A Touch of the Sun

Frankie Howerd can only play one character, the one we see all the time. He was OK in this but his performance would not have had casting directors rushing to sign him up for other films. The plot was OK, the inherited £10,000 being about £312,000 in 2023, that's inflation for you. Farces were all the rage at one time, in films and on stage, but they are just about dead now. All of Frankie's stand up routines were written by Eric Sykes but he is not alone in being a successful stand-up comedian only due to the writing skills of others. It's worth watching for curiosity and historical value only.

I found it a grim experience to sit through this joyless & humourless second feature B film. It looks and feels like that this film was made on the cheap. Even the holiday scenes in the South of France, which could have offered glamour and romance, were dull and uninspiring. After only half an hour, I realised that I would have to grit me teeth as I found the dialogue puerile and Frankie Howerd's voice and facial expressions particularly tedious. The storyline is weak and totally unconvincing. Characters came in and out of the story without rhyme or reason. Dennis Price, a wonderful character actor, is wasted in this film, as he has too little time on the screen. The film was meant to be a showcase for Frankie Howerd, cast as a hall porter, but it sadly revealed that although he was a great stand up comedian, acting was his 'Achilles Heel.' The fact that Howerd dominates most of the scenes is unfortunate as I became quickly irritated at his one note and lack lustre performance. After watching this film, it was clear that Frankie Howerd was out of his depth as a comedy film star.

A surprisingly low key (for him!) performance from Frankie Howerd as a hotel concierge. He longs for the quiet life on the French Riviera and when he inherits some money off he goes.

However, despite his best efforts, he can't get any rest and decides to go back to the hotel. He then has to save the hotel from closing by persuading three "ey up, reet grand" northern businessmen to invest in the hotel. Of course he succeeds and gets the girl.

A cheerful British comedy helped along with able support from, Denis Price, Gordon Harker, Richard Wattis, Alfie Bas and Colin Gordon. Just enough laughs to cheer you up on a wet weekend!

An ambitious but fascinatingly shambolic attempt at a big screen vehicle for Frankie Howerd (that morphs into a rehash of 'The Happiest Days of Your Lives') that simply ensured that he henceforth concentrated on cabaret and TV.

The sleazy North Country financial backers played by Alfie Bass (who is hardly inside the door before he promptly propositions receptionist Dorothy Bromley with the smooth chat up line "Give us a kiss love!!") and Reginald Beckwith (who gets so drunk he propositions a dragged-up Howerd) demonstrated over sixty years before the Harvey Weinstein scandal that this sort of thing had been going on since the days of Herod.

Frank Howerd is the hall porter -- we'd say desk manager or concierge -- of the Royal Connaught Hotel in London, where he eccentrically and charmingly manages matters for the guests. One of the guests expresses her appreciation by leaving him ten thousand pounds in her will. He quits and moves to the south of France, where he's perfectly miserable. He returns to London, but the hotel has closed without his help. So he buys it and tries to get some Manchester investors to put money in the place. However...

It's a style of comedy that does not appeal to me. Howerd's performance seems more calculated than wild, and the big set-piece that makes up the final third seems rote. There's some talent on display; Dennis Price plays the hotel manager in a role that looks like a day's shooting, and Gordon Harker is present without much to do as the elevator operator. Clearly intended as a vehicle for Howerd, the movie will have its charms for his fans; however its structure seems more like a poorly outlined farce than anything else.