La verità... quasi nuda

Although this movie greets you with a seedy beginning it quickly blossoms into a delightful and rip-roaring comedy. Watching this movie at the impressionable age of 14, i immediately saw what made British comedy movies so different and, in my opinion, so much more worthwhile than those made across the Atlantic. Peter Sellers is definitely at his best as one of the blackmailees (?) and the rest of the cast is at the worst above average. A truly definitive British comedy!

This film solidified Peter Sellers' stardom as a comic actor of the first rank. He had appeared in other films prior to it, but THE LADYKILLERS was the only one prior to this that showed him to any advantage, as an inept "teddy boy" type.

Here he is "Wee Sonny MacGregor" a popular young entertainer on television, whose variety show has mostly elderly viewers who think of Sonny as the son or grandson they always dreamed about. Unfortunately for Sonny, one Nigel Dennis (Dennis Price) publishes "THE NAKED TRUTH", a tell all scandal sheet like "Confidential" or (despite their disclaimers) "The Enquirer". Mr Dennis has a nice, somewhat legal, offer. If you will help defray the expenses of his magazine, he will refrain from publishing details of what you don't want known. In his best, intelligent scoundrel style, Price reveals to dear "Wee Sonny" that he knows about the large amounts of rent money "Wee Sonny" has been making with some rotting tenements in London. The audience for "Wee Sonny" would not feel very comfortable with his image knowing about this.

Price has similar pieces of information regarding Peggy Blount, playing an "Agatha Christie" novelist - apparently one of her plots may not have been so original. Also Terry-Thomas, as Lord Mayley, is not as respectable as he lets on - he seems to have had several affairs his wife does not know of (although Georgina Cookson - Lady Mayley - has her occasional suspicions). Soon all three are considering the last resort for dealing with blackmail - doing in the blackmailer. Their problems are more than dealing with a brainy adversary. Blount tries to commit a murder (after all she's an expert in killing as a creative writer), only to come a cropper (all I'll say is Price ups his demands for payment as a result). Terry-Thomas seems to keep stumbling into the schemes of Blount and Sellers, to his own discomfort.

Best is Sellers though - he is certain he can commit the perfect murder because he is a "master of disguise". His assistant Kenneth Griffith keeps warning him that he has a tendency to overact, but "Wee Sonny" dismisses this. He tries to spy out Price playing an elderly dock expert, and only annoys the latter and makes Terry-Thomas suspicious. He flusters a gun shop owner by appearing as an Edwardian style country squire ordering enough ammunition for a regiment, not for a hunt. My favorite moment is when he tries to impress possible IRA members by speaking to them (as a fellow member) in perfect Welsh.

How they finally get rid of Price and his demands is as funny as one can expect, given the rest of the film. It is a comedy that will pay handsome dividends of laughter.

A genuinely funny British farce dealing with blackmail and murder and splendidly played by a great cast of British comic actors, (Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Joan Sims and Dennis Price). Price is the blackmailer and Sellers, Terry-Thomas and Mount, together with model Shirley Eaton, (long before someone thought of painting her gold), are his victims who plan to murder him but, as with any good farce, things don't go quite according to plan. The underrated Mario Zampi directed from an original and highly ingenious script by Michael Pertwee. Perhaps you need a very British sense of humour to really appreciate this but if you are blessed with such a thing, it's a real treat.

Released in America as 'Your Past Is Showing,' this amusing black comedy concerns a group of English celebrities and nobility who are being blackmailed by Nigel Dennis, an unscrupulous tabloid reporter. Four of these people, a Lord (Terry-Thomas,) a television host (Sellers,) an author (Mount,) and a model (Eaton) decide to fight back and kill their blackmailer. The catch is, none of them are aware anyone else is targeting Dennis. What follows is a series of humorous attempts to off Nigel Dennis.

Peter Sellers gets to dress up in various disguises and do impressions. Watching him is watching a true genius at work. But the movie is stolen by Peggy Mount, who plays the daffy author. She and her hilariously skittish daughter, played by Joan Sims, concoct a plan to poison Dennis, lock him in a trunk and dump him in the river. But things go wrong on several levels, and the way these two cope is hilarious.

As all the characters come together for the final act, things escalate and become even funnier. So if you enjoy British comedy, a fan of Peter Sellers, or just in the mood for a laugh, then don't hesitate to watch this film.

Stars Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, and Peter Sellers are all quite good in this black comedy about blackmail and murder. There's a good remake in this material. Joan Sims is funny as Ethel and Georgina Cookson is gracious as Lady Mayley. Dennis Price seems an odd and bland choice for the blackmailer. Miles Malleson plays another vague vicar. Despite many disguises for Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount (in a role that seems to have be written for Margaret Rutherford), Terry-Thomas, and Joan Sims steal the show. And there is a surprise ending in a zeppelin! A must for fans of British Comedy and the great British eccentrics on 1950s films.