Inn for Trouble

Twenty-five years working for Belcher's brewery has seen Pa Larkin work his way up to manager of the labelling department. Though, due to tradition, he is about to be offered the chance to run a Public House of his own. However, there's only one pub available at this time... and nobody drinks in it. Resolving to make it a success, Pa packs up his family and moves out to the countryside.

This is one clever little film, filled with great characters and a decent storyline, which unfolds at a steady pace to the climax. You find out the reason for the villager's disinterest in the pub and why a rival brewery is so keen to purchase the money pit of an inn.

Though it's Peggy Mount as the irascible Ma Larkin who steals the show, the rest of the cast do well with their portrayals. Ronan O'Casey as the Canadian Jeff Rodgers does a brilliant drunk in the drinking game. Leslie Phillips adds a touch of class and poshness as Brewery owner John Belcher. And Gerald Campion as the stoic and straight-faced George, who doesn't even break into a smile when he's happy. It's these little things and more which makes this an enjoyable movie to watch.

If you have a Sunday afternoon free, after enjoying a hearty dinner, you couldn't do much better than putting your feet up and giving this flick a watch. It's a nice lighthearted way to let your food settle - especially if you have a pint of the old amber nectar to hand.

After twenty years of working for Leslie Phillips' brewery, a tied house has come up empty. By company tradition, managers with enough seniority get the house to run, and it's David Kossoff's turn. So he packs up the family and goes to deal with local coppers, local competitors and a community that has no taste for the national brew when a local baronet produces an excellent beer and gives it away even three months.

It's an attempt to transfer the TV success of THE LARKINS, an ITV show that ran from 1958 through 1964, to the big screen. As is usual with this sort of transfer, the main cast is put in a new situation, and it is hoped that the fans of the TV show will come out to see it on a big screen. Since I don't know the show, I found, for example, Peggy Mount as Kossoff's henpecking, never-listen-to-anyone wife more annoying than amusing, and stretching out a 30-minute episode to almost 90 can't have helped much. clearly, like other movies of its type -- I recall the 1960s BATMAN, MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E, and MCHALE'S NAVY theatrical releases, and they weren't very good. For this one, not only was there the issue of translation from one medium to another, but its moment has passed.

This was a spinoff from the popular ITV show The Larkins which ran from 1958 till 1964,so it was popular.There was a sister in the series who was replaced by Yvonne Monlar as a French barmaid.Lots of familiar tv faces of the time.Gerald Campion who was Billy Bunter, Willoughby Goddard and Alan Wheatley,both in Robin Hood.Graham Moffat appears in his penultimate film.He had a brief walk on in 80000 Suspects.Otherwise not a particularly funny or memorable film.

The Larkins are made managers of a country pub and get caught in the middle of several messes, including a local squire who makes his own beer and a new road that may be passing by the front door. As it is, there's no business. The pub is in the middle of nowhere and a local squire makes a beer far superior to the Belcher brand they must sell.

Peggy Mount and David Kossoff star as the Larkins, a spin-off from a popular TV series of the day. They arrive in the country with a a dopey son (Shaun O'Riordan) and a Canadian relative (Roman O'Casey). The local squire (Glyn Owen) is involved with their only paying guest, a French artist (Yvonne Monlaur) while Silas (Charles Hawtrey) lurks about, trying to make them fail.

Not quite as zany as it could have been, but there are a few good laughs and Peggy Mount is always a joy to watch. Lots of familiar faces include Leslie Phillips as Belcher, Graham Moffatt, as Jumbo, Irene Handl as the post mistress, Esma Cannon as a local gossip, Alan Wheatley as the business rival, Willoughby Goddard as the constable, Betty Mitchell as the London neighbor, Gerald Campion as the scout, and A.E. Matthews as the aged hunter.

Worth a look.

'Inn For Trouble' is a classic British comedy, with some great cast members, a good plot and loads of laughs, which score full pints with this viewer. Like many films from this period, half the pleasure lies in viewing a vanished world that never existed. Alan Wheatley reprises his role as the Sheriff of Nottingham (1950's TV Adventures of Robin Hood series) but in a suit; Leslie Phillips is the suave brewery owner; Charles Hawtrey is as mad as ever and there are bit parts from such greats as Irene Handl, Esme Cannon and Stanley Unwin. Immortals all! Anyone who doesn't like this film obviously has no sense of humour and has probably only watched it because it was part of a media studies course.