Laughter in Paradise

A nice sly comedy that has similarities to Brewsters Millions. When Henry Russell (Hugh Griffiths) dies, known during his lifetime as a practical joker, he sets his beneficiaries a task that they must achieve before they can gain a share of their inheritance of £50,000. The tasks are related to some character weakness.

Alastair Sim who writes thrashy crime stories, long term engaged to Joyce Grenfell has to get himself arrested and spend 28 days in jail. George Cole a hapless and bullied bank clerk as to stick up the bank that he works for.

Fay Compton has to work as a maid to the curmudgeonly John Laurie without getting fired. The caddish Guy Middleton has to marry the first single woman he meets.

Sim and Cole have the funniest escapades, Middleton passes over a young Audrey Hepburn to pursue the second eligible woman he encounters. The characters discover something about themselves while pursuing their tasks, it is a nice bit of light whimsy.

I first saw this as a youngster and liked it, but over the years it's really grown on me until now I regard it as a minor classic. The main characters were all played excellently, with many lesser characters also played memorably.

Practical joker Hugh Griffiths dies and leaves GBP 50,000 to each of his four living relatives if they complete various silly but onerous tasks within one month of his death. Pulp writer Alistair Sim, snobby Fay Compton, womaniser Guy Middleton and timid George Cole are all faced with problems that are against their natures, and their attempts to succeed ultimately result in a worthy moral and laughter on Earth. Cole's "juvenile" sections used to irritate me when younger but there's plenty else to savour, especially the incomparable Sim as a determined shoplifter, Compton as a harassed skivvy and Middleton as a hornswoggled suitor. As icing on the cake there's also fluffy Joyce Grenfell, scathing John Laurie, suave Anthony Steel, jolly Ernest Thesiger, and many other old friends – even the forever bald Noel Howlett and a young Audrey Hepburn. The direction and production values were top notch too; the sets were so beautifully wooden, the acting certainly was not.

It's flimsy yet logical, life-affirming and recommended – stay with it to the end to have the last laugh.

Alastair Sim would make a perfect undertaker. With those Bassett-hound eyes and that mournful hand-wringing manner, he's made to preside over the Slumber Room and ease you into the priciest model. So, it never fails to surprise me that he's also a first-rate comedic actor, maybe even the last word in droll comedy. And he pulls off the humor so slyly, with just a minor change of expression. What a wonderfully artistic contrast he is to today's rub- your-nose-in-it brand of comedy.

This is not his best vehicle, but the movie does have a clever premise and a couple of good set-ups—the shoplifting sequence, and any scene with Joyce Grenfell. The sketches, however, are more amusing than hilarious, and the humor never really peaks out in a climactic way. It's also perhaps one of the sweetest comedies on record, insisting that the key to happiness is pairing up with another, even in the case of those two cranky old people. That's the wisdom behind the will's requirement— old man Russell makes each beneficiary experience what is most missing from his or her life, and in the process, become a better and happier person.

Note the shot taken early on at America's brand of hard-boiled detective fiction, probably then making inroads into popular British fiction. So, by combining America's street- tough style with traditional British prose, writer Russell (Sim) produces something amusingly ridiculous, like "Petal arched her alabaster arm above her patrician brow in a moment of precise exasperation before he smacked her in the kisser." Anyway, I thought those passages were both funny and cleverly offbeat. All in all, this little comedy may be no knee-slapper, but it is rather sweetly memorable.

This is such a funny film! It's a clever plot which owes more than something to the old "warhorse" Brewster's Millions, and is filled with the eccentric lunacy which characterised so many British films made after WW2.

Alistair Sim is THE truly great British comic actor, even more so than Alec Guinness or Peter Sellers. To watch the scene when he tries to get arrested for shoplifting in the department store is to experience sheer comic inspiration.

I am no fan of remakes (have you seen the Thomas Crown remake!!), but funnily enough I am amazed that Hollywood hasn't had a go at this. In the right hands it could be made to work again.

After a wealthy eccentric dies, he leaves his very sizable fortune in equal portions to four relatives, but they can only claim the money if they each perform a difficult task. Former military officer and gentleman (and secret crime novelist) Deniston Russell (Alastair Sim) must spend 28 days in prison. Ill-tempered Agnes Russell (Fay Compton), often cruel to her own servants, must herself become a servant. Milquetoast bank teller Herbert Russell (George Cole) must rob his own bank, and his own boss, at gunpoint. And gambler and ladies man Simon Russell (Guy Middleton) must wed the first woman he speaks to. All four struggle to complete their tasks, each with unique and unexpected outcomes.

I wasn't much looking forward to this one, as I only recorded to see Audrey Hepburn's brief turn as a cigarette girl. Depending on the source, this was her movie debut, and it doesn't amount to much although she's very cute. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find this a charming little comedy with some winning performances and enjoyable plot turns. Sim steals the show as a proper gent utterly befuddled at trying to become a criminal, attempting a variety a minor offenses in an attempt to earn the requisite 28 days in the clink. Any fans of British comedy that missed this the last time it was shown would do well to try and catch it on its next showing.