Bottoms Up (1960 film)

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Bottoms Up
"Bottoms Up" (1960).jpg
Directed by Mario Zampi
Written by Michael Pertwee
Additional dialogue by
Frank Muir
Denis Norden
Produced byGiulio Zampi
Mario Zampi
Starring Jimmy Edwards
Arthur Howard
Martita Hunt
Sydney Tafler
Mitch Mitchell
Cinematography Gilbert Taylor
Edited by Richard Best
Music by Stanley Black
Production
company
Transocean [Mario Zampi Productions]
Distributed by Warner-Pathé Distributors
Release date
  • 8 March 1960 (1960-03-08)(London)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Bottoms Up is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Mario Zampi, and starring Jimmy Edwards in a spin-off of his TV comedy series Whack-O! , playing the seedy, alcoholic, cane-wielding headmaster of Chiselbury School, a fictional British public school. [1] [2] The screenplay was by Michael Pertwee, with additional dialogue by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.

Contents

The cast includes juvenile actor John "Mitch" Mitchell who in the late 1960s was the drummer in The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Richard Briers in his first film appearance.

Plot

Professor Jim Edwards is the headmaster of Chiselbury School, a private boarding school for boys. A new head of the school's Board of Governors threatens to replace him as headmaster unless he can drastically improve the school's performance. When Edwards is also confronted by his bookmaker demanding money he owes and which he cannot pay, he devises a plan to deal with both problems by agreeing to accept into Chiselbury the bookmaker's son who will impersonate the heir to the throne of an oil-rich (fictional) state in the Middle East, which he hopes will persuade other parents to enroll their sons.

Cast

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Though on a somewhat larger scale (notably in the climactic free-for-all), this comedy closely follows the pattern of the television show. This is probably just as well, since even the overall vigour and furore cannot alone compensate for some heavy-handed slapstick and a rambling script; one really needs a taste for Jimmy Edwards as well." [3]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "The strong supporting cast makes a solid contribution to an otherwise hit-and-miss comedy." [4]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Rambling film version of a successful TV series." [5]

TV Guide called the film an "inane slapstick comedy set in an English boarding school... Forced humour from a slapdash script and direction." [6]

Allmovie wrote: "producer/director Mario Zampi knows where the laughs are and knows how to get them in full measure." [7]

Sky Movies wrote: "it could have been a lot funnier, but, even so, it's a useful record of Edwards in his element." [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "Bottoms Up". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  2. ↑ "Bottoms Up | BFI | BFI". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  3. ↑ "Bronco Bullfrog". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 27 (312): 51. 1 January 1960 – via ProQuest.
  4. ↑ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 121. ISBN   9780992936440.
  5. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 133. ISBN   0586088946.
  6. ↑ "Bottoms Up Review". Movies.tvguide.com. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  7. ↑ "Bottoms Up (1960) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast". AllMovie. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  8. ↑ "Bottoms Up! - Sky Movies HD". Skymovies.sky.com. 6 November 2003. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2014.


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