Down Among the Z Men

E J Fancey productions occupied a space on a quality scale somewhere between educational films and home-movies. While US budget movie-makers had a knack of doing a lot with just a little. E J Fancey had a knack of making very little look even less.

So its a shame that this group of entertainers who were already popular on radio as The Goons, and later went on to better things should have this as part of their legacy.

Who were the Z Men? I'd never known but saw that they feature in another disappointing '50s army comedy "You Lucky People" - starring Tom Trinder in his last film. I see from Wikipedia that they were British army soldiers and officers who'd served in WW2 and became a reserve to be recalled if needed.

I once had the pleasure of meeting Michael Bentine and we discussed this film. Michael told me that the director would only allow one take of each scene unless an absolute disaster occurred. There is one scene near the end that is quite funny. Two or three other members of the cast disguise themselves as Michael Bentine and many confusions occur, probably inspired by the mirror scene in the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup.

The dancing girls are the only polished act in this whole movie. Even the goons themselves were embarrassed about the final film (it was filmed at breakneck speed due to an extremely short filming schedule forcing them to improvise).

The only reason to watch this film is out of historical interest. It's amazing to see a then 27 year old Peter Sellers showing early signs of his incredible character range, something which would stand him in good stead in the years to come. Spike Milligan (who I once met) looks so young in this but is his usual zany self. Harry Secombe often seems a bit lost in this film, not having a proper script to follow and not knowing how to react to the improvisations going on around him. In some ways he was the most professional of the Goons.

And finally we see Michael Bentine, a man I associate with zany children's comedy from the 1970s. A unique looking individual who's appearance changed quite dramatically once he cut his hair and lost the beard ,Bentine left the goons soon after this movie was made so this film is a unique insight into the group before they became a trio.

It's a shame this film is almost unwatchable and not representative of the fledgling talent within. It tries to play out like a Marx brothers comedy, but contains none of the polish or acerbic wit of those films. However as a snapshot of what was to come it's an interesting curiosity.

This independently-produced British army comedy is chiefly notable now as Peter Sellers' film debut and for being the only starring screen vehicle for comic radio performers The Goons (of which Sellers himself was a member). Actually, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated – given the unenthusiastic reviews online (chiefly because it's said that their material has been heavily diluted in the transition); still, it's not helped by the dated TV-style technique on display.

Curiously enough, the laughs come mostly from the characterization of a scruffy, absent-minded Professor played by Michael Bentine – the least-known and shortest-lived member of the group! Of the other three, Harry Secombe is the nominal lead – but his character doesn't have a distinct personality (at least in this incarnation); Spike Milligan is a private whose dopey countenance and voice seems to have been inspired by Goofy, the canine star of Walt Disney cartoons!; Peter Sellers, surely the Goon with the most prominent subsequent career (I've just acquired a number of his work from the 1960s and 1970s), is reasonably impressive – if basically playing it straight – as an elderly Major.

The plot has to do with a secret gas formula devised by Bentine, which is coveted by enemy agents who infiltrate the camp (looking out for him is a female member of M.I.5 passing herself off as Sellers' daughter); Secombe, then, is the everyman hero who unwittingly finds himself 'drafted'. Unfortunately, most of the second half (the film runs for a mere 71 minutes) is taken up by a putting-on-a-show routine showcasing a number of resistible song-and-dance performers – though the busy climax, at least, shows three of The Goons all dressed in similar outfits to confuse the villains (a gag probably lifted from The Crazy Gang's THE FROZEN LIMITS [1939], which I've recently watched)...while Sellers, somewhat irrelevantly, does a couple of impersonations on stage (a great talent he possessed and which he would constantly fall back on for the rest of his career).

Hmm. as most people who are goons fans have probably done, I watched this film purely out of curiosity having never seen the format "on screen". It didn't work. There is nothing whatsoever to recommend this film, boring, unfunny and unwatchable. as the goons huge popularity in later years goes to show, that's not to say that their talent is in any way called into question, I just think they really hadnt quite decided on which comedic routines would work and which wouldn't as early as 1952. Far better to watch something like "the muckinese battle horn" from 1957, which although doesn't feature secombe, is far nearer the mark to the goons madcap fast moving humour, and fans of the radio show will feel more at home. "z men" is quite frankly embarrassingly bad.