Great cast in this story of a publisher, Dennis Price, who threatens to publish a tabloid magazine spelling out the peccadilloes of many prominent celebrities, including Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, and Shirley Eaton. Their reputations and happiness are at stake. Price gives them two weeks to come up with a blackmail sum that none can manage.
It has its funny moments but the script isn't what it might be. The story is mostly disjointed because the victims don't know one another, so we wind up with four separate threads of victims trying to prevent Price from implementing his scheme.
And the humor is all spelled out. Nothing is left to the imagination. If the mystery writer, Peggy Mount, tries to drown the blackmailer, she knocks the wrong man out and tries to drown him in a pond. The attempted drowning is all drawn out and devolves into slapstick. The sprightly musical score tries desperately to underline the comic features of each scene.
Among the funnier scenes is Peter Sellers (in one of several disguises) hiding under the bunk he assumes belong to the blackmailer. Instead, a young couple of newlyweds show up and kick off their shoes and kiss voluptuously. Sellers, scooched back against the wall, looks at the two pairs of feet, glances up at the bed, and stares in exasperation at the camera, breaking the fourth wall. (Dissolve.) The show really belongs to Dennis Price, who plays the role of suave villain with aplomb. Even unconscious he seems to wear a superior smirk. He has the cleverest lines too, at times harking back to his splendid performance in "Kind Hearts And Coronets." "I do hope this isn't an appeal to my better nature because I haven't one." It's Sellers who quotes the happy villain of Richard III -- "Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile" -- but it's Price who embodies him.
I wish the script had been more taut and the direction less explicit. As it is, it's not a failure, but it's a loose-limbed and lowbrow success.
It has its funny moments but the script isn't what it might be. The story is mostly disjointed because the victims don't know one another, so we wind up with four separate threads of victims trying to prevent Price from implementing his scheme.
And the humor is all spelled out. Nothing is left to the imagination. If the mystery writer, Peggy Mount, tries to drown the blackmailer, she knocks the wrong man out and tries to drown him in a pond. The attempted drowning is all drawn out and devolves into slapstick. The sprightly musical score tries desperately to underline the comic features of each scene.
Among the funnier scenes is Peter Sellers (in one of several disguises) hiding under the bunk he assumes belong to the blackmailer. Instead, a young couple of newlyweds show up and kick off their shoes and kiss voluptuously. Sellers, scooched back against the wall, looks at the two pairs of feet, glances up at the bed, and stares in exasperation at the camera, breaking the fourth wall. (Dissolve.) The show really belongs to Dennis Price, who plays the role of suave villain with aplomb. Even unconscious he seems to wear a superior smirk. He has the cleverest lines too, at times harking back to his splendid performance in "Kind Hearts And Coronets." "I do hope this isn't an appeal to my better nature because I haven't one." It's Sellers who quotes the happy villain of Richard III -- "Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile" -- but it's Price who embodies him.
I wish the script had been more taut and the direction less explicit. As it is, it's not a failure, but it's a loose-limbed and lowbrow success.