TV Cream

Films: L is for...

Last Remake of Beau Geste, The

Apart from his Brooksfilms collaborations, Marty Feldman didn’t score very big with his big screen outings. Between the decidedly shaky The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother and the swinging mania of Every Home Should Have One, there wasn’t an awful lot to see, to be honest. But just before it would become too late, Marty pulled this little nugget out of his hat and it’s a beauty. The cast is splendid – particularly Peter Ustinov – but Feldman is the star and you can’t take your eyes off him, or his eyes. The plot, naturally, is largely incidental, but this isn’t pointless; the point is to let Feldman deliver his comic mania unbridled and this it does. If you haven’t seen it (and you probably haven’t, it’s criminally underused in a world where second rate war films and substandard westerns litter the schedules) then do so as soon as you can, and remember just how truly brilliant Marty Feldman was.
“LIFE’S AS BRIEF AS A BUTTERFLY’S FART…”

Click to comment

0 Comments

  1. Stuart Kenny

    November 18, 2010 at 9:17 am

    I saw this on YouTube earlier this year, and I was in hysterics. I know it got alot of bad press, Feldman and Universal Pictures fought over the final cut and all. But, it’s so funny, the prison escape (filmed in Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin), is genius. And the cast is filled with all the Hollywood greats!! Ann-Margret, Michael York, Peter Ustinov, Henry Gibson, Roy Kinnear, James Earl Jones, Spike Milligan, Trevor Howard, Terry-Thomas, Burt Kwouk, Irene Handl with Lurch off the Addams Family and Blakey off On The Buses!! 😀 Who could say no to that??

  2. Lee James Turnock

    October 6, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    On television, Feldman was always fine in small doses for me, so I was as surprised as anyone to find this flick was pretty entertaining all the way through – though a lot of that could be down to the fact that Feldman called in Jim ‘Every Home Should Have One’ Clark to do some judicious pre-release pruning and re-shooting, which is very noticeable if you look closely enough, but not jarring. Spike Milligan’s reaction to Ann-Margret in her sexy undies is very nearly worth the admission price on its own.

  3. George White

    February 15, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    My grandfather plays the coachman at the orphanage who brings Trevor Howard to see Irene Handl.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To Top