Dry Rot

Another attempt to translate a popular stage farce to the screen runs into a familiar problem. Getting the long central section in the boarding house to work, particularly the business with the horse behind the sliding panel, would require much more adroit direction and editing. The comedy in this part is not allowed to flow, dissipating amusing performances from veterans Joan Haythorne and Michael Shepley. Brian Rix is not seen at his best and his one-note, relentlessly gormless character soon becomes tiresome, though Sid James can't fail to raise a few chuckles. But it's quite a likeable British comedy of its day and the final slapstick chase sequence with Peggy Mount at her most terrifying ends the proceedings with a bang.

The storyline revolves around a highly dubious betting scam in horse racing. Enter, Ronald Shiner, playing a bookie, who I was never keen on, because in this film, like so many of his film roles, he is constantly shouting and grinning. His presence on the screen simply grates - and as for Brian Rix, here is once again playing the gormless 'village idiot' character, which is enough to send audiences running to the exit door, long before the film has finished. 'Dry Rot' was a 'popular' farce that ran for many years at the Whitehall Theatre in London, however, it's transfer to the big screen, failed miserably as the dialogue was excruciatingly bad and the slapstick antics were simply cringeworthy. Sid James gives some mild relief in his usual role as a 'dodgy' spiv type character, but even his comedic acting skills can't save this film from being a total dud. 'Dry Rot,' even when it was released in 1961, looked dated, and sadly with the passage of time, it can only be considered a tedious museum piece.

My sense of humour must have changed quite a radically since I was 9 years old when I first saw this farce on stage at the Whitehall theater with my late parents with (if I can remember back 56 years ago), Leo Franklin in the part of Sid James.Yes, Brian Rix was in the cast and yes he lost his trousers in good old farce style.In fact I cannot think of Brian Rix in another dramatic role when il ne perdu pas ses pantalons!So After 55 years I bought this film out of curiosity to find out whether I would find any humour still existing in 2011.The answer was only mild echoes from my youth.We had very primitive humour before they were sharpened on Monty Python, Blackadder, satire and modern fearless stand up comedy from the likes of Ben Elton, Bernard Manning et all.

What I did find of interest was seeing Lee Paterson whose most famous role was as Group Capt.Turner, the Canadian fighter pilot from the film "Reach for the Sky" (1956) starring Kenneth More and Heather Sears as "Susan" in "Room at the Top" starring Lawrence Harvey.Sid was Sid James and Ronald Shiner played his usual ignorant cockney role.

Obviously the film has outside location scenes not possible in a theatre production especially shots of Sandown Park racecourse.Had I written this review when I was 9, I would have scored it 8/10 but now alas, I rated it only 5/10 as the humour seemed very primitive to my aging eyes.

I never intentionally went to see a Brian Fix film in the cinema,however I did go to see Ronnie Shiners films.For some reason I found him funny.In this film neither is funny.Did James played a bookie,now there's typecasting.Lee Paterson played a romantic lead and Michael Shelley played the sort of part he had played for all his career.Not so much dry as dull rot.

Three not-too-bright bookies -- Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix and Sidney James -- decide to fix a race. They get a terrible horse and set it up to be a long shot, to bring in the punters, and lose. While waiting for the race, they set up in a house run by Michael Sheply and Joan Haythorne. The house is falling apart with dry rot, and supplied with many secret passages, as well as young lovers, a maid-of-all-work played by Joan Sims, and French farceur Christian Duvaleix, with frequent visits by policewoman Peggy Mount.

Director Maurice Elvey is completely out of his depth. I regret to say this, because I am fond of a lot of his work, but there are too many experts in farce pulling in all sorts of directions -- not to mention the horse, who pops up at the most inconvenient moment. For farce to work well, it has to run like clockwork, with a plot that seems to run out of control, until the finale, when everything comes together. That doesn't happen here. Instead, there are dangling plots -- we abandon the young lovers at the racetrack -- for a chaotic chase by the police of the three bookies atop a ladder on a firewagon driven by Duvaleix. The story falls apart in the need for yet one more laugh. It's a pity for such a talented cast and crew.