Up Pompeii

This silly period comedy lives or dies depending your taste for Frankie Howerd. Me, I quite like him: I love his asides to the camera, his constant exasperation, his little quips and wisecracks. Others may find his humour stale and repetitive, and they'll be in trouble because this film is the Frankie Howerd Show in all but name.

A movie version of a once popular TV series (which I never saw), UP POMPEII is a bawdy spoof of the Roman costume drama. Howerd plays Lurcio, a slave who finds himself being chased by various ne'er do wells after a mix up involving a cucumber and a scroll (no, I'm not making this up). The film is an excuse for a parade of actors to embarrass themselves or amuse the audience, depending on how much you like smutty, silly and slapstick humour, and rarely a scene goes by without a scantily clad woman in sight.

As with most British comedies of the 1970s, a lot of the fun these days comes from spotting the star. There's Bernard Bresslaw as a champion, there's Hammer starlet Julie Ege as a noblewoman. Michael Hordern is fairly good as a politician who wanders around thinking of his next speech, as is Lance Percival as the heavy constantly on Howerd's tail (oo er). Watch out for Hammer players Maddy Smith and George Woodbridge in minor roles, a bit part for Darth Vader himself, Dave Prowse, and Barbara Murray as Howerd's alluring owner.

Frankie Howerd will be forever remembered as the creator of the knowing glance. He develops a relationship with the audience that lets us know that he thinks this stuff is bad too. Somehow that allows us to forgive the corny puns, lame jokes and sexist humour. "Just bear with me," he seems to be saying, "It'll all be over soon." Somehow it all worked, and Up Pompeii managed to rise above its seventies comedy contemporaries to become a classic.

The film perhaps lacks the freshness of the TV series due to the loss of the studio audience. Howerd was able to react to them in a way that made the whole show appear to be improvised. This was of course down to his genius, as everything was very well rehearsed. Despite this it's still a very enjoyable film. My only complaint is that Hammer starlet Madeline Smith is not in it more!

Spin off from the 70's sitcom of the same name this film spins out the same gags over an hour and twenty minutes run time and gets away with it but only just. Frankie Howerd is again Lurcio the roman slave in ancient Pompeii getting involved in the evil machinations of the emperor Nero (Patrick Cargill) and the evil Brutus and his henchmen (Lance Percival).

If you liked the TV series you'll like this is the basic rule here, to a modern audience I doubt it would play well, Frankie Howerds routine is very much of it's time and place. But its very entertaining some of the gags are sign posted miles away but Frankie's personality, playing to the audience and comic timing are what make this entertaining.

The movie feels too much like a stretched out episode to be a classic like many TV shows spun off into movies in the 70's (On the Buses, Rising Damp, Porridge etc.) but its certainly worth a look for Up Pompei or Frankie Howerd fans.

Mostly funny, occasionally hilarious 7/10

This film is rubbish! I know - I've seen it 23 times! Perhaps you need to be British even to understand it. Just reading the names of the characters makes me smile.

The film has its origin in a British TV Series and was certainly much better in 30 minute chunks but, at least when they made the film, they took the effort to come up with a plot, puerile though it is. The cast is pretty well unchanged from the TV Series too.

Frankie Howerd (Lurcio) based his whole theatrical career on dodgy double intendres and this film is full of them. His habit of making asides directly to the audience via the camera is hilarious. In fact, most of the comedy lies in those two attributes. The visual side of the film, the physical comedy, is more or less one long chase scene with breaks and is not really that funny.

There are some very funny scenes though. The orgy and its aftermath and the wrestling match stand out. The ending is very clever too.

Worth a watch and far better than the two sequels it spawned, 'Up The Chastity Belt' and 'Up The Front'.

Frankie Howerd is a genius. This wonderful film is an unrealistic story of what might have happened in AD 79. A slave, Lurcio, accidentally picks up a scroll naming conspirators, and much British fun follows. This film has little storyline, and is not particularly funny, but it is worth watching for the theme song and Lance Percival's Roman General.