Make Me an Offer!

For anyone who likes to browse in antique shops and auctions looking for that unrecognised gem this is a great film for them. It's like a very early version of the much loved UK TV series "Lovejoy" which had high viewing figures, I've seen several episodes more than once. A very young Richard O'Sullivan played the younger version of the main character.

A great surprise to see a 1955 film in colour, although the colours faded in and out at times.

Full of interesting characters all ducking and diving in the antiques trade tying to make a living.

Well worth watching even for those not interested in antiques and bargain hunting.

As you might guess from the colloquial nature of the title, in addition to the names of the writer and the director - not to mention a supporting cast that includes Alfie Bass and Meir Tzelniker - of this ingratiatingly amoral piece of whimsy shot in handsome fifties Eastmancolor detailing the machinations of the antiques business the principal provenance is evidently Jewish.

Leading men, however, certainly don't come more whitebread than Peter Finch in one of the final productions of Group 3 - soon to be well established as one of the British film industry's biggest jokes - while the leading man would soon go on to much bigger and much better things.

It also features a memorable cameo by Ernest Thesiger as a wicked old reprobate.

This is a tedious and frankly dull second feature film about antiques dealer, Peter Finch, hoping to hit the jackpot by searching for genuine antiques which he can buy and then sell on for a very handsome profit. The storyline, with Finch as an antiques dealer hoping to get rich never gets out of second gear. The problem is that the characters are not just one dimensional, but they just seem to casually appear and disappear without rhyme or reason. Finch, an outstanding actor, is wasted in this film, as he's required to do no more then play a low energy and bland antiques dealer, and despite all the best efforts of Alfie Bass, Finlay Currie, Adrienne Corri and Rosalind Crutchley, they fail to breathe life into a limp, feeble and uninteresting storyline. The script is the problem since there's simply not enough going on in the way of twists and turns to engage the interest of the audience. A very disappointing and dull film.

It is quite clear that the producers set out to imitate the Ealing comedies.Each character has his or her own eccentricities and is played by one of that reliable band of character actors.Alas even they are unable to breathe life into a moribund script.On the one hand there is Peter Finch trying hopelessly to find the right way to play his character.then on the other hand there is Adrienne Corri who is doing her best at elfin charm but failing miserably.The Eastman colour is quite strange.Early in the film the actors are washed out and then they turn a shade of orange.In the scene where we first see Adrienne Corrie the scenery seems more blue than green.All in all a truly forgettable film.

Make Me An Offer is now part of a collection of British comedies called the Long Lost Comedy Classics. A collection of films that disappeared off the radar but now having been re-found, have been transfered to DVD courtesy of Hollywood Classics LTD. Others in the collection are The Love Match, Orders Are Orders, Time Gentlemen Please, John & Julie and Miss Robin Hood.

It's with much happiness that I, a proud British man, am the first person to post a review of this delightful Peter Finch starrer, Make Me An Offer.

The story sees Peter Finch as Charlie, who having as as a boy fell in love with a Portland Vase during a trip to a museum, takes up his calling in life as an antiques dealer. However, we find Charlie in adulthood struggling to make the business work, he mopes around grumbling about the poverty line; grumbling that heaps further strain on his marriage and ability to run a steady home. But an answer to all his problems may have landed in his lap with a chance meeting with flamed haired Nicky (Adrienne Corri). For during a wander around the cottage she dwells in, Charlie spies his Holy Grail, but if he thought that Nicky was just a pretty face, and ripe for a picking, well he's in for a little more than he bargained for.

Directed by Cyril Frankel (director of School For Scoundrels after Robert Hamer was fired for his drinking problems), Make Me An Offer is adapted from the novel written by Wolf Mankowitz (who inputs additional dialogue to the screenplay from W.P. Lipscomb). Joining Finch and Corri in the cast are Ernest Thesiger, Wilfrid Lawson, Alfie Bass, Rosalie Crutchley & Finlay Currie. Whilst Richard O'Sullivan, future star of British sit-coms like Man About The House & Robin's Nest, appears as Charlie the boy. Filmed in Eastman Colour, the film has a charm that wistfully takes us back to a charming part of England when folk made the most of what they had. A time when dreams, no matter how far away they were, were still a beacon of hope to drive people on. Set as it is in the antiques business, money is naturally an overriding factor, but although Charlie {Finch effervescent} yearns to provide his wife Bella (Crutchley) with a fur coat he has long since promised her, monetary gain is not the issue here. Realisation of dreams and a love of art, particularly during a poverty stricken time, is what drives Make Me An Offer forward. The comedy is mixed with nice touches of poignancy, and during its last quarter auction sequences the film boasts excellent writing as a ringer operation involving many characters starts to unfold. To which we move to a finale that personally had me grinning from ear to ear.

As for the DVD? The transfer is very good, there's some fluctuation in colour and the sound mix has the odd crackle and pop, but there's nothing for anyone to worry about in the context of enjoying an old movie. So for anyone interested in 50s British cinema, particularly from the comedy genre, this film, as well as the rest in the set, is essential viewing. 7.5/10