The 1960s satire boom did not only lead to the Monty Pythons, although they remain the Holy Grail of British comedy (haha, did you get it??). At approximately the same time as the "Flying Circus" was irremediably savaging the minds of millions of unsuspecting Brits, "The Bed Sitting Room" was released to equally unsuspecting Brit audiences (they clearly are more circumspect by now). Both share the same type of nonsensical satirical humor, while Richard Lester's film deftly mocks the absurdities of war (the conflict lasted 2mn28sec, including the signing of the peace treaty, a line which never fails to amuse me). After all these years, though, let's be frank and subversive: "The Bed Sitting Room" kind of lags in the middle (like my... wit). It started out as a one-act, one-man play in 1962, and I feel whoever adapted it as a longer story did not entirely succeed (or try very hard). Some of it feels, after a while, heavily repetitive, with subplots concerning an annoying trunk and a hasty marriage which fail to amuse me much (when you are short on ideas, just introduce a cuckold husband, that will do the trick). The soundtrack, with its heavy-handed emphasis of comical moments ('hey, this is funny, hahaha!') also gets on my nerves. So I would agree with reviewers who have, since the film's release, been pointing out the amount of padding that hinders the film (well, yes, I try to make sure none of my ideas are actually original, that would be pretentious really). Overall, though, this is still a fine example of Oh So British satirical humor, and nobody does it better... than the Monty Pythons.
Review of The Bed Sitting Room
