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As Good As It Gets

A Brilliant Conflict

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I really wanted to like this British comedy short from the mid-60's. Although just before my time, Tommy Cooper and to a lesser degree Eric Sykes could reasonably make me laugh on their TV variety or sit-com shows plus I came to this piece after watching a rather fawning TV biography of the recently deceased Sykes containing eulogies of praise from the surprising likes of Eddie Izzard, Michael Palin and others. Sykes wrote and directed this off-beat, near-silent short move about two dozy workmen's encounter with a plank of wood and peopled it with friends and colleagues of the time, including the inevitable Hattie Jacques and Jimmy Edwards, but also in small parts if you closely enough the likes of Bill Oddie, Jim Dale and Jimmy Tarbuck. But the humour really is quite dated. Sykes makes reasonable use of running gags but the sketch-like sequences often run on too long and much of the material is somewhat predictable and stilted, even resorting lazily to sexism as a young female hitch-hiker gets manhandled for her trouble.In its favour, the hitch-hiker section notwithstanding, the humour is clean, gentle and inoffensive. I didn't really think Cooper and Sykes gelled together in their roles as two chippies off the old block and while I acknowledge the debt paid to Sykes comedy heroes of the Silent Era, most obviously Laurel and Hardy, there the comparison ends, indeed I was reminded more of Crackerjack's Peter Glaze and Don MacLean (now they were my era!), hapless double-act more than the immortal Stan and Ollie.The film's a nice little document of old-school comedy of a bygone age but sad to say it hasn't aged well and in truth is more a museum piece nowadays than genuine entertainment.

A short, slapstick British comedy from the late '60s. Be warned that there's also a remake from 1979 with Arthur Lowe in the Tommy Cooper role. The main inspiration behind THE PLANK seems to be the silent comedies of yesterday and the early talkies that followed, particularly the Laurel & Hardy film where they starred as a couple of workmen.THE PLANK is fun, albeit slightly overstated. It doesn't have the feel of a timeless classic to it, and for the most part it goes through the motions with all kinds of predictable humour. Saying that, there are quite a few decent gags, particularly those involving the plank being tied to the top of a car and all the accidents and incidents that ensue.The film is well worth watching for fans of classic British comedy, because the cast is a veritable who's who of famous names. Tommy Cooper, as one of the two central workmen, is by far the best value, essaying a kind of naturalistic humour that never seems force. Beside him, as straight man, Eric Sykes seems almost staid.Look out for Roy Castle in an ill-fitting wig, short cameos for Jim Dale and Hattie Jacques, plus plenty of other notables from the time.

A film such as this shows that something can be funny without resorting to swearing to get a laugh. Also showing in the process that you don't even need to speak to have a giggle. Question: What is the most basic joke on the planet? Answer: Someone slips on a banana skin. For if you have no language, then the joke is funny the world over. This is the reason why characters such as Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean and Charlie Chaplin's tramp are universally popular and why performers like Jerry Lewis and Norman Wisdom are so adored in the countries of France and Albania respectively, when they can't speak a word of Albanian or French.The Plank is a master class in comedy from Messrs Sykes and Cooper. The timing is impeccable throughout and their constant fight not only with the legendary plank but also with their car and all manner of obstacles is hilarious.The cameos are never-ending: Jimmy Edwards, Roy Castle, Jimmy Tarbuck, Hattie Jacques, Bill Oddie! The list goes on and on! One major thing to remember is that there was no script. Let me just repeat that. There was no script! Everything you see was translated straight from Eric Sykes's brain onto film. Here is his explanation in an interview on the South Bank Show, talking to Melvyn Bragg: "How can you write a visual gag? You just can't."(Please feel free to correct me as I'm writing the quote from memory and as such I may have paraphrased.)A comedic film is supposed to make you laugh, does The Plank achieve this? Like heck it does! Hilarious! Riotous! Side splitting!

No, this isn't a new starring vehicle for Keanu Reeves; it's a chirpy, cheesy British homage to the slapstick era.Though quite admirable for it's time, thirty-three years later The Plank has dated somewhat. This is the sort of comedy where you hear breaking window sound effects (though don't get to see the cracked window) and comedy music, cute cats and yapping dogs take a part. Tommy Cooper was a very amusing man who knew how to time a joke, so it's perhaps a waste of his ability to cast him in a nearly silent role.One pleasant thing about the film is that it is, apart from one or two light examples of sexism, entirely innocent, and can be watched by all ages. (Though look out for the newspaper advertisement for The News of the World, not covered up, which reads: "Pop Stars and Drugs"). Perhaps another example of this dated style is that the three black cast members all play dustbinmen.This was probably highly amusing stuff at the time, but looked back upon it doesn't really stand up. Seeing men jumping with rage till their false teeth fall out, or a man being pulled along by a car isn't that funny anymore. In fact, I remembered this film being a hell of a lot funnier than it patently is, and had my memory jogged by the IMDb: it turns out this is the first time I've actually seen the film, and I was thinking of Sykes' work for television in the late seventies/early eighties, which included Rhubarb, Rhubarb and a TV remake of this film starring Harry H.Corbett and Charlie Drake. Maybe that's why I was so disappointed as the '79 version obviously brought this tired format up to date, and, by all accounts, halved the overlong run-time.Ultimately The Plank can only be watched in it's own era. If you wanted the greatest silent comedy then you'd look to the more professional standards of the 20s and 30s (sound dubbing is quite poor here). And if you wanted to laugh at Eric Sykes holding a plank, then you'd watch the remake with it's laughter track half-way convincing you it's funny. For the '67 version there's the feeling that all of its heavily signposted gags don't have the pay-off they deserve, or that the pace isn't quite right. This was a time when The Beatles, The Stones and Dylan were redefining music. In the meantime, Jimmy Edwards was getting excited at young girls in miniskirts. But nevertheless, as a historical document, it's okay, one for a rainy afternoon when there's nothing else on. 5/10.