Bless This House

Bless this house i think is a very funny movie i have ever seen. It's a classic 1970's movie. As well as Till Death do us part, Raising Damp, and all the other classic comedy movies, Bless this house i think is the best because it has the fantastic actor Sid james who i think is a fantastic, one of the best comedian actors. Sid James is best known to star in the carry on movies as well as Terry Scott. This movie was made in 1972. The movie is about where a family have new neighbours next door. They do allsorts to the house, wreck it and get the whole place re-done, The Son from One Family and the Daughter from the new neighbours family fall in love together. And eventually get married in the end. It is a classic movie and it's worth buying and watching. I give Bless this house 10 out of 10 because it is very funny.

From what I have seen of the TV series, it is a very enjoyable one that is funny and relaxing to watch. This spin off movie is not too bad, but it is nothing exceptional.

The good things: It is nicely filmed, the cinematography is very nice and the scenery lush, and the music is beautiful, it has a nice whimsical feel to it. The costumes are also nice to look at, by today's standards perhaps the fashion may be outdated and perhaps naff but in a glorious way. The best thing though is the casting. Sidney James, who I have loved since the Carry On franchise(which I admit I still enjoy), is incomparable as Sid. He just has a warm and fun presence whenever he is on screen as the grouchy father, and it is this presence that saves the film. The remainder of the cast are good too, Sally Geeson is rather so-so in the acting department, though it was nice to see her in a bikini, but Peter Butterworth, Wendy Richard, Diana Coupland and June Whitfield are great value.

The not so good things: The film does feel a little too short, at only 85 or so minutes. If it was made 5 minutes longer, some scenes could have been expanded on. The script does have some funny exchanges such as "Has his steering gone?" "I don't know whether it is his steering, or him!", but some of the material doesn't quite make the most of the running time. The humour here is amusing but nothing quotable or side-splittingly funny, and there were times when the slapstick was a little too much.

Overall, not bad, but unexceptional. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Ostensibly "Bless This House" is a cinema spin-off from a hit television sitcom, and a rapid one at that. But it can also be treated as a continuation of the "Carry On" film series, by far the most successful comedies in British screen history.

That cycle, already over 20 years old, was near exhaustion: too many of its repertory company were looking and feeling their years to remain funny in saucily physical capers. "Bless This House" guides them into middle aged domesticity without forfeiting all the "Carry On" spirit of mischief and misrule.

Behind the camera, the producer, director and composer were "Carry On" veterans too, though screenplay duties passed from the incomparably lewd Talbot Rothwell to Dave Freeman. The TV concept is intact: Sid James, too long in the tooth to chase girls, is now a modestly prosperous semi-detached suburban salesman. His taste for football and booze is constrained by his duties to a wife who wants more independence, a disheveled art student son and a naive schoolgirl daughter. The arrival of a stuffy next-door neighbour gives Sid more headaches, but after mild pratfalls and back chat, all ends well at the altar. "Animal House" it isn't.

James, now pipe smoking and cardigan, retains the most suggestive laugh on screen. Diana Coupland, a band singer turned actress, is a nicely supportive, sometimes indignant foil. As the simian son, Robin Askwith gives his buttocks less of a rhythmical workout than in the contemporary "Confessions" films. Sally Geeson, sister of Judy, squeaks and flaps as the idealistic daughter.

A ripe selection of character comedians surrounds the family, led by Terry Scott and June Whitfield as the new neighbors. They almost make the production a spin-off of their long-running marital sitcom as well, albeit Scott's film character is more pompous.

Allusions to hippiedom, Women's Lib and ecological doom-mongering (Geeson devours an Ehrlich-like tract called "Mankind is Doomed" and leads the Junior Anti-Pollution League) place the film firmly in the glamrock Seventies, but its core is pretty timeless domestic humour. Sid looks weary and too much under the cosh of domesticity at times, but his timing and delivery are crisp as ever. The move from TV allows more expansive slapstick and quicker storytelling; the spirit of the original, which ran till James's death four years later, is preserved.

Like the "Carry Ons", these sitcom spin-offs were critically derided when released. They look far better now. "Porridge" and "Dad's Army" are the cream; as on television, "Bless This House" is not in their league, but it remains a mildly funny and endearing time killer 30 years on, like "On the Buses" and "For the Love of Ada". It seemed this domestic kind of sitcom had been banished for ever by the pseudo-sophisticates and neophilias who run British television, but the success of BBC1's "My Family" (created by an American abroad) echoes the Abbotts in their tree-lined ITV avenue.

I can't remember much about the original TV sitcom of BLESS THIS HOUSE except that it starred Sid James as a naughty man called Sid ( With the exception of Hammer's QUATERMASS 2 has there ever been anything James has appeared in where he doesn't play a character called Sid ? ) who's a very similar character he plays in all the CARRY ON movies and that the series was very popular at the time since it was broadcast after CORONATION STREET

This is a film version of the sit com and it's amazing how many successful ITV Brit coms were produced for cinema release : MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE , ON THE BUSES , LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR etc . Remembering very little about the show I don't know how it compares

Sid Abbot's son is getting married to Kate Baines the girl next door who's father works for the customs and excise , rather inconvient since Sid is brewing brandy in his garden shed .

The problem with the movie is the amount of farce and slapstick that comes into being with people having to hide under tables and getting involved in egg fights . It's all rather unsophisticated stuff and would probably have been quite dated by the time of its initial release . The early 70s fashion doesn't help either

Those where the days, they say, and Don 't we Know this, as seen in this movie, I quite liked that old Morris Minor open top car Mike said " this car has been to around the world and back" to Kate I ask myself, How did mike pull a stunner like her?? after all, Kate 's Father said, " that boy 's not all there" I also liked the plastering of the walls disaster! I also loved the custard pie flinging bit, after all, that boss started it!! I also liked Sally Abbot and I liked that poor shed, it only lasted for a short time! I would not of drunk that Brandy mind!! I also liked that Panamar Hat being shredded in that Atco Mower!! All and All Good British comedy they do not make them like that anymore!!