The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Richard Lester

Writers:

John Antrobus (play)
John Antrobus (screenplay)

Release Date:

2 January 1970 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

WE'VE GOT A BOMB ON OUR HANDS ( *BOMB - a motion picture so brilliantly funny it goes over most people's heads.)

Plot:

Set in post-nuclear-holocaust England, where a handful of bizarre characters struggle on with their lives in the ruins...

Plot Keywords:

Bed | Cupboard | Parents | Nurse | Bizarre

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Rita 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

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | UK:12 (DVD rating) | UK:AA | USA:M | USA:R (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Chobham Common, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Oscar Lewenstein Productions

Trivia:

The revised National Anthem lyrics are.... 'God save Mrs Ethel Shroake, Long live Mrs Ethel Shroake, God save Mrs Ethel Shroake of 393A High Street, Leytonstone'

A "Did I really watch that?" film.

With it's completely surreal narrative and winning photography, The bed Sitting room hits me now for a number of reasons, the first of which, is that despite looking strangely contemporary, all it's main leads (Except the young uns) are dead. Marty Feldman, Micheal Horden, Arthur Lowe, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan and Sir Ralph, are all pushing up the daisies. There's something tragic about the cast in a comedy all being dead. For all intense and purposes, the film may as well be dead too as it was blind luck that I caught it. It is criminal that this bona fide classic never really made it past the main gates, while lesser films took the glory.

Made by Richard lester (A hard Days Night, Superman 2 & 3) in 1969, just before Monty Python hit pay dirt, it tells the story of Brits after the bomb, working class through to upper, it encapsulates the British eccentricities perfectly. It's pomposity and its sheer blooded bloody optimism. These characters, you might see on the tube on the way to work and despite furniture mutation and hunger, they're just the same. It's a testament to all concerned, that a potentially silly premise, is performed with total conviction and a little tragedy. It's especially weird to see Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir Micheal Horden as leads. In such a bizarre film, it swings the whole experience into brain frying proportions. It'd be like having Sir Ben Kingsley play Ace Ventura, Pet detective.

Another reason, this film is a triumph, is the superb set design and photography. While in Monty Python, it's surrealistic landscapes, while funny and inventive, never really touches the views on offer here, What was essentially a quarry, is now landmarks of Britain, with bits of it sticking out all over the place. stacks of shoes, dismembered traffic jams and indeed Bed sitting rooms clog up the toxic horizon, all glum and desolate, you half believe the story, as the landscape seems sort of real. I'll bet my mums dog that Python was influenced by the designs on display here. As the film was based on a play (By Spike Milligan and John Antrobus) I wonder how it looked in a theatre.

There you have it, a classic film in every way if you like that sort of thing. If you catch it, you'll wonder if you saw it, then you'll be angry that you've never heard of it, after that you'll never forget it, it's just a shame you'll probably never get to see it...