User Reviews

I just bought and watched the German DVD (which does include the English audio as well) and I must say I'm disappointed. I love many British comedies from this period in both their series and movie versions although I had never seen this one before. Unfortunately I found it a terrible mess, and worse than that - it did not make me laugh, or smile, once. I'm not sure if I was expecting standard or black humour but in my honest opinion this contained neither. What did I get? 65 minutes of story telling based around a non-sensical plot regarding a "sort of" mix up* between a corpse, a wax-work of the corpse and a coffin containing hashish cigarettes smuggled into the country by the rival firm. Why do I say 65 minutes, well this is where the movie feels like it has ended, with the cremation of the hashish cigarettes and arrival of the police. We then have another 15 minutes vaguely related to a secret formula for a fizzy drinks recipe which the deceased had secreted upon his person and should have been cremated with the body...

*I say "sort of" because the characters themselves create the mix up, or don't try to revolve it. The strange thing is that vague plot points come and go without anyone noticing them only to be picked up by chance by someone later and forgotten again. Also the motivation of "the badies" is completely unfathomable, they are classy hippy drug smuggling funeral directors.

I'm not sure what the series was like but this film makes me think they wanted to make a comedy but were too scared to put in any jokes in case they offended somebody. I also wonder why the film appears to be popular enough to be released in Germany but not over here, perhaps during the dubbing they actually introduced some jokes and made it a funny film?

THAT'S YOUR FUNERAL is one of the latter-day TV series adaptations that Hammer Films were making as they moved through the 1970s. The series on which it was based was a short-lived one from 1970 about rival funeral directors, and it seems an odd choice for the big screen. The story is slow and laboured, with a lot of blackly comic one-liners propping up an episodic storyline which seems to take an age to go anywhere. The crux of the narrative, about mixed-up bodies, is far too obvious and simplistic to sustain the running time, so all the viewer is left with is a rather good cast of familiar faces from British television who do their very best but are unable to do much with the lame dialogue.

Once again BBC shows it late night. I missed the start but caught up with it. Very much a 70s film. I'm always trying to recognise locations, as in Elstree, but this was Pinewood, Windsor, and I don't know that area. Yes, the fight between two funeral parlours plying for trade, except one of them is more shady than the other. Lots of Brit actors, comedy very good, typical 70's again. I have to admit I didn't get the end scene joke. Must have missed something. Many set pieces, station clerk, all characters as one would expect them to be. A touch of Benny Hill style here and there. I don't remember the TV sitcom. Maybe that made a difference. One often may wonder what these parlours get up to trade secrets wise, and this wouldn't be a film to watch if one had recently had to use one for a dear departed. Having said that, hilarious at times, well worth the 90 odd minutes and I think not having ad breaks helped the continuity. One COULD guess the end... but so what. Yes, any negative reviews, it just makes you wonder why people watch these things if they don't enjoy. It IS 70's humour.. that WAS my time and its great to be reminded of the people about then.