Reply With QuoteI wish more care was taken by subs to spell Morecambe correctly!
They're great on TV. But when British comedians get to make feature films, they generally make turkeys. Even a genius like Peter Cook was not spared, says William Cook
Saturday June 30, 2007
The Guardian
The timing could hardly be better. In the week that Tony Blair steps down, after 10 years in 10 Downing Street, the film that foresaw his PR-friendly style of government is finally released on DVD. The story of a slick and soulless spin doctor who becomes the people's prime minister, The Rise & Rise Of Michael Rimmer is a cinematic rarity - an intelligent and thought-provoking satire. Maybe that's why it's such a spectacular turkey.
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Every movie anorak has their favourite turkey. The Rise & Rise Of Michael Rimmer is mine. Anyone can make a bad film (and a lot of bad film-makers have succeeded) but to make a turkey requires talent and finesse. A true turkey is a heroic failure, a film that almost achieves greatness, only to falter at the final hurdle and topple over into farce. Turkeys don't just damage reputations - they destroy them - yet history is often kind to them. Unlike mediocre films, they usually improve with age. The Rise & Rise Of Michael Rimmer is a perfect example of this genre. Like all prize turkeys, it had all the ingredients of a great movie, including the participation of one of Britain's greatest comedians, Peter Cook.
By common consent, Peter Cook was one of the funniest men who ever lived - the driving force behind Beyond The Fringe, the saviour of Private Eye, and the best half of Britain's best double act, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Ever since Cook became a star, at the beginning of the 1960s, film producers had been queuing up to offer him leading roles, but none of them had succeeded in capturing his strange wit. He was touted as the next Cary Grant. And then along came Michael Rimmer, and Cook's film career imploded.
Watching Michael Rimmer today, what's most astonishing is its extraordinary powers of prophecy. Admittedly, the specifics of the story were pure fantasy (to the best of my knowledge, no British MP has ever murdered the Prime Minister by pushing him off a North Sea oil rig) but the generalities were spot on. Devised by David Frost, and written by Cook, John Cleese and Graham Chapman, Rimmer anticipated the absurdity of "interactive" politics, and the inevitable triumph of style over substance as politicians learnt to control TV. In another uncanny premonition of modern politics, any policy differences between Labour and the Conservatives are virtually non-existent. Rimmer's party allegiances are irrelevant. His only real interest is power.
With appearances by bright young things like Cleese and Chapman, plus old troopers like Arthur Lowe and Denholm Elliott, The Rise & Rise Of Michael Rimmer could hardly have had a better pedigree. It even boasted a cameo by Harold Pinter. So where did it all go wrong? Well, delaying its release until after the general election hardly helped. Rimmer successfully predicted the Tories' surprise victory in 1970, but although the film was ready for release in 1969, the studio postponed it for a year, lest it became a source of controversy during the election campaign. As the late Harry Thompson put it, in his fine biography of Cook, "the whole point of the film was to predict the course of the election, but studio heads have often been and often will be morons." But the main problem was Rimmer, played by Peter Cook.
In The Rise & Rise Of Michael Rimmer, Cook's acting was as wooden as a flat-pack wardrobe, as he subsequently admitted in a typically self-effacing interview. "I was suffering from Cook's disease, which involves that terrible glassy-eyed look," he confessed. "I belong to the school of acting which consists of doing nothing in particular. The variety of my expressions between shock, joy and terror are very hard to define." Cook was funny when he was sending himself up, but he had no opportunity to do so in this car crash of a movie. As with a car crash it's hard to avert your gaze.
As John Cleese pointed out, Cook was never a very good actor. He was great at playing comic archetypes, from upper-class twits to working-class misfits. This was perfect for short sketches, but when he was required to portray real emotion he quickly came unstuck. Cook sleepwalks through this film like a man in a hypnotic trance. His acting is so stilted that it goes beyond bad and almost comes out the other end as modern art - almost, but not quite.
Cook's film career never recovered. He got one more shot at a leading role, playing Sherlock Holmes in a remake of The Hound Of The Baskervilles, with Dudley Moore as Dr Watson. It sounded like a great idea, but the result was even worse than Michael Rimmer. Barry Took described it as one of the worst films ever made. Yet while Cook sank into a succession of humdrum cameos in humdrum movies, Moore - a lovable buffoon with a fraction of Cook's comic talent - became a huge Hollywood star in Arthur and 10.
If Peter Cook was the only great comic who ever made an awful movie, then The Rise & Rise Of Michael Rimmer would be just another footnote in the piss-poor history of British cinema. However Cook's failure to master the big screen isn't the exception - it's the rule. Generally, the better the comic, the worse their movies. Have you ever seen any of Tony Hancock's films? Or Eric Morecambe's? Lenny Henry is a superb stand-up, character comic and mimic. True to form, his movie, True Identity, is gobsmackingly bad. "I made a Hollywood film which we won't mention," he told Clive Anderson, "currently in the bargain bin of your local video shop."
The easy answer to this conundrum is that comedians are lost without a live audience, yet Americans don't seem to suffer from the same malaise. From Bob Hope to Woody Allen, US comics have always found it easy to make the jump from stand-up to cinema. Even Richard Pryor made a few decent films. No, the real reason why British comics make such bad movies is that the British sense of humour is all about refusing to take ourselves seriously. And in the end, movie-making is bound to be a serious business. There's simply too much money involved for it to be anything else. It's no coincidence that the few British comics who've conquered Hollywood have done it playing foreigners (like Peter Sellers, or Sacha Baron Cohen with Borat) or idiots (like Stan Laurel, or Rowan Atkinson with Mr Bean). If we play ourselves Hollywood doesn't get the joke, and when we make our own films the humour usually still falls flat. Like Peter Cook, Britain's best comics are destined to be heroic failures.
The Punch and Judy Man
Tony Hancock
Hancock could be wonderfully funny - but only when Ray Galton and Alan Simpson wrote the scripts. In The Punch & Judy Man he stars in a melancholy paean to the English seaside. The result is one of the most depressing movies ever made. Hancock committed suicide five years later. His diehard devotees insist the film is a masterpiece, but even Hancock's biggest fans admit that this glum film is awfully short of laughs.
True Identity
Lenny Henry
Henry plays an African-American actor who whites up as an Italian American to escape the Mob (and ends up looking a lot like Jackie Mason) in a movie that makes Ebony & Ivory sound like a protest song. "I've learnt some really important lessons from the stuff we've been going through," he says. "There's black, there's white and there's meaningful shades of grey." Er, yes, Lenny. Warning: this film contains Shakespearean soliloquys.
The Magnificent Two
Morecombe & Wise
The terrible two, more like. Eric and Ernie play a pair of travelling salesmen who arrive in a Latin American dictatorship in the middle of a bloodthirsty civil war. Part slapstick, part shoot 'em up, like Woody Allen's Bananas - but with far fewer punchlines. "If we had Neil Simon writing for us and Billy Wilder directing, I know we could be international stars," said Eric, plaintively. Sadly, Simon and Wilder never took the bait. Released in Canada as What Happened At Campo Grande. What indeed?
· The Rise & Rise Of Michael Rimmer is out now on DVD
I wish more care was taken by subs to spell Morecambe correctly!
In the Grauniad?name='clitheroekid']I wish more care was taken by subs to spell Morecambe correctly!
It's (in)famous for its spelling errors
Steve
name='DB7']
Moore - a lovable buffoon with a fraction of Cook's comic talent ...
Richard Ingrams said in a fairly recent interview that he found Moore the funnier of the two. I'd tend to agree with that. Inspite of Cook's brilliance of imagination, Moore was the better comic performer and his musical pastiches were sublime. Of course I love them both!
...When Diana Dors Ruled the Earth!
Ted
I partially agree about "The Punch and Judy Man". But I prefer to view it as a period piece - a supreme representation of the decline of the British seaside resort in the realism of the hard-as-nails 1960s after those halcyon days of the gloriously naiive 1950s. I thought Hancock was wonderfully in character; John LeMesurier woefully miscast and Ronnie Fraser a bit shallow on tyranny.
Hancock's "The Rebel" was a much better film but still fell somewhat short of the mark.
Hancock was, above all, a radio comedian whose brilliant sense of bathos and timing he skillfully managed to imbue within the imagination of his audience - the generating of such imaginary images being possible only in a radio setting. For this reason many of his TV shows were a little lacking despite being written by Galton and Simpson.
I agree totally. Hancock was one of the radio show I grew up listening to. We even had some records of some of his shows. The pictures painted were superb, thanks to the brilliant writing and acting.name='NappieB']Hancock was, above all, a radio comedian whose brilliant sense of bathos and timing he skillfully managed to imbue within the imagination of his audience - the generating of such imaginary images being possible only in a radio setting. For this reason many of his TV shows were a little lacking despite being written by Galton and Simpson.
Steve
Benny Hill in The Italian Job....CREEPY!!!
name='NappieB']
Hancock's "The Rebel" was a much better film but still fell somewhat short of the mark.
There's something quite prophetic about The Rebel, the storyline may appear fanciful nut this is the age in which Tracey Emin' unmade bed and Hirst's pickled shark are iconic. I keep waiting for a Turner nominee to admit they're just having it a bit of a laugh.
Im not ashamed to say that i think 'The hound of the baskervilles' with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore is very funny,i must have seen it ten times and i still laugh.Go on someone rip me to bits....
name='vanburen']Im not ashamed to say that i think 'The hound of the baskervilles' with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore is very funny,i must have seen it ten times and i still laugh.Go on someone rip me to bits....
One Leg Too Few will always be funny, but the rest of the film is an unadulterated mess.
They're far better in misfiring comedies like The Wrong Box or Monte Carlo or Bust.
name='vanburen']Im not ashamed to say that i think 'The hound of the baskervilles' with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore is very funny,i must have seen it ten times and i still laugh.Go on someone rip me to bits....
I've never seen this film, so I can't comment, but it's really all down to people having different taste, sense of humour. There's nothing wrong in that. My guilty pleasure is Sailor Beware with Peggy Mount!
I think the late Bob Munkhouse is the most unfunny person ever to be seen on film and tv sorry to be neg ative of the late man but sorry he never ever made crack my face the most funny comic by a long way was Tommy Cooper never to be replaced.
name='paul mcCormack']I think the late Bob Munkhouse is the most unfunny person ever to be seen on film and tv sorry to be neg ative of the late man but sorry he never ever made crack my face the most funny comic by a long way was Tommy Cooper never to be replaced.
Each to their own!
We all have different tastes and many of the most popular comedians do absolutely nothing to me - but the only ones I'd name are those who I find truly obnoxious like the late and completely unlamented [by me] Manning.
I liked Bob Monkhouse but he never made me laugh. I was taken to see Cannon and Ball as a child in Great Yarmouth by my parents. It should have been on the list of reasons to be taken into care. I saw the Les Dennis Laughter Show as a bit like Charlie's Angels. You heard Charlie but you did not see who was speaking, you heard the laughter but you did not see who was being funny. Again I really like Les Dennis. I rcall a contestant (an ex-policeman as it goes) making a slur against punks and Les solemnly stated that he knew punks and did not think the comment was appropriate.
I think comics often do better in straight roles. ie when they are not trying to be funny! Im thinking John Cleese in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein with Kenneth Branagh, Robin Williams in 24 Hour photo, and wasn't Freddie Starr in a film with Stacey Keach, the title of which escapes me but it was a british sweeney type policier film from the 70's. There must be others? (aside from Robbie Coltrane!) Johnny Vegas with Johnny Depp?(The Libertine) Kathy Burke? very funny with Harry Enfield on TV and a powerful serious actress on the big screen. And correct me if Im wrong but didn't Kevin Spacey start his career with a stand up comedy act? And Jerry Lewis's best film is when he is playing it staright in "The King of Comedy" And didn't Ronnie Barker take a serious dramatic role in a film after he had retired from comedy?I read that he was in a film and went unnoticed because his character was so far removed from his comedy personnas. And what about Eddie Izzard? he succesfully maintains a very funny stage act but wisley keeps that separate from his serious dramatic film roles,apparently he is quite "Hot" in hollywood right now as a serious actor. I think Peter Cook should have been playing serious Bond villains or similar instead of trying to be funny on the big screen!! I think the trend these days is that if comic stage and TV performers get involved in film it is often in serious dramatic acting roles..... where they are not obliged to be funny, perhaps that is the secret of traversing from comedy stage/TV to film?... just a thought
I don't agree about Hancock in PAJM, I think though a modest film it does have many merits - also Hancock had the basis for a great screen performer - large head, big expressive eyes, full lips and narrow shoulders. The two Hancock films were not classics but I htink they wear better that many telecomedian flicks of the era.
As for M & W I long thought their movies inferior to their TV work - the movies were pre the Eddie Braben shows and I have always felt they didn't work as well in a narrative structure. However 'That Riviera Touch' has been a perenial on Freeview lately and I actually think it quite a reasonable brit comedy flick now.
The real offenders are things like 'Boys in Blue' and 'Go to Blazes' and anything with Reg Varney in it - the mans got no charisma !
name='Windthrop']The two Hancock films were not classics but I htink they wear better that many telecomedian flicks of the era.
Windthrop - I quite agree! Although PAJM is not hilarious and far inferior to the Hancock presentations that we used to enjoy so much on the radio, the movie should not have been included on the list. There are literally hundreds of movies that were less funny and more of a disappointment!
name='Windthrop']I don't agree about Hancock in PAJM, I think though a modest film it does have many merits - also Hancock had the basis for a great screen performer - large head, big expressive eyes, full lips and narrow shoulders. The two Hancock films were not classics but I htink they wear better that many telecomedian flicks of the era.
The Rebel's one of my favourite movies, while I find that PAJM improves with each viewing. it doesn't quite work as a whole, but Hancock's on form and the great John Le M. has his best pre-Dads Army role. It's no masterpiece, but it's the kind of melancholy poetry that appeals to me.
If you look at M&W in their films and their early ATV shows then they are not that funny.So it has to be said that sometimes it comes down to the scrriptwriter.Eddie Braben was just made in heaven for M&W.
By the way i saw the Cooke and Moore version of Hound and i have to say it was the most unfunny film i have ever seen.I used to work in Heath Street in Hampstead>I was about to put the days post in the letterbox when Cooke came up asked me if he would like me to let him post my letters.Odd man.
name='christoph404']wasn't Freddie Starr in a film with Stacey Keach, the title of which escapes me but it was a british sweeney type policier film from the 70's.
The Squeeze (1977)
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