Customer Reviews

Stiff Upper Lips [VHS]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I caught 'Stiff Upper Lips' on PBS tonight. It was the first time ever that I laughed my arse off watching 'Masterpiece Theatre.' (When the English lawn was unpacked from its crate and set up, in the middle of an Italian plaza, for a proper tea, I had to stick my fist in my mouth to keep from howling and waking the neighbors.)

The plot is familiar enough, pieced together from various tedious English period dramas: Emily, a pretty old maid of 22 (Georgina Cates, from 'An Awfully Big Adventure'), and George, a strapping scum-of-the-earth, are denied true love because of (yawn) stifling social conventions and pretensions, as personified by some very funny stereotypes. Here, let's see if I can rattle them off: there is the prim auntie (Prunella Scales), the upper class twit with the teddy collection, the unctious vicar, the bloated India imperialist (Peter Ustinov), the fey academic fixated on epic poetry and dead languages -- why, there's even the dedicated butler who practices making face-less in the mirror.

The long-running jokes about sexual repression are dead-on ("What ripping unmentionables you have!" coos Emily to George), and whenever the tension lets up -- that is, whenever sex is on -- one breathes a little sigh of relief knowing that the English are only human and occasionally do have their passions. (I used to wonder how they reproduced.) Come to think of it, this is the most and best I've seen of the English making babies since -- since -- well certainly not since I started watching 'Masterpiece Theatre.'

If the movie is, as the reviewer before me complains, a trifle slow and at parts predictable, it's only the better to parody those godawful respectable Merchant Ivory soap operas. I can see why this self-deprecating humor might not appeal to American audiences used to the obvious (if wonderful) farce of Mel Brooks, but for Brits and others savvy to their dry dry wit and weary of Jane Austens and Kenneth Branaughs, 'Stiff Upper Lips' is a pure delight.

Making it a bleeding shame that the video is priced at over 100$. Ah well. "As the poet Homer wrote..."

Given the mixed reviews I read on the Amazon website about this one, I wasn't sure if it would be any good. Fortunately, though, I was pleasantly, nay, SIDE-SPLITTINGLY surprised! It was brilliant!

Don't be fooled into thinking this is just a parody of Merchant Ivory movies. It also pays extensive homage to Ken Russell's brilliant 'Lady Chatterley' as well, not to mention having a bit of a dig at Jane Eyre/Sense and Sensibility/et al.

You don't have to be a huge Merchant Ivory fan to like this, although it probably helps. Even though the last time I saw a Merchant Ivory movie was many years ago, I still got all the jokes in this. And even my boyfriend, who has never watched anything in the Merchant Ivory genre and probably never will, was falling about laughing. Some jokes are subtle, some are over the top and bawdy, but all are hilarious.

Prunella Scales and Peter Ustinov, two veteran actors at the top of their game, are absolutely wonderful in this, as are the rest of the cast.

Thoroughly recommended!

You've got to hand it to the producers and writers; in living up to the claim that there wasn't a parody of Merchant/Ivory films "..until now!" they've picked up the wit, the repressed feelings, overly romanticised locations and the achingly fierce British class war. Now if only they could have done it a little bit better.

The cast does a fairly good job, but that only covers so much ground, and the third act of the film suffers when you realise that they've run out of things to spoof.

The humour ranges between the urbane and the lewd, but then what are you watching it for? My wife and I laughed quite a bit, and it has a healthy amount of quotable phrases, which says a lot more than some other films out there.

All in all, its a cute diversion.

When I first saw this movie, I didn't know it was a parody and was thouroughly surprised. After that, it was filled with blatant jokes making fun of traditional victorian era movies of the likes of BBC dramas. Some of the humor dips into the style of Monty Python as well. I loved this movie!

For those who get it, delightful.

For those who don't....well, I'm sorry, but it's just not the movie's fault.

Granted this isn't a high brow humor movie, but it isn't supposed to be. It is hysterical if you take it for what it is- a movie about sex that made fun of all the aspects of Merchant Ivory films and Masterpiece Theatre that needed to be laughed at. Some of the parodies were really very clever, my favorite being the Mouret Fanfare played on the sitar, while others were on the overdone side. On the whole though this movie is great if you're well versed in quite a bit of British film.

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!!

I thought this movie was hilarious. Being from the Fawlty Towers and Good Neighbors genre of humor myself. I was laughing out loud during many parts of the movie that indeed require following the plot and the characters. You couldn't watch this movie in between doing the laundry and cleaning out the refrigerator...but if you give it the attention it deserves, you will be well rewarded with laughter and a refreshed feeling that there are still funny movies being made.

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.

"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."