Rires au paradis

This is a most excellent example of the comic talents of Alistair Sim. His bungling attempts to get himself arrested had me in stitches. Particularly trying to get the store detective, or indeed anyone, to notice he was trying his hand at shoplifting. And of course finding a crime that would only get him the 30 days in jail as stipulated in the will.

As someone else has mentioned he did have all the best lines, but the remainder of the cast did a great job, the mild mannered clerk who had to rob the bank where he worked, the overbearing snob who had to be a maid, the womaniser who had to marry the first woman he spoke to, all made for the usual mix of farce and comedy.

It was also notable for an early appearance of Audrey Hepburn as the cigarette girl.

One would be hard-pressed not to laugh along with the Russell family in the final scene of this, my most favorite of British post-war comedies. It is a comedy in every sense, albeit one which points up several life lessons as it unfolds. Alistair Sim - whose roles have run the gamut from Headmistress of a girls' public school (the St. Trinian's series)to benign assassin (The Green Man) to the dramatic (the quintessential Scrooge in A Christmas Carol) once again proves here that he is without doubt the best of many comic actors in the English cinema. Surrounded by a cast of equal talents (Fay Compton, George Cole, Guy Middleton, A.E. Matthews, John Laurie, and the irrepressible Joyce Grenfell) Sim leads a Light Cavalry charge through a wonderfully woven plot. There are wonderful morals to be learned here also. If you haven't seen this gem, by all means get the video and fill that gaping void in your filmic experiences.

This is such a funny film! It's a clever plot which owes more than something to the old "warhorse" Brewster's Millions, and is filled with the eccentric lunacy which characterised so many British films made after WW2.

Alistair Sim is THE truly great British comic actor, even more so than Alec Guinness or Peter Sellers. To watch the scene when he tries to get arrested for shoplifting in the department store is to experience sheer comic inspiration.

I am no fan of remakes (have you seen the Thomas Crown remake!!), but funnily enough I am amazed that Hollywood hasn't had a go at this. In the right hands it could be made to work again.

When the film begins, an elderly man is dying...and he commits a prank on his way out of this world. But it's not his final prank...that comes in his will. When it's read to his four relatives, they're each told they'd receive 50,000 pounds...provided each do something odd and specifically tailored to them. His haughty sister is told that in order to collect, she must become a domestic and serve as one for a year. His cousin, the writer, must act out his dime novels...and get himself incarcerated for 28 days. His meek relative must hold up a bank with a fake gun...and his playboy cousin must marry the first woman with which he strikes up a conversation! And, all of these must be completed without telling anyone why they are doing it!

What made this one especially good is that, for the most part, the folks all learned a positive lesson from all this and there were also a few laughs along the way. Worth seeing and clever.

A nice sly comedy that has similarities to Brewsters Millions. When Henry Russell (Hugh Griffiths) dies, known during his lifetime as a practical joker, he sets his beneficiaries a task that they must achieve before they can gain a share of their inheritance of £50,000. The tasks are related to some character weakness.

Alastair Sim who writes thrashy crime stories, long term engaged to Joyce Grenfell has to get himself arrested and spend 28 days in jail. George Cole a hapless and bullied bank clerk as to stick up the bank that he works for.

Fay Compton has to work as a maid to the curmudgeonly John Laurie without getting fired. The caddish Guy Middleton has to marry the first single woman he meets.

Sim and Cole have the funniest escapades, Middleton passes over a young Audrey Hepburn to pursue the second eligible woman he encounters. The characters discover something about themselves while pursuing their tasks, it is a nice bit of light whimsy.