The Renown Comedy Collection: Volume 1 [DVD]

Fablous 1950’s cinder films!

This DVD collection arrived on time and in good condition. The content was not as good as I expected and the presentation left a lot to be desired, I expect that this was due to the age on the content.

Good

all good thanks.

You get seven actual films here, not the ten that the DVD case says. The other three (‘All In Good Fun’, ‘Lifetime Of Comedy’ & ‘Tell Me Another’) are compilations of clips from various comedies. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of each of the seven actual films.I’ll start with ‘Carry on Admiral’ because I watched it just yesterday. ‘Carry On Admiral’ isn’t bad. David Tomlinson and Ronald Shiner star; Joan Sims is also in it and, although she was to become a major player in the long-running Rogers/Thomas Carry On series, this film is not a part of that. Two old mates – a Naval Officer and a Government Minister – exchange kit before collapsing drunk. Lots of hullabaloo and mistaken identity ensues. ‘Inn for Trouble’ is a film spin-off of the telly sitcom ‘The Larkins’ with Leslie Phillips, Peggy Mount and David Kossoff. The Larkin family takes over the running of a down-at-heel rural boozer called ‘The Earl of Osbourne’, where they discover that the pub’s accounts are shot to pieces on account of the actual Earl dishing out gratis beer to all and sundry. ‘Dentist in the Chair’ is a 1960 British comedy film. Two dental students, David Cookson (Bob Monkhouse) and Brian Dexter (Ronnie Stevens) get mixed with Sam Field (Kenneth Connor: ‘’Allo ‘Allo’, 'Carry On Cruising') when he tries to flog them hot dental kit. ‘Two on the Tiles’ stars Herbert Lom and is a low budget ‘B’ picture that was one of three shot together, back-to-back, for economy. A married couple both face temptations while separated for a few days. It’s all very innocent in fact but they have a dodgy new butler who demands payment to keep his mouth shut. ‘And the Same to You’ stars Brian Rix and William Hartnell. Saddled with the nickname ‘Dreadnought,’ Dickie Marchant (Brian Rix) becomes a boxer. But to impress his uncle, Rix and his tough-talking manager Wally Burton (William Hartnell: first-ever Dr Who) pretend to be Vicars. And ‘Demobbed’ is a 1946 British comedy film about a bunch of unemployed former squaddies on the lookout for their next great opportunity.None of these could be remotely called classics, or even good films come to that. But they are typical of English studio’s pre-television mass output in the 10 years or so following the war. In a sense, their greatest strength lays not so much in their dramatic qualities, but rather in their virtue as social documents – they all contain unique glimpses of what Britain was actually like in the immediate post-war era. But, as I say, you get seven and not ten. So, one way and another, it’s just the 3 stars from me.