Rupert Rigsby, the middle-aged landlord of a decrepit townhouse, takes in a new tenant, art student John Harris. John is allocated the same room as medical student Philip Smith, who claims to be the son of an African chief. Rigsby has fallen for his only female tenant, Ruth Jones. Ruth, however, prefers Philip, who is much younger, more attractive, and more sophisticated than either Rigsby or she. Philip is not especially interested in Ruth and eggs Rigsby on in order to humiliate him, even going so far as to deliberately throw a boxing match against Rigby in which Ruth had agreed to go out with the winner. Rigsby's attempts to court Ruth constantly go awry; meanwhile, John earns the wrath of his girlfriend Sandra's father.
Charles Seymour, a conman with upper class affectations, courts Ruth in pursuit of her money. Though initially enamoured of his perceived social status, Rigsby becomes suspicious when Seymour consistently fails to pay his rent. Philip has the same suspicions regarding Seymour's true agenda and finally confronts him. With Rigsby eavesdropping on the conversation, Seymour threatens to expose Philip as a native Briton (rather than the African prince he has long claimed to be) if he reveals what he knows. Enraged, Rigsby appears from behind a door and unleashes a barrage of abuse on Seymour before finally throwing him out. Then calmer, Rigsby assures Philip he believes nothing of Seymour's story, and concludes that everything in Philip's demeanour suggests he is indeed descended from African royalty.
The film went into production in July 1979. In adapting Rising Damp to film, the setting was changed from Yorkshire to inner-city London. Richard Beckinsale, who appeared in the first three series of Rising Damp but was absent from the fourth due to theatre commitments, was intended to take part in the film. Beckinsale's death in March 1979 led to his character of Alan Moore being written out of the film and replaced by a new character, John Harris. The character of Alan is briefly referred to as having left Rigsby's house. The role of Seymour the conman, played by Henry McGee in an episode of the television series, was taken by Denholm Elliott in the film.
Joseph McGrath recalled,
I got on very well with Leonard Rossiter... [Richard Beckinsale] was supposed to be in the film, but he died. I liked Richard very much. In fact, it caused a load of trouble when he died in that Leonard didn't want to do the film, but eventually he said that he would do it. So we ended up with Christopher Strauli, who took Richard Beckinsale's place, at the suggestion of [Eric Chappell]. So, Christopher arrived and he felt a real outsider. I couldn't do anything about it even though I tried to... I kept comparing Christopher to Richard, in my mind, thinking, “Oh, God.” And I think he'd got rather a rum-do. He felt it. He told me that during the filming he felt like a real outsider because he'd been suggested by the writer.[3]
It was agreed that the film version of Rising Damp would adapt scenes and dialogue material from the television series. The film had a budget of approximately £400,000.00, which was relatively low for a film production but being higher than the budget allocated to the television series meant the film could be shot on location, rather than being entirely studio-bound as the series was. Joseph McGrath recalled,
I didn't find the shoot difficult. I made my mind up not to find it difficult. I made my mind up to be especially nice to the new actor, Christopher. About a week into the shoot, he asked if he could have lunch with me one day. I said, “Yes, sure.” Then he confided that he felt a real outsider because the rest of the cast just left him alone... This was a week into the shoot… I found that the cast really liked Richard and they had every reason to like Richard. He was by far, apart from Leonard, the best actor of the cast, in an attitude of, if you started to talk to him about a scene, Richard was interested in why you were talking to him about that particular scene. Richard was an actor who had an intelligence about the part he was playing.[4]
Writer Eric Chappell recalled,
I never watch the film because I didn’t get paid for it! I cannibalised some of the scripts and wrote some new material, and they paid very little for it. I was in between doing other things. I always remember them taking me to a flash restaurant and saying, “Eric, we’re not going to give you 3% but 5% of the profits!” Of course, what they’re really saying is that they won’t make any profits. If you’re going to get a percentage, always get it on the gross. You get the producer’s profit that he makes and that would be a lot of money. After that, there are all of these costs. By the time it comes to the writer, there’s no money left. So, I’ve never had a penny out of that. I was on 5% of nothing! So, it always hurt my feelings.[5]
The film dispenses with Dennis Wilson's piano-based theme music from the television series, featuring instead an upbeat disco theme song over its opening and closing titles.
Critical reception
A reviewer for Time Out wrote that the film "[demonstrates] that moderately droll TV boarding-house sitcoms ought not to be stretched to 98 minutes."[6]
David Parkinson wrote in the Radio Times, "the absence of Richard Beckinsale does much to sap the enjoyment of this decent movie version of the enduring television sitcom. Eric Chappell...overwrites to compensate and the film suffers from too many padded scenes and too few hilarious situations. Newcomer Denholm Elliott looks a tad out of place alongside regulars Frances de la Tour and Don Warrington, but he makes a solid foil for the magnificent Leonard Rossiter, who pursues his romantic quest with a seedy chivalry that both disgusts and amuses."[7]
The film version of Rising Damp resolves the issue of Philip's origins. For the entirety of the television series, Philip claims to be the son of an African tribal chief; the film reveals Philip is actually from Croydon, has never been to Africa, does not have ten wives, and adopted a false persona to start a new life and gain respect. This revelation is present in the The Banana Box (the 1973 stage play from which Rising Damp was developed) but was never resolved in the television series. Regarding the revelation of Philip's African prince persona being a fabrication, Eric Chappell stated, "I think I put it in the film because I was desperate for a climax and a finish."[8] Don Warrington, who played Philip, stated, "I was taken by the idea that, in order to have an effect on other people, Philip had created for himself an exotic identity – being the son of an African chief. It was only in the 1980 film adaptation that the truth was finally revealed: he is in fact born and bred in Croydon. Somebody pretending to be something they were not was a window into Philip’s level of insecurity as a human being."[9]
However, the film does not appear to inhabit the same continuity as the television series. In the film, Rigsby's townhouse is in inner-city London (in the series the townhouse is in Yorkshire); Philip is a medical student (rather than the planning student he is in the series); and much of the development of Rigsby and Ruth's relationship (including Rigsby's marriage proposal to Ruth in the final episode of series four) is ignored.
Furthermore, the film reuses plotlines, scenes, and dialogue from the series, including Seymour the conman/thief (from series two's "A Perfect Gentleman"); Rigsby's boxing match with Philip (from series two's "A Body Like Mine"); the male earring, the pills, and the burning of "love wood" (from series one's "Charisma"); a girlfriend's overprotective father on the warpath (from series two's "The Permissive Society"); Rigsby taking Ruth for a spin in his sports car (from series three's "Clunk Click"); and Rigsby revealing his first name (Rupert) to Ruth (from series four's "Great Expectations"). The film can therefore be regarded as a "best of" compilation of situations and lines from the television series, rather than a narrative continuation.
A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television.
Leonard Rossiter was an English actor. He had a long career in the theatre but achieved his highest profile for his television comedy roles starring as Rupert Rigsby in the ITV series Rising Damp from 1974 to 1978, and Reginald Perrin in the BBC's The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin from 1976 to 1979.
Rising Damp is a British sitcom, written by Eric Chappell and produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, which was originally broadcast from 2 September 1974 until 9 May 1978. Chappell adapted the story from his 1973 stage play The Banana Box. The programme ran for four series and a spin-off feature film of the same name was released in 1980. The series won the 1978 BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy. Rising Damp was the highest-ranking ITV sitcom in the BBC's 100 Best Sitcoms poll of 2004, coming in 27th overall.
Richard Arthur Beckinsale was an English actor. He played Lennie Godber in the BBC sitcom Porridge and Alan Moore in the ITV sitcom Rising Damp. He was the father of actresses Samantha and Kate Beckinsale.
David Bernard Swift was an English actor known for his role as Henry Davenport in the topical comedy Drop the Dead Donkey.
Henry Wilfrid Brambell was an Irish television and film actor, best remembered for playing the grubby rag-and-bone man Albert Steptoe alongside Harry H. Corbett in the long-running BBC television sitcom Steptoe and Son. He achieved international recognition in 1964 for his appearance alongside the Beatles in A Hard Day's Night, playing the fictional grandfather of Paul McCartney.
Frances J. de Lautour, better known as Frances de la Tour, is an English actress. She is known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the television sitcom Rising Damp from 1974 until 1978. She is a Tony Award winner and three-time Olivier Award winner.
A bedsit, bedsitter, or bed-sitting room is a form of accommodation common in some parts of the United Kingdom which consists of a single room per occupant with all occupants typically sharing a bathroom. Bedsits are included in a legal category of dwellings referred to as houses in multiple occupation (HMO).
Eric George Chappell was an English television comedy writer and playwright who wrote or co-wrote some of the UK's biggest sitcom hits over a more than quarter-century career, first gaining significant notice in the 1970s.
Only When I Laugh is a British television sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for ITV. It aired between 29 October 1979 and 16 December 1982 and is set in the ward of an NHS hospital. The title is in response to the question, "Does it hurt?".
Don Warrington MBE is a Trinidadian-born British actor. He is best known for playing Philip Smith in the ITV sitcom Rising Damp (1974–78), and Commissioner Selwyn Patterson in the BBC detective series Death in Paradise (2011–present).
Henry James Marris-McGee was a British actor, best known as straight man to Benny Hill for many years. McGee was also often the announcer on Hill's TV programme, delivering the upbeat intro "Yes! It's The Benny Hill Show!". He was familiar to British children throughout the 1970s as "Mummy" in the Sugar Puffs commercials, the catchphrase of which was "Tell them about the honey, Mummy".
The Evening Standard British Film Awards were established in 1973 by London's Evening Standard newspaper. The Standard Awards is the only ceremony "dedicated to British and Irish talent," judged by a panel of "top UK critics." Each ceremony honours films from the previous year.
Christopher Strauli is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is known for appearing as Norman Binns in the British Yorkshire Television sitcom Only When I Laugh.
Edward Ian MacNaughton was a Scottish actor, television producer and director, best known for his work with the Monty Python team.
Avis Bunnage was an English actress of film, stage and television.
The Bounder is a British sitcom which ran from 16 April 1982 to 28 October 1983, made by Yorkshire Television. The series starred Peter Bowles as Howard Booth, an ex-convict who served two years in jail. He lives with his brother-in-law, Trevor Mountjoy, and his sister, Mary. The latter left after Series One in 1982. It also starred Isla Blair as the next door widowed neighbour, Laura Miles. This series was created by Eric Chappell.
The Squirrels is a British television sitcom created by Eric Chappell. It was produced by ATV for the ITV and broadcast from 1974 to 1977 running for 3 series and 28 episodes. Chappell later created the Yorkshire Television sitcoms Rising Damp, among other series.
Goodnight, Vienna is a 1932 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Jack Buchanan, Anna Neagle and Gina Malo. Two lovers in Vienna are separated by the First World War, but are later reunited.
References
↑ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 318.
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