Penny Points to Paradise

I have seen most of the films of Peter Sellers and recently went to YouTube to see if they had any of the missing ones. Several of his early films are there...and it's obvious they were intended to be seen by British audiences. So, it's not exactly fair to say my score of 3 is for everyone....more for how enjoyable the film would be to Americans. And, with the very thick accents (with no captions) and British vaudeville-style comedy, it was a chore to see this one. To put it bluntly, I disliked it. It didn't help that the film was mad in only three weeks and featured an upright piano score....the sort you'd expect to see if you were watching a broad slapstick comedy from bygone days. Overall, a real chore to watch and little indication of the brilliance Sellers would show in later films...and in this one, he's just a supporting character.

This film represents Peter Sellars first screen role and is some inspired, if amateurish, madness from 'the Goons'. (for those who don't know, the Goon show was an hilarious radio show broadcast in England in the 50's, it featured Peter Sellars, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe, who all feature in this film) The plot is a vague story about counterfeiting but it is mainly a framework on which to hang the off kilter jokes and wordplays that are the goons trademarks. Harry (Harry Secombe) wins some money in the pools and decides to go on holiday to bristol with his friend Spike (Spike Milligan). However some dastardly counterfeiters try to relieve him of his winnings. Meanwhile Peter Sellars plays 3 different comic roles foreshadowing his multiple roles in films of the future. This film is simple and low-budget, however it has genuine laughs. I recommend it for any fan of any of the three Goons. (Although prints seems to be extremely rare as I am the only person I have encountered who has seen it!)

I was never a fan of the Goons, but I'm a sucker for anything that looks remotely obscure so thought I'd give this early effort of theirs a go. It's quite good, with some inspired moments to be found amongst the more mundane material. Secombe and Milligan play a couple of innocents, one of whom has won £100,000 on the pools, who return to their holiday boarding house in Brighton only to find themselves the target of gold-diggers and con-men. Highlights include the rather well-built Paddy O'Neill pulling off a clever Bette Davis impersonation, and Freddie Frinton as a drunk who angrily berates the person he's talking to for walking away from him without realising he is actually the one staggering backwards (well, I thought it was funny, anyway). Although he has a couple of parts, Peter Sellers does little other than announce to the world his insuperable skill at making a limited comic talent stretch an

"Penny Points to Paradise" is the first feature film to star the three members of the popular "The Goon Show" that aired on British radio from 1951 to 1960. But this is a comedy with a very thin plot that bounces all over the place, from parodies of silent films and vaudeville, to slapstick and antics. That latter was the style of Red Skelton, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers. It may yet have appealed to some in 1951, but by the mid-20th century most of these types of comedy were fast becoming a thing of the past. And, aside from an interesting cast, this film has very little going for it in the 21st century.

The leads here all had talent, and all audiences will know Peter Sellers who went on to worldwide fame with a considerable number of great comedy films. The plot for this film is very skimpy and the screenplay is even worse. The movie starts off as a parody of silent films, with bouncy piano playing included. But that soon becomes annoying, and it repeats for two more scenarios in the film. Those include car scenes and chases reminiscent of the Keystone Kops.

No doubt Harry Secombe was very good as a comedian in his day, but most of his varied antics and changes in persona don't go over well many decades later. He very closely resembles Red Skelton at times. Sellers has two roles, but neither of those have any good comedy. Marks is somewhat funny just for his persona as the big guy shyster who's full of himself, but his accomplice, Digger, can do little more than spew what are supposed to be comical complaints.

While Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers had been in a few films before, this was the first film of Spike Milligan. Only four other members of this film cast had or would have much of a career in cinema. Alfred Marks is the shyster Edward Haynes; Bill Kerr is his accomplice, Digger Graves; Vicky Page is Sheila Gilroy; and Sam Kydd is the cross-eyed porter. Most of the rest of this cast have no other films to their credit, including hazel Jennings who plays the Landlady with a considerable part. Marks and Paddie O'Neill, who plays Christine Russell, would marry the next year, for life, and have two children. O'Neill likely gave up the cinema to be a homemaker, but she clearly shows the talent to have had an entertainment career.

The only thing that keeps this film from a complete bore is the scenario toward the end when most of the cast wind up fleeing and chasing in a wax museum. The frequent posing and costume changing to fit into various wax displays is amusing. Here are a couple of lines - the best of the humorous dialog in the script.

Landlady, "There's a lovely view of the sea from the window if you stand on a chair and lean well out"

Spike Donnelly, "Listen, big guy, you're a terrific man. You're a financial lizard." Edward Haynes, "Wizard, laddie, wizard."

An odd mixture: cheap and quickly made, a strange mixture of clichés piled on top of each other, old (and stolen) jokes and improvisations. Harry Secombe has won £100,000 on the football pools, but still goes to Brighton with his pal, played by Spike Milligan, for his usual holiday at at their usual nightmarish guest-house. Two girls already there set up as gold-diggers, a confidence trickster sets out to get his money from him and a pair of counterfeiters (one- Alfred Marks- doing a W.C. Fields impersonation) follow them for the same purpose. The plot is just a thread to hang a set of gags on. The only trouble is, the gags aren't very original or very good. There are one or two moments when they are on the edge of the surreal comedy that they achieved in The Goon Show or they might fly off into farce, but it nearly always fails. A short scene when Secombe, hypnotised to think he is a soprano, and one of the girls, thinking she is a bass, sing a duet is genuinely funny as are moments when all of them and a pair of comic policemen run round a waxworks museum, but on the whole they don't seem to have had the knowledge of film, the confidence or the time to work out something good, though so often they seem just on the edge of it.