Inn for Trouble

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.

Preserving for posterity the cast of 'The Larkins' supported by the likes of Will Hay's fat boy and the Vicar in 'Dad's Army', you know what to expect when our heroes first arrive and the yokel they ask for directions is played by Stanley Unwin.

'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.

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.

Inn For Trouble certainly isn't a grand piece of cinematic history and there's few who would consider it a classic but it is pleasant enough to enjoy, to partially fill a lazy afternoon and at less than an hour and a half long Inn For Trouble never outstays it's welcome. The film (the title is a pun and perhaps a warning, you're inn for trouble if you mess with mamma) is based on a television series (never an indication of excellence) called The Larkins and follows the family as they move away from their suburban home to run a country pub known as Ye Earl Osbourne on behalf of Belchers Brewery. Sounds simple enough, this being comedy however, things don't exactly run smoothly for the big mouthed mother and her clan. The Larkins find their pub has no punters, the only remaining staff are either grumpy (Charles Hawtrey) or distracting (Yvonne Monlaur), the local copper is t-total (doesn't drink alcohol) and despite being located between two major roads there is no passing trade, add a drinking competition and an undercover Earl and there you have the plot of the film that is better suited to those of the decade just ending than to those of the one just starting, the final 'knees up mother brown' scene cementing this as a cockney film from days gone by.

Peggy Mount the family matriarch portrays her character Ada Larkin with her usual trademark style of dominating gusto, that would of had her punters running for cover should they have had any. David Kossoff is decent enough in his role of the hen pecked husband Alf Larkin whose beloved beer is disliked by the locals and the remaining family members are passably performed by Ronan O'Casey as the son in law whose wife is holidaying in Canada and by Shaun O'Riordan the scoutmaster son who would rather sleep in a tent than at the pub.

Charles Hawtrey billed as special guest has a throw away role appearing in only a handful of scenes as the grumpy employee Silas Withering, his attitude is never really explained despite later in the film exclaiming that the new landlords are working him to hard, so perhaps he prefers the quite life and plots to send the Larkins packing back to the city.

Character actresses Irene Handl and Esma Cannon appear in just one scene gossiping in the local village shop but have some important information to tell Mrs Larkin, while Leslie Phillips portrays the owner of the Belchers Brewery and is featured at both the beginning and the end of the film.

Overall I would rate Inn For Trouble 7/10 it's a pleasing film with some enjoyable characters and has a gentle comedic tone but it never sizzles with fun and excitement, never really has you laughing out loud and yes probably isn't to memorable either, explaining it's widely unknown status today, a shame but perhaps not a big surprise.