Aquela Casa em Londres

In Victorian London, Josephie Pacefoot (Joanna Pettet) leads the purity girls in demanding reform to save women from sex work. Flying enthusiast Benjamin Oakes (David Hemmings) comes to the rescue of Josephie and her fallen women. Various recollection of women 'suffering' their poor indignities perpetrated by men sometimes played by David Hemmings. He has an evil doppelganger.

It's a sex comedy and it's an odd one. The central theme is that these women are being taken advantaged by these men. In the recreations, the women are gleefully being 'taken advantaged'. It's not a funny joke. The choppy nature of the film doesn't help. It's one vignette after another and few are even mildly funny. I don't care about Josephie and Benjamin. The plot does sometimes take interesting turns, but I still don't care. It's an unfunny sex comedy.

One of the earliest and certainly one of the most lavish of the British sex comedies that were to proliferate over the following decade, and typical of its time in the lampooning of Victorian double standards, a period then regarded as the ultimate in repression, prudery and hypocrisy. Today's audiences, reputedly as eager to take offence as any Victorian maiden aunt will no doubt find much of the content fairly deplorable, including a white actor 'yellowed-up' as a Chinese delegate. Though you don't have to be a censorious millennial to feel uneasy at some of the material, the jokes about rape and the flippant attitude to young girls in brothels, not to mention a particularly crass piece of innuendo in a song from a little girl, especially in the light of what we now know about the likes of Jimmy Savile and co at the time. David Hemmings stars in a dual role but struggles to convince in either. Despite all this Denis Norden's script does conjure up its share of amusing moments and it is fun spotting the numerous well-known actors and celebrities of the time popping up in cameo roles.

I am a fan of British films. I also fondly remember many great British movies from the 60s. I wondered why I couldn't remember this one. now I know- it is terrible!

After the first ten minutes the plot is so muddled that the average viewer will give up.

I stuck with this hoping it would get better. By the middle, I was completely confused and bored. It seems every stereotypical character from the Victorian era is thrown in.

I was half expecting to see Sherlock Holmes. It's true that this movie mixes historical characters with fictional ones without regard to the era. Dickens appears along with those from a later period. But you won't notice. By that time you'll be bored or asleep.

There are a few scenes that really offended me, such as the one with the little girl singing the stupid song. I am surprised that TCM put this on in the daytime.

Stay away.

I don't know how to add items to the other sections of this site so I will put an interesting tit-bit (!) here! I played one of the extras in Oliver (NOT one of the boys) and was amazed to see many of the locations on the back lot used here. Not only that they also used many of the same vehicles, props and I even recognised some of the horses! Given that Oliver is a family movie and this is anything but it's an interesting fact. I'm told that the Oliver set was left to slowly moulder away for many years - what a waste! Oh yes this film? Well it's not THAT bad and is a dream for those who like to count the well known bit part players. Must have spent the money saved on scenery on extras! ;-)

Like a great deal of British comedy of the time, The Best House In London ends up degenerating into wacky silliness toward the end. But then, when you've referenced just about every other British literary genius and comic of the last two centuries, failing to give an enthusiastic nod and bow to the Goons would be rude. And rude just will not do.

Some may consider films such as these "bad", and theoretically I guess they'd be right. But if you're even a passing fan of the British comedy tradition, this movie brings together an intelligent and funny script by the brilliant Denis Norden, and a large cast of inspired and famous British comics. Its outrageous premise offers scope for first-class humour, great inter-textual pedantry, and witty social commentary. In the tradition of the Goons, the film is a biting and staggeringly funny indictment of Victorian moralism and piety, which was as apt in the post-war decades as it is in the politically-correct eco-religious world of today.

If you object to seeing middle-class hypocrisies (not to mention none-too-innocent maidens) skewered, don't see it. Otherwise, I can heartily recommend it.

If you're a fan of British humour, you need this in your collection, alongside the Goons, the Pink Panther, Blackadder, Monty Python, Spitting Image and the collected writings of Oscar Wilde, Spike Milligan and PG Wodehouse.

Grand stuff.