I saw this film twice in the first week it came out. This was just as well, as it closed after a week, as nobody else saw it apart from me and a friend. I think that, apart from its DVD availability, it is just about unseen. This is what I would call 'a pity'.
Stiff Upper Lips has, especially in the first half, so many spot on gags that it becomes almost abstract. Death in Venice? Yes. Chariots of Fire? Yes. Maurice? Yes. Every Merchant Ivory film? You bet. And all these jokes are funny. Imagine Airplane, remade in Britain, with better jokes.
And the performances are spot on as well. Peter Ustinov is amusing as a slave trading plantation owner, Georgina Cates is fun as the 'heroine', who spends most of the film whinging, but the honours go to Robert Portal and Samuel West, in a pair of the funniest performances of all time. Every nuance, every line is finely judged. (Is that Forster you're reading? Yes, but I only read him for the landscapes.) Buy a DVD player, get this film, and enjoy.
Stiff Upper Lips has, especially in the first half, so many spot on gags that it becomes almost abstract. Death in Venice? Yes. Chariots of Fire? Yes. Maurice? Yes. Every Merchant Ivory film? You bet. And all these jokes are funny. Imagine Airplane, remade in Britain, with better jokes.
And the performances are spot on as well. Peter Ustinov is amusing as a slave trading plantation owner, Georgina Cates is fun as the 'heroine', who spends most of the film whinging, but the honours go to Robert Portal and Samuel West, in a pair of the funniest performances of all time. Every nuance, every line is finely judged. (Is that Forster you're reading? Yes, but I only read him for the landscapes.) Buy a DVD player, get this film, and enjoy.