Written by Ray Cooney – who directed with Harold Snoad -
it’s perhaps one of the more successful translations of his classic farces onto
film and, largely based on one set, it does have the feel of a stage
performance especially with the camera following the actors as they move from
one understanding to the next. Cooney was hugely successful in the West End at
the time and had 17 plays performed there including Run for Your Wife which ran
for nine years. He made a number of film versions but not all were critically
well-regarded…
Not Now, Comrade is not great art but it’s fun and
allows so many character actors to indulge their comic chops even if their only
wearing briefs and nipple tassels in Carol’s case.
Now, if you’re sitting comfortably, let’s sort out the
plot… We start off at the Royal Albert Hall where a Russian ballet troop is
meeting the press. Rudi Petrovyan (Lewis Fiander) is the star dancer and looks
nervously at two KGB agents making sure he behaves. An attractive blonde
burlesque dancer, Barbara Wilcox (Carol Hawkins) leaves her club and climbs
into an open-top Triumph sportscar stripping off down to her work clothes as
she speeds off to Kensington.
Beautiful Babs – that’s her name too! – parks up in
Kensington Gore and runs over to perform a startling distraction in front of
the ballet troop thereby allowing Rudi to make a break for it. He is supposed
to climb into the boot of her car but, in the confusion, he gets into the boot
of a Rolls Royce driven by a naval Commander Rimmington (Leslie Phillips,
yay!!). Off sails Rimmington with Barbara in hot pursuit followed by the two
Russian agents as the scene is set in Cooney style.
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| "Oh, I say... ding, dong." etc |
The Commander parks up outside his country house and, as
Barbra looks on, goes in to meet his daughter, Nancy played by the excellent
Michele Dotrice. Watching Dotrice and Philips work you appreciate the skill
involved in this particularly British genre; the trick is to keep a straight
face but to be as earnest as possible, it’s real life just switched up a tad… and
with fewer clothes, albeit not as few as you’d expect.
There follows many enjoyable near misses as Barbra tries
to hide Rudi from Rimmington who is sent fishing only to return early by which
time Nancy is in on the game and has enlisted her finance Gerry Buss (Ian
Lavender). Among all these doings is the world-worn-down gardener Hoskins (Roy
Kinnear) who’s confused already without the unnecessary complications of his
“betters”.
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| Carol Hawkins and Lewis Fiander |
Cooney plays Mr. Laver, a man from the ministry sent with
a message for the Commander only to find Bob impersonating the father-in-law to
be (who hasn’t met him). In all the commotion a Constable arrives played by
Windsor Davies who, somewhat inevitably, ends up meeting with a cheeky guest,
Bobby, played by his TV partner Don Estelle.
The top-quality cast is rounded off by the ageless June
Whitfield as Janet Rimmington. Together they make the most out of a situation
that in lesser hands could spin humourlessly out of control. But they know
exactly how to play Conney’s lines and situations and Not Now Comrade surprises
with genuinely funny moments and oodles of charm. It’s classy not rude.
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| Michelle Dotrice and Ian Lavender |
Dusty Verdict: Funny and not sleazy, apart from that
one chilly tasselled dance from the lovely Carol, this is well worth whiling
away a rainy afternoon watching. See some of the cream of British stage actors
working on film and be grateful.
The film is available on DVD and is also shown from time
to time on Talking Pictures TV.
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| Ray Cooney, Ian Lavender and Carol Hawkins |
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