Keep It Clean

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Keep It Clean
"Keep It Clean" (1956).jpg
Original British trade ad
Directed by David Paltenghi
Screenplay byCarl Nystrom
R. F. Delderfield
Produced by Maxwell Setton
John R. Sloan
Starring Ronald Shiner
Cinematography Wilkie Cooper
Bernard Lewis (camera operator)
Edited byJohn Pomeroy
Music by Bruce Montgomery
Production
company
A Setton-Sloan Production
Distributed by Eros Films (UK)
Release date
  • 1 May 1956 (1956-05-01)(UK)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Keep It Clean is a 1956 British black-and-white comedy film directed by David Paltenghi and starring Ronald Shiner and Joan Sims. [1]

Contents

Plot

Advertising agent Bert Lane plans to market his brother-in-law Peter's new miracle cleaning machine. However, Bert's boss Mr. Bouncenboy wants him to advertise Mrs Anstey's famous crumpets, but Bert's cheesecake advertising slogans incur the wrath of Mrs Anstey and her Purity League, as well as that of his boss.

Cast

Reception

Box office

The film was a commercial disappointment. [2]

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "A dispiritingly unfunny farce, which lacks surprise in its story, timing in its slapstick and humorous appeal in its players. Several competent performers are embarrassingly and unhappily involved in the affair." [3]

Kine Weekly said "The picture takes a crack at Mrs. Grundy, a henpecked window cleaner, members of the aristocracy and non-stop striptease variety shows, but does not always hit its mark. What's more, some of its quips are crude, but by and large the fun is reasonably clean, if not clever. Ronald Shiner, who always enjoys his own jokes, never lets up as Bert, Jean Cadell is shrewdly cast as the austere Mrs. Anstey, and the others make eager stooges." [4]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Shiner floundering outside auspices of big studios, time-honoured slapstick situations litter unfunny comedy." [5]

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References

  1. ↑ "Keep It Clean". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  2. ↑ Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference. Oxford University Press. pp. 178–180. ISBN   978-0-19-815934-6.
  3. ↑ "Keep It Clean". Monthly Film Bulletin . 23 (264): 77. 1956 – via ProQuest.
  4. ↑ "Keep It Clean". Kine Weekly . 469 (2542): 99. 3 May 1956 – via ProQuest.
  5. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 332. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.


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