And the Same to You | |
---|---|
Directed by | George Pollock |
Written by | John Paddy Carstairs Additional dialogue by John Junkin Terry Nation |
Based on | play "The Chigwell Chicken" by A.P. Dearsley |
Produced by | William J. Gell |
Starring | Brian Rix William Hartnell Tommy Cooper |
Cinematography | Stanley Pavey |
Edited by | Lito Carruthers |
Music by | Philip Green |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Eros Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
And the Same to You is a 1960 British boxing-themed comedy film directed by George Pollock and starring Brian Rix and William Hartnell. [1] It was written by John Paddy Carstairs, John Junkin and Terry Nation based on the stage farce The Chigwell Chicken by A.P. Dearsley.
Stuck with the nickname "Dreadnought", Dickie Marchant feels he has no choice but to pursue a career as a boxer. However, to mollify his uncle, Marchant pretends to be the soul of religiosity, while his tough-talking manager, Walter "Wally" Burton, poses as a man of the cloth.
The film and Inn for Trouble were voted by Kine Weekly as the best British box office double bill for the year 1960. [2]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The nearer the action gets to stage farce, with its disguises, mistaken identities, outraged clergymen and rapid exits and entrances, the better it hangs together and the more amusing it becomes. The humour early on is obvious and silly, but the long climax is well-constructed and put across with a speed and verve often denied to more original comedy scripts. If the film is not quite as funny as it might be, perhaps that is because not all the players enter into the slightly pre-war spirit of the piece as wholeheartedly as Leo Franklyn and William Hartnell, or give as much to small parts as Sidney James and Tommy Cooper." [3]
Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture has a poke at the cloth and the fight racket, but its sallies are never malicious. Vera Day is a perky Cynthia, William Hartnell definitely has his moments as Wally, and Brian Rix seldom misses a trick as battling parson-to-be Dickie. Tommy Cooper, Leo Franklyn, Dick Bentley and guest artist Sidney James also seize whatever opportunities come their way. The settings are quite good, but the director sometimes takes too long breaking from clinches." [4]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Uninventive and unfunny comedy." [5]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Any film boasting Sid James, Tommy Cooper and Brian Rix in the cast has to be worth a look, but there are few laughs to be had in this screen version of a popular stage farce. Rix stars as a singularly hopeless boxer who has to keep his career hidden from his disapproving archdeacon uncle. John Paddy Carstairs co-wrote the script with John Junkin, but every punch is pulled." [6]
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John Paddy Carstairs was a British film director (1933–62) and television director (1962–64), usually of light-hearted subject matter. He was also a comic novelist and painter.
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Inn for Trouble is a 1960 black and white British comedy film directed by C.M. Pennington-Richards and starring Peggy Mount, David Kossoff and Leslie Phillips. It was a spin-off of the 1950s ITV sitcom The Larkins. The film is notable for the final credited appearances of Graham Moffatt and A. E. Matthews.
The Night We Got the Bird is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Dora Bryan, Ronald Shiner and Irene Handl. It is based on Basil Thomas's 1957 play The Lovebirds.
The Whitehall farces were a series of five long-running comic stage plays at the Whitehall Theatre in London, presented by the actor-manager Brian Rix, in the 1950s and 1960s. They were in the low comedy tradition of British farce, following the Aldwych farces, which played at the Aldwych Theatre between 1924 and 1933.
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The Night We Dropped a Clanger, is a 1959 black and white British comedy film directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Cecil Parker, William Hartnell and Leslie Phillips.
Two Left Feet is a 1963 British comedy-drama film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Nyree Dawn Porter, Michael Crawford, David Hemmings and Julia Foster. It is based on David Stuart Leslie's novel In My Solitude (1960).
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Treasure Hunt is a 1952 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Martita Hunt, Jimmy Edwards, Naunton Wayne and Athene Seyler. It is based on the 1949 play Treasure Hunt by Molly Keane and John Perry.
Nothing Barred is a 1961 British black and white comedy film directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Leo Franklyn and Naunton Wayne.
Up to His Neck is a 1954 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs, starring Ronald Shiner, Hattie Jacques and Anthony Newley.
The Gang's All Here is a 1939 British black-and-white comedy-mystery, directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Jack Buchanan and Googie Withers. It was produced by Associated British Picture Corporation and released in the U.S. in 1943 as The Amazing Mr. Forrest.
The Girl in the Taxi is a 1937 British musical comedy film directed by André Berthomieu and starring Frances Day, Henri Garat and Lawrence Grossmith. It was based on the stage musical The Girl in the Taxi and was part of a trend of operetta films produced during the decade.
Leo Franklyn was an English actor. Much of his early career was in Edwardian musical comedy; in his later career he was chiefly associated with farce.
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