Helter Skelter

This film is clearly a spoof of radio stars of the era.Many of the actual stars appear sending themselves up.If you look at the full cast list you will see the large number of uncredited cameos.Carroll Marsh plays a rich woman who falls in love with radio detective David Tomlinson,but gets a bout of hiccups.All sorts of tricks are used to try and cure her.All are truly crazy.Jimmy Edwards plays a Doctor and Harry Secombe his nurse when they Carol a silent film.It does make you wonder if Spike Milligan was inspired by this film since so much of the humour of this very funny film bears a great similarity to the Goons.I Also there is Richard Hearne in a variety of guises.There are just so many laugh out loud moments.

I picked up this unusual DVD, very, very cheap at Deptford market which I thought I would give it a look because I used to like Jimmy Edwards when I was very young and I also noticed that it was written by Patrick Campbell I also thought I liked. It turns out of course that Campbell, back in the day, he had a serious speech impediment and nevertheless delighted TV audiences then. In this film we have the lovely Carol Marsh and here had a bad case of hiccups and that was more or less the story although I noticed that she had been in Brighton Rock (1948) and later Horror of Dracula (1958). Unfortunately I didn't find Jimmy Edwards so wonderful but most of the other comedians were astonishing and Ralph Thomas was really good getting this in and around with some intelligent and brilliant situations. Later on he would direct the 'Doctor' films and some of the early 'Carry on' ones as well. Of course it is the funny men really in this one as, Jon Pertwee, Terry-Thomas (astonishing), Wilfred Hyde-White (someone has fun with his name having a turn as Dr Jekyll and Hyde!), Michael Medwin, Harry Secombe (splendid and before his rather fat days) and Richard Wattis. Great and very funny and especially creative like the silent film joke and the people having fun with the radio and people could not be seen. I even found that Naunton Wayne was uncredited in this and I'd see him just last night with Obsession the same year.

I saw this film many many years ago on television with my parents. As a child I used to watch Richard Hearne as Mr Pastry in his comedy shows on television and quite liked those.

So I was intrigued by this film when it was shown to see what it would be like. The omens were quite promising, it was written by Patrick Campbell who I knew from the many times he was a captain on Call My Bluff (the other captain was Frank Muir and it was hosted by Robert Robertson). It was directed by Ralph Thomas who directed many popular British films of the 50s and 60s (Campbell's Kingdom and some of the Doctor films), It starred David Tomlinson (best known for the father in Mary Poppins).

I think the film was supposed to be a comedy, about the efforts made to try and stop a girl from hiccupping.

I and my parents found the film to be completely unfunny and we did not even manage a smile at any time. It was so bad that I have never forgotten this film and have no hesitation in saying that, of the many thousands of films I have seen, this stands out as the worst film of all.

I see that a DVD of this film is due to be released in April in the UK. I will not be buying a copy.

A mad cap comedy with many stars taking very small parts. The story line is pretty weak but the fast pace and non stop incidents makes this a very entertaining film and the time goes quickly.

This film is periodically repeated on Australia's ABC and each time I watch it I am struck by how far ahead of its time it was. Sure, it's black and white, but the jokes are funny and the story actually takes advantage of tricks one can do with film which hadn't been possible with theatre.

The story centres around heiress Susan Graham (played by Carol Marsh) and her quest to rid herself of the hiccups. She is alternately aided and hindered in her quest by two guardian uncles (each of whom has a son who they hope will marry Susan), 'heroic' radio man Nick Martin (David Tomlinson) who in fact is brow-beaten by his domineering mother Mrs Martin (Judith Furse), but the film also segues into little comic vignettes.

Look quickly and you'll see Wilfred Hyde-White (of "My Fair Lady" fame) playing Dr Jekyll, Harry Secombe, Terry-Thomas, Mervyn Johns, Glynis Johns and many other notables of the time.

All in all, Helter Skelter is good clean fun and well worth watching at least once.