen match. (8.4/10)

George & Mildred - The Movie lacks the talents of its TV writer John Mortimer who brings the close quarter cut and thrust of George's class war with the Fourmiles alive.

The plot is cut from standard spin-off cloth - hit-man/mistaken identity - and has as little tension as there are laughs. The producers should have taken a leaf from Rising Damp, (also 1980)which was also bought to the big screen after the TV series demise, and kept much of the story in familiar setting.

Yootha Joyce died in 1980 but she should not be remembered for this creaking piece of work encumbered as she was by her illness. Mildred lacks the sharpness of her TV incarnation; cutting asides and withering looks largely directed at Georges lack of libido. George's sputtering incredulity also gets lost in the more expansive sets. This is not to say that they were much to shout about. The budget for this movies looks pathetically small; a restaurant they go to is clearly a new semi-starched house with some Christmas lights adorning the front door.

For fans of 70's British comedy or those who just want to revisit an old TV companion from their youth this film can add nothing to the experience and they should just stick to the first four TV series out now on DVD.

I've always found this film odd to watch as Yootha Joyce passed on before it's release and her last on screen moment being a wink to the camera before switching off the light heading upstairs (another series on TV was planned before her untimely death).

Sadly the plot leaves the usual TV storylines (and for the most part excludes their neighbours the Fourmiles) for a mistaken identity plot (where George is mistaken for a hitman!).

The guest cast can't help the film from being on of the worst sit-com spin-off films as well as being one of the final (with Rising Damp) damp squibs of the genre (Future feature length adaptations such as Last Of The Summer Wine and Only Fools and Horses would be TV specials).

Sadly the end of an era in so many ways.

I admit that I came accidentally at this"movie". From my early youth I remembered the actress Yootha Joyce from television. She impressed me because she "was really there". I later learned that she was a "regular drinker ( one bottle of wine a day)". I wandered why she came to this habit. But now seeing, watching this movie you know Wernher she was "trapped in". This movie is not humor nor amusement, it is a complete horror. Probably "producers" like this kind of "toy-play".

I think that they and there toys are better in the "wastepaper-bin".

Enjoy.