Not Now Darling

I recall that this film was made using a multi camera system.So that two or three cameras would be used to save time on setups.I also believe that it was taped,edited and then transferred to film.Ray Cooney who wrote this takes a rare leading role.He also co directs with David Croft of Dads Army fame.The problem is that he acts as if he is on the stage.Every line accompanied by a gesture.Compare this with the more restrained performance of Leslie Phillips.There are a lot of well known actors in this.Cicely Courtneidge making her last screen performance and Jack Hulbert his penultimate one.Jackie Paolo makes an appearance,then at the height of his TV wrestling fame.The problem is that the play may have been funny on stage but lacks sparkle on film.

It takes something special to make a miserable old git like me laugh out loud but this managed it. Farces like this (in many ways identical to this!) have been filmed since Ben Travers' Aldwych Farces back in the thirties so it was a tried and tested formula. This might actually be the apex of that genre.

Sophisticated and cerebral humour this isn't but neither is it, as some people labelled it, 'a 70s sex comedy.' Just because various attractive young women end up hiding in cupboards in their underwear does not place it in the same category as those dreadful 'Confessions of' films. This is very much a superbly honed, very funny comedy in the tradition of bawdy old fashioned English farce.

Whether or not this is for you would depend on whether you find Barbara Windsor, carrying a bird cage asking people if they'd like to see her tits, an outdated disgraceful example of sexism or silly schoolboy humour.

When it comes to stripping beautiful young women down to their underwear for the most gratuitous of reasons, no one can outdo the English. The plot, such as it is, revolves around Leslie Phillips conniving attempts to get Janie McMichael into bed. His plans inevitably go astray, leading to half-naked girls hiding in the closet, jealous husbands raging through the office, and at three of the female cast least losing their clothes in this unmistakably British comedy of errors. Probably the best of Leslie Phillips' seventies bedroom farces, which included "Spanish Fly," "Don't Just lie there, Say Something," "Doctor in Trouble", and the infamous "Not Now Comrade".

Sets its stall out immediately with an over the titles nip-slip & a bare-chested bather, OK, so this is an adult 'Carry On' a la '70's 'Confessions of an etc etc', unfortunately & obviously, this has none of the charm & sparkle of that iconic film series.

The editing is bizarrely poor & the direction's not much better, they must both have just been chucked out of film school. It's difficult not to feel sorry for poor Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims & Babs to have needed to do this, but work was work then & I'm sure they had fun together. To add to the discomfort, modern audiences will find the situation of a top furriers very uncomfortable, fur coats are indeed lovely, but they're probably best left with their original owners!

Honestly don't bother, even if you love films of this period, stick to something better & revisit a Carry On or similar.

It has been a quarter-century since I saw this movie, which was making a far-east tour of military bases in the early 70's (1974?), and I thought then (and still think so now) that it was one of the funniest movies I had ever had the pleasure of seeing. Although it was probably not as well made as some movies, it made up for that in hilarious content. I can still remember how much I laughed and enjoyed myself. Don't know if you can (or will) use these comments, but I've been looking for this picture ever since I first saw it, and just wish I could find it again. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best), I would rate this film a 9 or 9.5.