Customer Reviews

Lucky Jim

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'Lucky Jim,' Kinglsey Amis's first and most highly regarded work, is perhaps my favorite book of the 20th century. Its wicked satire, couched as it is in beautiful prose and a tone of comic forgiveness of human frailty, makes me return to it again and again. The movie version misses much of the nuance of Amis's humor (Ian Charmichael's portrayal, for example, of congenitally perplexed Jim Dixon is far too glib), but is good fun and ought to be seen by any fan of the novel, or of post-WWII British film.

Note: a more successful movie adaptation of a less successful K. Amis book, 'That Uncertain Feeling,' can be found with 1961's 'Only Two Can Play' starring Peter Sellers.

I got lucky with this film. I saw it before I read Kingsley Amis' brilliant novel, so I had no feelings about it one way or the other. What originally drew me to the film was the cast: Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and Hugh Griffith, three of the funniest men in English film. And then to find the Boulting brothers involved! At any rate they all gave it a game go and for the most part caught most of the spirit of the novel. It's a nice, gentle comedy and I for one have to recommend it. And a real treat here is watching Terry-Thomas play against type, and quite well too!

The movie takes some detour from the book, but nonetheless it stands on its own right.
We found it to be hilarious and the more we watch it the more we enjoy it.
A true classic

This film was based on a Kingsley Amis novel and released in l957. Lucky Jim is played by Ian Carmichael, who is an upper middle class, somewhat eager but anxious and accident prone graduate in his first post at one of England's nouveau, post war universities. He boards together with several colleagues at the home of a stuffy dean and wife with all the usual boarding restrictions, no smoking, no drinking, etc. One does get a glimpse of the spartan conditions prevailing in post war England however. One of the more hilarious scenes is the discovery of his horrified landlady of the holes made in his blanket because of his smoking in bed.
He is also beset by the unwanted attentions of a fellow boarder, a neurotic, hysterical female who is horrified by his amorous behavior while drunk. So the film also furnishes us with a portrait of the frigid, scholastic female who craves male attention but only to a point.
Our hero does get the right gal by the end of the film and enters business, quitting the redbrick, pretentious college. Here we have Kingsley Amis' comment on the state of higher education in post war Britain plus some wonderful portraits of the middle class. Terry Thomas plays the bounder as usual along with a sterling British cast. Highly recommended.

This is one of a score of delightful British comedies from the 1950s and early 1960s that remain virtually timeless. Lucky Jim is droll and hilarious, and the casting is exceptional. Don't miss it.