The Best of Benny Hill

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The Best of Benny Hill
The Best of Benny Hill cover.jpg
US DVD Cover
Directed byJohn Robins
Written by Benny Hill
Produced byJohn Robins
Roy Skeggs
Starring Benny Hill
Music byBenny Hill
Boots Randolph
Production
companies
Distributed by EMI Films
Release date
  • 1974 (1974)
Running time
83 min.
Country UK
Language English

The Best of Benny Hill is a 1974 film version of material from the television comedy series The Benny Hill Show . This movie features sketches from the early Thames Television years, from 1969 to 1973. The sketches in the film are from episodes produced and directed by John Robins. [1]

Contents

Contents

Sketches include:

Cast

Production

The original programs were recorded on videotape (studio interiors) and shot on 16 mm film (location footage); the videotaped material was transferred to 35 mm film as a telerecording, and the 16 mm footage was blown up to 35 mm.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This questionably titled anthology features material that has been directly lifted (complete with studio audience laughter) from several series of The Benny Hill Show, some of them quite archaic (Tupper Time is a parody of Simon Dee's programmes). The quality of the videotape transfers is variable, with everything that is not in close-up tending towards distortion. The quality of the comedy, however, is consistent: basic British sauce – delivered with much nudging, winking and leering – that reveals Hill's obsession with the comic possibilities of speeded-up film and of being found attractive by both men and women. As a writer, Hill is too often content to contrive his material to fit his jokes; as a performer, he seems to have reached his prime in the late Fifties." [2]

Home media releases

The british film distributor Walton Films released a shortened edition of the movie on three Super 8 film reels.[ citation needed ]

Anchor Bay Entertainment released the movie on DVD in 2001 for Region 1 format; it would later be re-released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment following Lionsgate's 2016 acquisition of Anchor Bay.

It was released by Network on DVD and Blu-ray in Region 2 format in 2016.

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References

  1. "The Best of Benny Hill". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  2. "The Best of Benny Hill". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 41 (480): 144. 1 January 1974 via ProQuest.