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The Bed Sitting Room |
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The Bed Sitting Room - 1969 | 90 mins | Comedy | ColourThe Production TeamDirector: Richard Lester. Producer: Richard Lester and Oscar Lewenstein. Script: John Antrobus and Charles Wood. (from the play by John Antrobus and Spike Milligan) Cinematography: David Watkin. Film Editing: John Victor-Smith. Production Design: Assheton Gorton. Sound Department: Gerry Humphreys. Original Music: Ken Thorne. |
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The CastRita Tushingham - Penelope Ralph Richardson - Lord Fortnum of Alamein Peter Cook - Inspector Harry Secombe - Shelter Man Dudley Moore - Sergeant Spike Milligan - Mate Michael Hordern - Bules Martin Roy Kinnear - Plastic mac man Jimmy Edwards - Nigel Richard Warwick - Allan Arthur Lowe - Father Mona Washbourne - Mother Ronald Fraser - The Army Dandy Nichols - Mrs Ethel Shroake Frank Thornton - The BBC Marty Feldman - Nurse Arthur |
Plot SynopsisThe adapted play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus serves as an ideal springboard for this offbeat anti-war film by Richard Lester which, miraculously, manages to convey its grim message with surreal humour. The episodic sketches catches glimpses and comments of the 20-odd holocaust survivors of a London shredded by an A-bomb as they dig out of their holes to try and cope with the grey new world before they, too, become animals. In the manner of vaude blackouts, they soon meld into a general mosaic of stiff-upper-lip acceptance of new conditions, some fizzlers but others very amusing. Despite its undoubted originality, The Bed Sitting Room failed to transfer successfully from stage to screen and flopped at the box-office. Arthur Lowe turning into a parrot, Cook and Moore are side-splittingly funny as government bureaucrats, Mona Washbourne becoming a chest of drawers and Rita Tushingham announcing that she's 17 months pregnant, it's clear that this is a most bizarre romp. Ralph Richardson is superb in a relatively brief stint as the diehard traditionalist who eventually 'becomes' the title's bed-sitting room, but all in a carefully-chosen roster of British character thespians who contribute stellar bits in almost impossibly difficult roles. |
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