The Bargee

This is very much a star vehicle for Harry H. Corbett, fresh from the success of 'Steptoe And Son'. Indeed, the 'Steptoe' associations do not end there, as the presence of Ray Galton, Alan Simpson and Duncan Wood suggest.

Like 'Steptoe', this movie is based around a traditional but dying industry (by the end of the film it has only 18 months), that of commercial narrow boat trading. The difference is that in 'Steptoe' the totting is very much a grim existence, but here it is a pretty much idyllic life and you can readily understand Hemel Pike's reluctance to give it up. The Technicolor helps provide a dream-like tone.

Galton and Simpson's script is strong, mixing comedy and drama as Corbett's 'Casanova of the canals' succumbs to the charms of the winsome daughter of the fiery Hugh Griffith. There is an equally strong cast to match, notably Eric Sykes as an incompetent amateur mariner and Miriam Karlin as a vengeful woman who discovers that she is not the only woman in Corbett's life. In my eyes Ronnie Barker steals every scene he is in.

This is possibly Corbett's best screen outing as star and is far better than its general reputation suggests. I first saw it around ten years ago and it failed to make an impression, re-watching it today, I fell in love with it.

Lovely scenery and color photography can't save this tedious and annoying film that's filled with irritating characters and bad pacing.

The film starts out well with Harry Corbett and Ronnie Barker taking a commercial load on their barge via the wondrous waterways (canals) to Birmingham. Despite Corbett's off-putting accent and speech impediment (he can't say his R's), it looks like it will be a picturesque comedy/drama set amid the English countryside. But as soon as Eric Syke's annoying character (the mariner), the week-end skipper who knows nothing about boats, shows up, the voyage goes off course.

Sykes is supposed to be the comic relief, but his character is too stupid to be funny. Anyway, Corbett plots his trip with "stop-overs" at various towns where he has a woman in each port. He finally makes it to where Julia Foster and her dad, Hugh Griffith, live. She's pregnant, and the story goes off in another direction with Griffith determined to find the guy who knocked her up.

This plot drags on and on with Griffith blocking the canal and causing all sorts of trouble until some government officials show up and they finally figure out who daddy is. Even after this resolution, the story drags on til its obvious conclusion.

Griffith, Foster, and Barker do what they can with one-dimensional characters. Sykes and Corbett are lost causes. Co-stars include Miriam Karlin as the boisterous Nellie, Norman Bird and Richard Briers as the government men, Derek Nimmo as the dumb doctor, and among the canal women, Rita Webb, Patricia Hayes, and Eileen Way.

The film is unique in that it attempts to portray working life on the English canals as it really was in the 1960s, without the affected prettification of most accounts.

The bargees are workmen, Hemel (Corbett) the ladies man trapped by a pretty girl, and propelled to the altar on the end of a shotgun, and Ronnie (Barker) his none too bright right hand man.

The film is set immediately before the end of the way of life that it portrays, as commercial narrowboat carrying came to an end on Britains waterways. At the time of its release, this was a very recent memory, the trade having been finally killed off by the severe winter of 1963.

The boats seen in the film are the genuine article, used in a film about the end of the trade, mere months after it ended. Within a very short time after the film, most of the craft had been destroyed, leaving only a few in preservation.

David Mayall correctly identifies the film as a useful bit of social history, with many outside shots of a lost way of life. This does sufficiently warn potential viewers that as a comedy it is as dull as ditchwater. Ronnie Barker is crushed by Harry Corbets character. This is the kind of product which almost killed the British Film Industry. Have people voted 10 for this film out of irony? (Confession I was unable to see the end of film). Did any one pay to see this at the time?

A beautifully made film mainly shot on location. I'm the first to admit that this isn't a movie for the person looking for big 'belly laughs', but for lovers of the English canal system and it's history who like wistful humour and some beautifully subtle moments and some classic lines, it's superb. Harry H Corbett is billed as the Casanova of the canals but his (Hemel Pike) first love affair is with 'the cut', his early line where he says "The only way you'll get me off the canal is to fill it in", will strike a chord with canal enthusiasts. So I can quite understand why people rate this film lower as it is slightly specialised. For those interested in film locations, Leg O' Mutton Lock, the main location in the film is in fact Marsworth top lock on the Grand Union canal and is almost exactly the same today as in 1963, lots more boats though! Corbett's portrayal as Hemel Pike is either a tribute to his research into the canal way of life or he had experience of it as all his actions are extremely accurate. If you love canals you'll love this film. If you are looking for big laughs and constant action you'll be disappointed. I love it. 10 out of 10.