Ian Hendry shot to fame as the star of the first series of 'The Avengers' in which he played crime busting 'Dr.David Keel', with Patrick Macnee as his sidekick 'John Steed'. He then left to pursue a career in film, leaving Macnee to assume star status in the show ( which became an international hit ).
Hendry made several films, of which 'Live Now - Pay Later' was one. In it, he played 'Albert Argyll', a door-to-door salesman for 'Callendar's Credit Stores'. Slick, quick-witted, irresistible to women, this man could sell anything to anybody. As a bonus, he gets to sleep with some of his customers. Indeed early on in the film one of them, called 'Treasure' ( June Ritchie ) turns up at the shop, demanding to see Albert. He has run out on her, leaving her to bring up a child born out of wedlock, as well making her responsible for a mass of bills. He is out on his rounds, so she vents her anger by wrecking the shop.
As the film progresses, her anger subsides and she and Albert once more become an item. When he is promoted to manager, he takes her to the shop and they fool around using the goods ( Albert does a stunningly brilliant 'Charlie Chaplin' impression at one point ). But he bites off more than he chew, and his boss Mr.Callendar ( John Gregson ) demotes him back to salesman.
Treasure goes off Albert too, leaving him alone once more. But is he downhearted? Is he heck? As the movie ends, he once is out and about ( he has a habit of jumping out of his van while it is still moving ) and working his charm on a new customer, called Coral ( Justine Lord ).
Another reviewer has rightly commented on the similarity between Hendry's 'Albert' and Michael Caine's 'Alfie'. I have always believed that Hendry deserved greater success than he ultimately got - he should have been up there with Oliver Reed and Richard Harris and Stanley Baker as a major international star. He had the talent. He just never found the right role ( like Reed and Harris he also had a terrible drink problem. My late father-in-law once told me Hendry came into his local pub one afternoon, and stood a round ), becoming instead a supporting star, albeit a good one, appearing in 'The Hill' ( opposite Sean Connery ), 'Get Carter' ( opposite Michael Caine ), 'The Internecine Project' ( opposite James Coburn ) and my favourite Vincent Price picture - 'Theatre Of Blood'. In all these films he was marvellous.
June Ritchie, who plays 'Treasure', holds the distinction of being the first topless woman in a major British film - John Schlesinger's 'A Kind Of Loving', also made in 1962. She was also the second topless woman in a major British film, as she takes a bath in Albert's flat. She too was tipped for stardom, which never materialised.
All British films of these period seemed to have wonderful supporting casts, and this one is no exception - Nyree Dawn Porter, Geoffrey Keen, Peter Butterworth, Bridget Armstrong, Jeannette Sterke, and an early sighting of Peter Bowles.
Particularly impressive is Liz Fraser as 'Joyce Corby', wife of an ambitious Councillor. She is up to her neck in debt and when the bailiffs come knocking, flees from the house in terror - only to get knocked down and killed. For anyone accustomed to her bubbly roles in the 'Carry On' series, it is quite shocking stuff.
Writer Jack Trevor Story and Jay Lewis had earlier collaborated on a dire wartime comedy starring Bill Travers and Spike Milligan called 'Invasion Quartet', so it makes this film's quality all the more surprising. Lewis only made one more film after this - the silent comedy 'A Home Of Your Own' with Ronnie Barker - before his death in 1969.
So this works both as a cautionary tale of the dangers of getting heavily into debt, and a comedy with charming acting from the leads. It really deserves an official D.V.D. release.
15 out of 17 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink