Raising the Wind

I just read three dismal reviews of this film from people with no sense of humor--obviously. Raising The Wind is much more clever than many of the Carry On films or other British comedies from the classic period. Of course, as a former music student, it's possible that I identify with it more than most, but I have shown it to others who laughed as much as I did. Once to an audience of 50, but then a comedy is always better with an audience, at least if it's timing is good, as in this case. When the orchestra ran away (speeded up) as Kenneth Williams attempted to show off his dominance as a great conductor, the audience had hysterics. There was rarely a better cast than this, and the characters are appealing. It's one of those films I wish I could live in. Give it a chance.

Although largely the work of the 'Carry On' team (it was a pet project of producer Peter Rogers') it actually feels more like one of the 'Doctor' films with bluer jokes - shot like them in pretty colour - and dealing with the travails of a mature-looking bunch of students in the days when students wore jackets & ties and £4 a week seemed a steep rent. And, of course, there's the presence of James Robertson Justice and University College Hospital standing in for the London Academy of Music and the Arts instead of St.Swithin's (while Leslie Phillips later switched to the 'Doctor' series).

This is possibly the only movie on which the composer is also the author of the script, Bruce Montgomery (briefly glimpsed conducting Handel's 'Messiah' in one sequence) being the real name of the eminent crime writer Edmund Crispin whose only screenplay this was.

Not the rollicking comedy that it should have been from the legendary Carry On team but enjoyable enough to pass an hour and a half. A slight story involving classical music students from 1960, trying to win a scholarship. Hampered by the overbearing tutor, the ebullient James Robertson Justice, who else, the students get into all sorts of panic situations. Leslie Phillips, who I met to get his autograph when I was a boy and so have always had a soft spot for, is the central character here. He sparks off the ever lovely Liz Fraser and they form the pair with the most chemistry. Jennifer Jayne and Paul Massey are a bit dull as the other couple. Carry On standbys crop up regularly to inject some much needed laughs. We see David Lodge, Sid James, Lance Percival, Esma Cannon, Joan Hickson, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Eric Barker and even Jill Ireland a couple of years before she swanned off to Hollywood with Charles Bronson. I think the main let down is the rather staid classical music setting for a comedy of this type and less emphasis could have been applied to that and a bit more slapstick, would have made it a better film. Still, ok for me if only for Liz Fraser, Leslie Phillips and Sid James. Oh and Esma Cannon as a really funny deaf landlady.

Take the series formula for DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE (including James Robertson Justice as the tyrannical authority, of course), change the setting from a hospital to a music school and swap out director Ralph Thomas for his little brother Gerald and you have this movie, an amusing if formulaic comedy.

Gerald Thomas was best known for directing three billion CARRY ON movies and TV episodes, and there are a couple of differences in the handling of the movie. In the DOCTOR movies, there was a central character, originally played by Dirk Bogarde. This movie is far more an ensemble affair, and the director uses several of his CARRY ON regulars to good effect. Eric Barker is particularly amusing as a vague composition teacher who tells Paul Massie to take up golf so they can have something to talk about during lessons.

The actors playing students seem a little long in the tooth for students, but like all good comedies, it's more about the performances than making sure people look exactly like their characters should (although putting glasses on Liz Fraser to make her look more intellectual than her usual dizzy blonde character is a reasonable effort). All in all, Thomas directs a movie that is nicely placed in tone between the two popular series.

Peter Rogers produces, Gerald Thomas directs, it's got Sid James and Kenneth Williams in it, but it's not a Carry On.

It's got James Robertson Justice as the irascible professor who disguises his real opinions of his students by being offensive.

So it's a Doctor In The House movie, except that it's set in a music college (which happens to look immensely like University College London on the outside, and which has a dead ringer for the Conway Hall as its main theatre).

JRJ is fun to watch, but this is very drab fare indeed.