I'm not sure how I missed this Cleese comedy/farce but his role as lead actor, the punctilious British high school principal Brian Stimson, guaranteed a look and you'll not be disappointed. Cleese's comedic timing is unsurpassed in the genre of British comedies. Whilst this lacks the sheer unrelenting intensity of Fawlty Towers and isn't as edgy as the many Monty Python TV shows and movies, it wonderfully takes the Mickey out of the English obsession for punctuality. It takes a man ruled by the clock and weaves an unfolding tapestry of disasters that befall him when he uncharacteristically misses a train to Norwich where he was due to give the keynote speech as the newly elected chairman of the British Headmasters Conference.
The movie has numerous peripheral delights - a snapshot of mid '80s English life: the hymn sung in the school assembly, the strict uniform code even at an obscure state school (called a Comprehensive), the pay phones in the iconic red phone boxes, the quirky cop cars and cameos by English car marques unknown outside the former British Empire such as an Austin 1100 and a Ford Cortina. Anyone familiar with English TV dramas will notice a minor Whos Who of British acting talent most particularly amongst the stuffy private school headmasters at the conference. English viewers will puzzle at precisely where this all takes place and wonder at what major train station terminus would have trains to Norwich and Plymouth departing next to each other and where a road turnoff one way is to Northampton and the other is to Norwich.
This movie is worth seeing if only to watch one of the world's greatest comedy actors weave his onscreen magic.
The movie has numerous peripheral delights - a snapshot of mid '80s English life: the hymn sung in the school assembly, the strict uniform code even at an obscure state school (called a Comprehensive), the pay phones in the iconic red phone boxes, the quirky cop cars and cameos by English car marques unknown outside the former British Empire such as an Austin 1100 and a Ford Cortina. Anyone familiar with English TV dramas will notice a minor Whos Who of British acting talent most particularly amongst the stuffy private school headmasters at the conference. English viewers will puzzle at precisely where this all takes place and wonder at what major train station terminus would have trains to Norwich and Plymouth departing next to each other and where a road turnoff one way is to Northampton and the other is to Norwich.
This movie is worth seeing if only to watch one of the world's greatest comedy actors weave his onscreen magic.