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Films: I is for...

Intelligence Men, The

Eric and Ernie’s (here as “Ernie Sage”, ho-ho) first cinematic venture, made before they sealed their legend status at the Beeb, has a few good bits (the corpse mess-up, Swan Lake, the judo) but, as usual, too much stilted explanatory dialogue. The cast list’s a good’un, tho’ – William ‘Schhh’ Franklyn, Richard ‘Slarti’ Vernon, Terence ‘Bergerac’ Alexander, Johnny ‘Mike Baldwin and Me’ Briggs, Peter “a dooooooooooooomesday shrooooooooooooooud” Bull, Warren Mitchell and, in the lift, Marianne Stone.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Sidney Balmoral James

    May 2, 2021 at 9:46 pm

    The Morecambe and Wise films are not up to much overall, but this is by a considerable margin the funniest and probably my favourite film when I was about twelve – I would repeat bits of Eric’s patter endlessly. ‘North of the border, down Southampton Way’, ‘Thank you Mr. Doodoo’ etc.

    • THX 1139

      May 2, 2021 at 10:28 pm

      That Riviera Touch is generally thought of as their best, and I did like it as a kid, like you did with this. The Magnificent Two is just strange (the lighter side of Third World coups!).

  2. Glenn Aylett

    April 18, 2022 at 2:04 pm

    Waiter, I’d like to make a complaint, there’s a dead man in my soup, after someone is shot in a restaurant next to Eric. Not up there with Eric and Ernie’s televisual glory years of the seventies, but The Intelligence Men is amusing enough. Also Eric and Ern are hilarious as two not very convincing ballet dancers.

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