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Dry Rot (film)
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Dry Rot (film)
Dry Rot is a 1956 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey, and starring Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix, Peggy Mount, and Sid James. The screenplay is by John Chapman, adapted from his 1954 Whitehall farce of the same name.
The plot concerns the practice of gambling, which was illegal in the United Kingdom at the time, other than at racecourses.
Three dodgy bookies, Alf Tubbe, Flash Harry, and Fred Phipps plan to rig a horse race by kidnapping the fancied horse and its French jockey. They stay at a country house hotel near the racecourse, run by Colonel and Mrs Wagstaff, where they conceal the horse Sweet Lavender (and later the jockey) in a hidden cellar. They substitute Fred for the real jockey, expecting him to lose, but this plan backfires when he wins. A subplot sees the dimwitted Fred fall in love with the hotel chambermaid Beth. A final chase scene has the main characters on a fire engine being pursued by the police.
The title Dry Rot refers to the rotten wood on the hotel stairs, which regularly catches every character unawares.
The horse-racing sequences were filmed at Kempton Park Racecourse, Sunbury-on-Thames.
Kinematograph Weekly said the film "scored with the 'ninepennies'."
Brian Rix called the result "a funny film, but not, in my view, as funny as the play. I blame this partially on the director, Maurice Elvey, who insisted on having our stage director, Peter Mercier by his side giving him all the stage business. A good idea in theory but we ended up with a filmed version of the stage play, without the theatre audience laughing around to gee it along. Our producer, Jack Clayton, suddenly realised this and persuaded John Chapman to write a chase sequence for the end — this was hurriedly put in and succeeded — for then it looked like a film."
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Despite the determined efforts of cast and director, this well-worn material finally proves intractable and one is left with a theatrical farce full of simple slapstick and comic yokels. Ronald Shiner tends to overplay as the wily Alf; the remainder battle valiantly against heavy odds."
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Dry Rot (film)
Dry Rot is a 1956 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey, and starring Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix, Peggy Mount, and Sid James. The screenplay is by John Chapman, adapted from his 1954 Whitehall farce of the same name.
The plot concerns the practice of gambling, which was illegal in the United Kingdom at the time, other than at racecourses.
Three dodgy bookies, Alf Tubbe, Flash Harry, and Fred Phipps plan to rig a horse race by kidnapping the fancied horse and its French jockey. They stay at a country house hotel near the racecourse, run by Colonel and Mrs Wagstaff, where they conceal the horse Sweet Lavender (and later the jockey) in a hidden cellar. They substitute Fred for the real jockey, expecting him to lose, but this plan backfires when he wins. A subplot sees the dimwitted Fred fall in love with the hotel chambermaid Beth. A final chase scene has the main characters on a fire engine being pursued by the police.
The title Dry Rot refers to the rotten wood on the hotel stairs, which regularly catches every character unawares.
The horse-racing sequences were filmed at Kempton Park Racecourse, Sunbury-on-Thames.
Kinematograph Weekly said the film "scored with the 'ninepennies'."
Brian Rix called the result "a funny film, but not, in my view, as funny as the play. I blame this partially on the director, Maurice Elvey, who insisted on having our stage director, Peter Mercier by his side giving him all the stage business. A good idea in theory but we ended up with a filmed version of the stage play, without the theatre audience laughing around to gee it along. Our producer, Jack Clayton, suddenly realised this and persuaded John Chapman to write a chase sequence for the end — this was hurriedly put in and succeeded — for then it looked like a film."
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Despite the determined efforts of cast and director, this well-worn material finally proves intractable and one is left with a theatrical farce full of simple slapstick and comic yokels. Ronald Shiner tends to overplay as the wily Alf; the remainder battle valiantly against heavy odds."