Product Details

• Actors: John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Andrew Sachs, Connie Booth, Ballard Berkeley
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: September 26, 1991
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300248461
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,677 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Only Basil Fawlty could keep up a conversation with a dead man and never even notice his state. In "The Kipper and the Corpse," Basil is sure that the man died from the hotel's bad food. When a doctor declares otherwise he leaps into gloriously insensitive explosions of joy, but his problems are just beginning. Where to hide the body as they await the coroner while keeping the whole thing a secret from his customers? Just about everywhere, it turns out, and the room-hopping farce that ensues ensures that the dead man is the worst-kept secret in the hotel's hilarious history. "Gourmet Night" is Basil's brilliant idea to raise the quality of the clientele of his dingy little establishment, but when his new cook gets blind drunk he responds by importing the food from another restaurant, with the usual Fawlty foul-ups. Basil's fevered flogging of his sputtering car is a surreal series highlight. In "Waldorf Salad," an American guest slips Basil good money to keep the cook late for an after-hours dinner, but Basil pockets the cash and attempts to deliver the meal himself in a calamitous comedy of errors. As he pretends to berate and beat the nonexistent cook for his mistakes, his manic bits of street theater grow into an absurdly schizophrenic shouting match. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Another bloody one down!", August 24, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fawlty Towers, Vol. 3 - Gourmet Night/The Kipper and the Corpse/Waldorf Salad [VHS] (VHS Tape)

After serving a guest with an out-of-date kipper, Basil begins to get suspicious when he doesn't get a "thank you". Never mind life goes on for Basil. He gets slightly more suspicious when the guest won't move. Won't breathe. Infact won't be staying for morning lunch. He's dead!

In an attempt to cover-up his food poisoning Basil hides the body away from the other guests, unfortunately an old lady sees the dead body and collapses. "That's great! Another bloody one down, only 23 more guests to go!"

The scene where Basil finds out that the man has been dead for hours so can't have eaten the kipper, thus Basil wasn't to blame, is brilliant. Basil, selfish and ignorant begins jumping around in joy so happy fro himself, all the while a dead body sits in the room.

A brilliant episode.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More comic genius from Cleese and Co., June 22, 2004

By 

Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fawlty Towers, Vol. 3 - Gourmet Night/The Kipper and the Corpse/Waldorf Salad [VHS] (VHS Tape)

John Cleese once remarked that he did as much with "Fawlty Towers" in 12 episodes than Lucille Ball did in several years of "I Love Lucy". When I first heard that, I thought Cleese was being as crass as Basil Fawlty. But you know something? He came darn close.

"The Kipper and the Corpse" has as much fun with a dead body than both Weekends at Bernies. Basil's attempt to conceal the corpse, of course, makes it more visible to the guests. It's hilarious.

In an attempt to upscale the restaurant--and therefore the clientele--Basil decides to hold a "Gourmet Night". The chef he hires consumes as much cooking sherry as he applies to his dishes. You can imagine the results.

It's not just the Germans that Basil outrages. In "Waldorf Salad", Basil is confronted with a pushy American who is obviously being ripped off. By the end of this episode, you too will know how to create your own Waldorf Salad.

Volume Three of the "Fawlty Towers" series is a guaranteed gut-clencher of laughter. Pick it up, along with the other sets.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Over-Average Fawlty Towers Episode, August 22, 2000

By 

Bjorn Clasen (Rolléngergronn, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Europe) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fawlty Towers, Vol. 3 - Gourmet Night/The Kipper and the Corpse/Waldorf Salad [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This »Fawlty Towers« video contains the episode »The Kipper And The Corpse« (originally broadcast on 12/3 1979).

In »The Kipper And The Corpse« everything that can(not) go wrong, does so... as always in this show, although in this case it's even funnier.