Peter Cook’s leap up cinema’s creative pecking order from the purgatory of Wrong Box cameo work takes the same shape as many an entry in this genre – its episodic structure gives the film the appearance more of a themed sketch show than a conventionally progressing plot. In this case it’s the simple tale of Cook’s suave Devil giving Dudley Moore’s burger flipper seven catch-ridden chances to better himself, leading to seven disparate sketches. Not a satisfying narrative in the old style, but the linear progression from one incarnation of Dud to the next is handled with expert comic nous. The scene where Dud and Eleanor Bron commit tearful adultery in Cook’s limo is both funny and oddly moving in a way many conventional romantic comedies would give whole worlds to achieve.
Lee James Turnock
May 21, 2010 at 4:14 pm
If ‘heaven’ looks suspiciously like Syon Park, that’s because it is.