nickjg

This wooden performance is an oddity in the series. A very wooden script and directing by numbers- so mechanical. Acting dismal, desperately needs the other characters as these are the weakest. 'Sarah,' an understudy from pygmlian, is about as convincing as Dick van Dyke's chimney sweep but without the compensatory skills. Whole thing desperately wants to be Wilde- but fails. The valuables the characters want to steal look like charity shop repro and sets/ lighting require vibrant cast to work, which they haven't got. Repartee about pigs and spat-out cigar-butts don't make convincing Swedes, though the acting resembles the near relation.

First, the whole film is seriously undermined by Tafler's dreadful version of an Italian accent and wooden acting. The script is somewhat clichéd too. The settings are reasonable and the pace isn't too slow. Sadly, nothing actually makes you think "that's different!" Or "that's a new approach. " It would help if the viewer could empathise with Tafler or the sister who has little to do or say to develop a character based plot. The whole affair feels like a short story padded and tricked out to last three reels. More like watered down Edgar Wallace. A principle part for a camel-hair coat, the desideratum of the third lead has the potential to be humorous in other hands.

The premise is just to get a supposedly 'box-office' American or two into a film to get the finance. An American in uniform inherits a village. Lots of raucous 'jazz' music drowns any sort of emotional empathy, along with a woman who 'dances' in gold lamé, wearing what appear to be a pair of marigold washing-up gloves. It deteriorates from then on, with the likes of Wattis, Pertwee and Beckwith playing English characters, Sid James playing the Afrikaaner version of a comic and a whole string of Ealing studio clichés. Puts bums on seats- in the pub next door! The polo game with the brightly coloured balls, the Rolls that would have been ancient even then and the chauffeur in a luminous scarlet uniform seem to be quintessentially English to the directors of this mash-up. The straight actors seem to be delivering the lame script with sincerity, but I'm guessing they didn't carry clips from this time waster in their casting portfolios.