Time to float Barker and Corbett, just not that Corbett,
the Harry H kind and a vehicle tailor-made for the then rising star of Galton
and Simpson's Steptoe and Son written by the men themselves. At the time the
film did reasonably well at the box office with Kine Weekly listing it
as one of the highest grossing of the year but it was generally viewed as a critical
miss with Variety scathingly suggesting that "...it will provide
spasmodic amusement for the easy going..." well, I personally like it where the going
is easy but with quite a few caveats!
Firstly, who doesn't want to watch canal boats making their serene progress along the summer waterways? The sight of Ronnie Barker and Harry H Corbett floating gently down stream with glorious countryside views all filmed in Techniscope makes for a nostalgic feast especially for someone who grew up on the Leeds Liverpool Canal as I did … well, close enough for walking and fishing.
Secondly, there’s a cast featuring some of the leading lights of the era with Eric Sykes as a green around the gills leisure craft who “won’t be happy until he gets a wooden leg…” according to Corbett’s “Lothario of the Locks” Hemel Pike, the titular narrow boat worker. The there’s the broody and unsettling presence of Hugh Griffith as Joe Turnbull the overly protective father of the beauteous Christine played by Julia Foster who’s pure naturalism raises the film’s dramatic levels whenever she’s on screen.
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| Barker and Corbett |
Then we have the two leads in Mr Corbett and Mr Barker
both of whom are guaranteed comic immortality thanks to Steptoe and Porridge amongst
the many roles they undertook. They both disappear into these roles but here
there’s less for them to work with Harry H slightly miscast as the Casanova of
the Cut who is motivated by unconvincing saucy encounters as well as the fact
he has canal water running in his veins at a time when the narrow boats were
being outcompeted by rail and road haulage. Hard to be a man of tradition and
conviction when you’re faithless and manipulative with the ladies and harder
still to suddenly be thinking you’ve found The One.
The first third of the story is uncomfortable as we follow the adventures of Hemel and his co-pilot Ronnie (Ronnie Barker) as he plans his route along the Grand Union Canal from Southall to Birmingham with stops to see his lady friends along the way. Yes, there’s a girl in every port for this inland sailor and he plans out which ones to visit enroute and on return – even including his favourite at Marsworth Top Lock at Bulborne Junction on the Grand Union Canal near Tring in Hertfordshire (thanks to Reel Streets or, in this case, Reel Canals).
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| Miriam Karlin in full force |
First stop is The Boat Horse alehouse at Black Jack's Lock near Harefield where Hemel meets up with the feisty Nellie Marsh (Miriam Karlin) after putting on his smart suit and dealing with poor Ronnie’s disappointment at yet again being left in charge of the moorings. Unfortunately, before the boys can enjoy the meal she’s cooked, Nellie spots the postcards Ronnie was due to mail to Hemel’s lucky ladies upstream, and realising she’s being taken for a mug, chases the boys off with her bread knife.
It's a slapstick exit and yet as Hemel then meets another sweetheart, Cynthia (Jo Rowbottom, later to feature with Doctor Who in the classic Evil of the Daleks and much more besides!) who not only bakes him a cake but odes his laundry, it’s clear he’s using these women, much as he may enjoy his company. This doesn’t make him that likeable although he’s clearly a rogue.
My attitude to the film began to improve though as Hemel meets his match at the next stop at Marsworth Top Lock, Bulborne Junction near Tring, and in more ways than one. Here we find Christine and her father who we first see threatening a man who had the audacity to say hello to his daughter. He’s impossible but Hemel gets Ronnie to distract him in the pub, challenging him to a 29-pint session which, naturally he loses but at least his pal gets to spend quality time with Christine and their relationship is certainly the deepest of those we’ve seen. The narrative for the last hour is based on this situation and, ironically for a film about the flow of canal traffic, it is more compelling when the narrow boats stop and it’s the people that get moving.
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| Julia Foster radiates! |
Julia Foster is always someone you care about in whatever
role and she and Griffith bring more fulsome characterisation and dramatic
force. When it is discovered – via a hapless Doctor played by my Dad’s old
Quarry Bank classmate Derek Nimmo (you wouldn’t credit him as a scouser in most
of his roles) – Joe literally stops everything until he discovers the “culprit”.
He drains the canal, attaches home made bombs to the lock and aims a gun at
anyone who disagrees – cue Richard Briers as a young official and Barker’s
future Porridge co-star Brian Wilde, the legendary Wally Patch (who started in
British silents) as a bargee, plus Rita Webb and Patricia Hayes as onlookers.
It's going to be a grandstand finish and will Hemel not only admit his clear role in the situation but accept and make peace with the life it means he might have to live.
Dusty verdict: The film illustrates the difference between longer form character development of sit-coms and the more rounded narrative required for a feature film. Corbett’s character can get away with being selfish and cruel in Steptoe because he gets plenty of ground to prove his good-natured support for his old dad. Here we almost lose Hemel before he shows us his more likeable qualities but this comes in force as he finally grows up – albeit with a woman just over half his age (Foster was 20 during filming, Corbett 39).
Director Duncan Wood keeps up the pace and there’s the steady rhythms of the waterways representing a way of life that was soon coming to an end. Eric Syke’s wacky interventions signal the future for the canals, people on motorised boats there for the scenery and not the graft. To this extent The Bargee stands as a record of the last working days of the Georgian “motorways” on which Britain’s industrialisation was founded. You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone… Hemel might even agree.
