Hilarious high-jinks from the Grace Bros. team as they troop off to sunny Spain for the staff trip of a lifetime. Cheerfully they disgrace themselves on the Costa Plonka. Mr Humphries is free while Captain Peacock wants everything under the sun from Miss Brahms. Mrs Slocombe only hopes her pussy can survive as the comedy capers carry on abroad in the riotous screen version of the television comedy classic.
A funny thing happens to Lurcio (Frankie Howerd) on the way to the rent-a-vestal-virgin market stall. A mysterious scroll falls into his hands listing the names of all the conspirators plotting to murder Emperor Nero. And when the upstart slave is elected to infiltrate the ringleader's den the comical ups-and-downs lead to total uproar.
Scripted and starring Ronnie Barker Futtock's End makes its way to DVD for the first time! This 45-minute silent film eschews dialogue in favour of increasingly bizarre sound effects. The story features rude and rumbustious goings-on at a country mansion presided over by the monocled General Futtock - played by Barker himself.
Up Pompeii: A funny thing happens to Lurcio (Frankie Howerd) on the way to the rent-a-vestal-virgin market stall. A mysterious scroll falls into his hands listing the names of all the conspirators plotting to murder Emperor Nero. And when the upstart slave is elected to infiltrate the ringleader's den the comical ups-and-downs lead to total uproar. Up The Chastity Belt: A funny thing happened to Lurkalot serf to Sir Coward de Custard on the way to Custard Castle. Lurkalot sells lusty love potions and rusty chastity belts in the market place but on this day Sir Graggart de Bombast arrives to sack the castle and to get the lovely Lobelia Custard in the sack! Lurkalot must help Custard cream the knight in pining armour...
Sir William Mainwaring-Brown, a British Government Minister, puts forward a bill to battle filth (permissive behaviour) in the UK. However, that doesn't stop him having an affair with both Miss Parkyn (his secretary) and Wendy (the wife of a high-up reporter). Opponents to the bill - mainly some hippies, led by Johnny - kidnap the Minister's best friend and co-sponsor of the bill, Barry Ovis, just as he is on the way to the church to marry his fiancee, Jean. Later and following a tip off by Johnny, the police raid the hippies' flat. The intention is to discredit Barry Ovis by making it appear that he was involved in an orgy and therefore, remove any credibility that the Law and Order Bill might have had. Thankfully (for Barry), he escapes before the police discover him and dashes back to Sir William's flat followed by Edith, one of the hippies. Meanwhile, the Minister is also trying to use the flat to carry on his affairs with both Wendy and Miss Parkyn. The Minister, Barry and Jean try to keep the truth from Inspector Ruff, Wilfred Potts (an ancient MP, who is staying temporarily in the adjoining flat) and Birdie (the Minister's wife). Not only that, but they have to try to deal with the hippies who do their utmost to discredit Mainwaring-Brown and Ovis. Naturally this causes no end of trouble.
The screen vibrates with bounderism and caddishness when comedy icons Terry-Thomas and Leslie Phillips star as rivals in this sunny, mid-'70s sex comedy set on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. Spanish Fly is featured here in a brand-new transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Despite the scenery and sunshine, expat Sir Percy de Courcy feels dejected. In a cunning wheeze to make some much-needed money, he's bought 100,000 gallons of local wine, ho...
A funny thing happened to Lurkalot serf to Sir Coward de Custard on the way to Custard Castle. Lurkalot sells lusty love potions and rusty chastity belts in the market place but on this day Sir Graggart de Bombast arrives to sack the castle and to get the lovely Lobelia Custard in the sack! Lurkalot must help Custard cream the knight in pining armour...
Up Pompeii: A funny thing happens to Lurcio (Frankie Howerd) on the way to the rent-a-vestal-virgin market stall. A mysterious scroll falls into his hands listing the names of all the conspirators plotting to murder Emperor Nero. And when the upstart slave is elected to infiltrate the ringleader's den the comical ups-and-downs lead to total uproar. Up The Chastity Belt: A funny thing happened to Lurkalot serf to Sir Coward de Custard on the way to Custard Castle. Lurkalot sells lusty love potions and rusty chastity belts in the market place but on this day Sir Graggart de Bombast arrives to sack the castle and to get the lovely Lobelia Custard in the sack! Lurkalot must help Custard cream the knight in pining armour...
Danny La Rue stars as Fred Wimbush a Shakespearean actor who has been drafted into World War II and as such is appearing in a camp show in France when the Nazis advance. In order to escape without being shot as a spy he must continue his guise as a woman!
Triple bill of British comedies starring Leslie Phillips. In 'The Man Who Liked Funerals' (1959) Simon Hurd (Phillips) takes it upon himself to raise the necessary finances to keep the local youth club open. But he uses a peculiar technique to do so - he attends funerals and blackmails mourners into giving him money by threatening to reveal unfortunate stories about them to the press. However, he may regret his pitches after potentially meeting his match... In 'Don't Just Lie There, Say Something' (1974) Phillips stars as Sir William Mainwaring-Brown, a Government minister with a roving eye who has just introduced a bill to combat libertarian behaviour in Britain. Sir William, however, is having affairs with both his secretary Miss Parkyn (Joanna Lumley) and Wendy (Anita Graham), the wife of an eminent reporter. A group of hippies who oppose the bill seek to derail his campaign by discrediting co-founders Sir William and his best friend Barry Ovis (Brian Rix). In 'In the Doghouse' (1962) Phillips and James Booth star as rival vets. After ten long years of training, Jimmy Fox-Upton (Phillips) finally qualifies as a vet and opens his own practice. Settled in London, Jimmy opposes the money-grabbing ways of his fellow graduate Bob Skeffington (Booth) and sets about exposing his lucrative equine export scam.
Writers Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft managed something quite clever with this, the film version of the 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served?. The idea of this cheery collection of comedy stereotypes--the pompous one, the vulgar one, the camp one, the shifty one and so on--being confined within a department store was a master stroke, as it allowed any kind of situation to arise without the plot having to exceed the restrictions imposed by the set. How, then, to keep the same theme for the big screen without just offering the television series writ large? Simple: send the whole cast on holiday together but make sure they can't leave their hotel, a state of affairs contrived easily enough by throwing a guerilla uprising into the plot. So it is, then, that the staff of Grace Bros. descend on the Costa Plonka while the store is closed for refurbishment. There are all the usual jokes involving knickers, boobs, toilets and gay sex (sometimes all at once), adding up to a good slice of nostalgic fun for anyone who was there when lapels really were that wide. Incidentally, this item is worth having just for the wonderful Frank Langford caricatures on the cover. On the DVD: Are You Being Served? comes to the digital format with just one extra item, a trailer.--Roger Thomas
Triple bill of classic British comedies starring the likes of Peter Cook and Ronnie Barker. 'The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer' (1970) stars Cook as the eponymous social climber determined to reach the top by fair means or foul. Starting out at a small advertising agency, it's not long before Rimmer rises through the ranks to enter the sphere of politics as a spin-doctor, where his talent for manipulation continues to serve him well. 'Sir Henry at Rawlinson's End' (1980) stars Trevor Howard as an English Peer of the Realm who attempts to exorcise the ghost of his dead brother with the aid of his equally eccentric friends and household staff. Finally, 'Futtock's End' (1969), written by, and starring Ronnie Barker, follows a weekend gathering at the decaying country home of General Futtock (Barker), which produces a series of saucy mishaps between staff and guests.
Frankie Howerd stars as a lowly boot-boy who is a terrible coward and only goes to war after he has been hypnotised to 'Save England'! With the German master plan tattooed on his backside he goes to the British headquarters with the Germans in hot pursuit to try and 'hand over the plans'!
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End: The plot of `Sir Henry at Rawlinson End revolves around attempts to exorcise of the ghost of Humbert, the brother of Sir Henry (Trevor Howard). Humbert was accidentally killed in a drunken duck-shooting incident whilst escaping from an illicit tryst. Amongst the eccentric family members, mad friends and grudgingly loyal servants involved are the eternally knitting Aunt Florrie, the tapeworm-obsessed Mrs. E, Lady Phillipa of Staines, who enjoys the odd `small sherry and the ever-present Old Scrotum, Sir Henry s wrinkled retainer. RUNNING TIME: 73 MINUTES Simon Simon: Two handymen cause chaos on a new crane whilst haphazardly trying to accomplish jobs for their ever more frustrated boss. With Peter Sellers, Ernie Wise, Eric Morecambe, Michael Caine and Bob Monkhouse. RUNNING TIME: 30 MINUTES Futtocks End: A weekend gathering at the decaying country home of the eccentric General Futtock (Ronnie Barker) produces a series of saucy mishaps between staff and guests. This silent film uses music, sound effects and incoherent mutterings in the place of dialogue, as the bumbling and lewd General competes with his equally lecherous butler (Michael Hordern) as they try to win the attentions of the beautiful short-skirted young houseguest. RUNNING TIME: 47 MINUTES The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer: The mysterious Michael Rimmer (Peter Cook) appears at a small advertising agency and soon takes over from the hapless employees, including the bumbling Pumer (John Cleese,) skiving boss Ferrett (Arthur Lowe, Dad s Army) and sexy secretary Tanya (Valerie Leon, Carry On). Rimmer rises through the ranks of the agency, creating saucy marketing campaigns for Graham Chapman, before turning the firm into a successful polling company and moving into politics. RUNNING TIME: 98 MINUTES
Follow the era of British Comedy Greats from the silent screen stars Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, to the modern day stand-ups Peter Kay and Michael McIntyre. When it comes to the great icons of comedy, Britain rules the airwaves, screen and stage. No other country in the world can boast such a pedigree of top comic entertainers and their legacy lives on through their recordings and films. From the silent screen stars Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, to the modern day stand-ups Peter Kay ...
The opening credits of Spanish Fly promise "Leslie Phillips vs. Terry-Thomas", making this the British comic innuendo version of King Kong vs. Godzilla or Frankenstein vs. the Wolf Man, with the two masters of fnarr-fnarr lecherous English lounge lizardry pitted against each other. It's a sunstruck, terminally silly slice of fluff of the stripe that passed for a sex film in 1976 ("Go and butter yourself", someone says) but seems almost comically innocent these days. The sort of film that boasts special credits for women's fashions by Cornelia James and underwear by Janet Reger, it tells the story of a gap-toothed con man (Thomas) exiled to sunny Spain. He adds ground-up cantharides to undrinkable plonk to create a market for aphrodisiac wine, and impotent underwear tycoon (Phillips) benefits from the effects of the product as he gets to grips with four lovely models, until his wife (Sue Lloyd) shows up and a side-effect means he starts barking like a dog. The stars are game, but the material--from a story by producer Peter James, now a horror novelist--is skimpier than the starlets' bikinis and none of the pretty girls has any comic timing (though they all get topless scenes). Students of British pop culture will note the bizarre juxtaposition of hiring an uncredited Francis Matthews, the upright voice of Captain Scarlet, to dub the roles of a gay Spanish photographer and (for one bad gag) a disgusted dog. On the DVD: The picture is fullscreen. There are no extras.--Kim Newman
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