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Rating:  - A Room with a View of the Passage to Howards End, If You Please
"I'm a beautiful, young virgin in Italy. I want my sexual awakening and I want it now!"
So says Emily (Georgina Cates) shortly after arriving in Italy in this parody of veddy British films, particularly those of Merchant and Ivory. Along for the journey is Aunt Agnes (Prunella Scales), Emily's near-imbecile brother Edward (Samuel West), Edward's college mate Cedric (Robert Portal), and the hapless servant George (Sean Pertwee). Oh, and if you didn't pick up the Merchant-Ivory connection right away, the writer gave the surname "Ivory" to Emily and her family.
Poor Emily. At the scandalous age of 22 she remains unmarried and Aunt Agnes is having none of it. Enter the insufferable Cedric who is fond of citing the poet Homer and is given to criticizing everything and everyone. Naturally Aunt Agnes is willing to overlook Cedric's eccentricities, but Emily is less than thrilled. Enter lower class worker George. George rescues Emily from drowning and is rewarded by being insulted, then forced to go to Italy as a servant.
It is in Italy where Emily's desires begin to blossom in a most alarming manner. Without giving anything away, there is a scene where Emily drinks from a fountain that manages to be vulgar and funny at the same time. Later, after Emily's hilarious attempt to seduce Cedric, she begins to cast her eye upon the luckless George. Believing that Emily is carrying his child, George begins to woo her, but Emily resists his charms.
Finally, in India at the tea plantation of Horace (Peter Ustinov), even Aunt Agnes succumbs to passion. The heat and passion seems to create a certain amount of "special feelings" in Edward and George as well. But it is in India where the heavy arm of the aristocracy puts George firmly in his place - how dare he aspire to marry above his station! His kangaroo court trial is very amusing. Naturally all is not resolved so easily and the pieces fall into place when the entourage, including Horace, return to England.
While there are some clever lines and laughs, too often the creators decided to throw in as many jokes, both verbal and visual, as possible in a single scene, hoping perhaps that at least one of them would stick. The film also suffers from less than smooth editing (cutting away from a visual joke too quickly for example) and the script often relies on less than stellar (read: tired) jokes. It's too bad the writers and director didn't simply mine the rich material of the Merchant-Ivory legacy more thoroughly instead of throwing out verbal and visual jokes that seemed to be recycled from older comedy films.
The cast is almost perfect. Special mention must go to Robert Portal's portrayal of Cedric and Georgina Cates' portrayal of Emily. Samuel West does a great job of playing the buffoon and thank god for Prunella Scale's Aunt Agnes because she keeps the film anchored with her flawless performance. Peter Ustinov's role is rather small, but he hams it up shamelessly whenever he is in front of the camera.
A few points of trivia: Prunella Scales of "Fawlty Towers" fame is the real life mother of Samuel West who plays her nephew Edward. And West, in a mild case of biting the hand that feeds, played Leonard Bast in the Merchant-Ivory adaptation of "Howard's End."
Rating:  - Hilarious parody of Masterpiece Theater Victorian Dramas-
I've recommended this comedy to friends and co-workers more than any other movie, and watching it on New Years Eve has become a tradition for myself when I have company over to view the city's fireworks that can be seen from my windows. Everybody who sees it, loves it. Peter Ustinov & Prunella Scales will be familiar to almost everyone over the age of 35, but the entire cast is effective and the young heroine, Georgina Cates, is perfect in the lead. One good line after another, the humor has to be bawdy since the parody is of those uptight, repressed, kill-joys that have graced our TVs and movie theaters in countless Masterpiece Theater, Merchant/Ivory productions, and others portraying the mid to late 1800s. I love many of these, and Daniel Deronda, Our Mutual Friend & the updated Forsyte Saga our among my absolute favorites for repeated viewings. But I can't help but laugh along at their absurdities, as well, and this well-written comedy is spot-on.
Rating: - British Aristocracy -- or Hazards of inbreeding
This has to be one of the funniest movies I have seen in a very long time. It is broad -- very broad -- satire of the British Upper Class in 1908. It has the barest of plots but that doesn't detract from the movie because it was never intended to be anything other than what it is -- an exaggerated view of the British Aristocracy. While the dialog is clever much of the humor occurs in the background or in the visuals so the viewer really must pay attention to the details. For example the pub where the lower classes hang out in England is called "Scum of the Earth" but the bar in Italy where the manservant goes is called "Scuma del Tierra". There are many anachronisms -- mostly in the idioms but there is a phonograph and a LP record. Plus one of the funniest scenes is the water fountain in Italy -- the penis is circumcised which was not characteristic of Romans or even current Europeans. The director uses a great deal of misdirection and double entendre and one of the best examples is the scene where the boys are fanning themselves and talking about their "strange feelings".
The movie gets off to a great start as we watch the boys ignore the conductor who is asking them to pay for their tickets. This refusal to acknowledge that the working class even exists sets the tone for the entire movie, which is hysterically funny, especially if you have any knowledge of how the British Upper Class acted at the turn of the century. Peter Ustinov has a small part which he walks through but the entire film is classic British and great satire.
I only gave the film 4 stars because it is such a fluffy piece that will never win any awards, but if you just want some good hard laughs watch this film. Watch carefully because much of the humor is in the expressions or in the background.
Rating: - she has ghosts from Belgium.
This is a wonderful light-hearted satire of Merchant Ivory films. I love them and I loved it. The sparks between 22 year old Emily, who is being pressured to marry, and George, a representative of "the scum of the earth" carry the movie well, as does the romance between aunt agnes and cedric's uncle. Prunella Scales is so unlike her character in Fawlty Towers you need the credits to prove to yourself that she is the same actress. The characters are convincing if extreme.
Rating: - The only movie my husband required me to buy.
We saw this movie for the first time on PBS and thought it was hysterical. It's only one of two movies that he can watch over and over again. It's also the only movie he can watch and not fall asleep. It's a little racy, but that's why it's so funny. The whole stoic, staid British never show emotion; makes the movie great. The main reason they go to Italy and India isn't to marry off Emily or prevent her association with George, but because they're driving the butler crazy!!
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