Tons of Trouble

Just seen this film on the splendid Talking Pictures. What a gentle simple comedy from a much calmer age. Modern children might not get it but Richard Hearne was a superb knockabout comedian and I enjoyed it immensely.

Tons of Trouble stars Richard Hearne as his well known Mr Pastry character which was a staple on television in the 1950s and early 1960s.

In this film version, Mr Pastry is a kindly but haphazard caretaker in a block of flats looking after two old boilers which need much attention. There is also a subplot where a car crashes and the driver wants Mr Pastry to deliver a message which the police are interested in.

Wily milkman William Hartnell is after the caretaker's job for some reason, presumably assuming this is a cushy number. He eventually gets Mr Pastry fired and gets his job but finds out the keeping the boilers going is harder than he imagined.

The film has short comic interludes with Mr Pastry getting people to laugh silly by use of some portion or pushing a maid in the bath.

The version of the film I saw claimed to have been remastered. The picture quality was poor and the sound was almost inaudible. There was nothing amusing about Mr Pastry's antics.

I have heard about this character for decades and have seen snippets of him before. Just because people were glued to the television set once upon a time when he appeared does not make it any good. To think that the bumbling Mr Pastry persona was once considered for the role of Doctor Who shows how much of a bullet the sci-fi series managed to dodge.

TONS OF TROUBLE is a cheapjack British comedy conceived as a star vehicle for old-time comedian Richard Hearne. He plays a janitor who spends his time looking after a couple of heaving old boilers in the basement of a large hotel. He feels so much affection for these pieces of machinery that he's given then names and personalities and it's fair to say that they are his life's work. There's something delightfully British about his character.

The opening part of the film is pretty good with some amusing slapstick moments, particularly involving the laundry chute. I have no idea who Hearne is or was but he's quite game for a laugh here. Sadly, the film becomes unstuck later on, when it builds an uninvolving plot involving ruthless corporate villains and the like, and it only springs to life again when William Hartnell is introduced into the story. The ending is as obvious as they come. I was interested to note that this was the last film in the career of quota quickie director Leslie S. Hiscott before retirement; he also had a hand in the script.

This is tricky, because I last saw this movie on TV in about 1965. The central character, 'Mr Pastry', played by Richard Hearne, was a popular knockabout comic, still busy at that time, and I, as a child, welcomed any appearance by him on the television. He looked like a little old man with fluffy white hair and moustache, and a dark suit and hat.

As far as I know this was Mr Pastry's only feature film. The title refers to the huge boilers that are used to heat an office building, and Mr Pastry is the caretaker, who has looked after them all his working life. Trouble arises when the system is to be modernised, and oil heaters installed, meaning that the big old boilers will be scrapped, along with their loving caretaker.

I'm sure this film is full of slapstick and chases, but the only scene that remains in my mind is poor old Mr Pastry saying his good-byes to his boilers. They have names (one, I'm sure, is Bessie), and I think I remember the whole thing as being quite touching.

I also remember that it all turns out okay in the end. I hope this film is still intact somewhere, and someone sees fit to give it a TV airing one afternoon. It's a comedy about a changing world, and in 1965, it was shown at peak time in the evening, which just goes to show how the world continues to change.

I too remember this little gem....at least, it was then!

I was 7 years old and my Dad took me to see this at our local Gaumont. It was the support film for Disney's "Davy Crockett", which was a real "Biggy" that year.

It's many,many years since it was on TV but, it's one of those films that has always stuck in my memory.

The only thing I can remember about it for sure is that Mr Pastry had a lot of trouble with some soap suds?

Unseen for many years, we can finally catch up with it next Monday, Feb 1st, 2016 when those excellent people at the Talking Pictures Channel will be showing it, at 12:05pm.

I can't wait!