I could go into the history here but ultimately Morecombe and Wise were a British comedy double act that used to produce some of the best Christmas comedy specials that was good today as it was back then. Back in the day there were two main TV options namely BBC or ITV and they the darling of the BBC but they moved over to other side with the carrot of a being in creative control to make movies and this was one of them. Having a love for these two will help the sale of this movie and it does for me. More details of the cost of production or box office success in terms of money is not readily available. What I can tell you is that, this movie was 15th in the British movies lists for the year it was released (1966). It stars Suzanne Lloyd, Paul Stassino & Armand Mestral and of course the main stars of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise with Eric playing Eric Simpson and Ernie playing Ernest Clark. This movie will not trouble Tri-Critic Sync Challenge scorers as we are no-where near close to each other the closest was IMDb who gave it a 5.8/10 while the Rotten Tomatoes only have an audience score and it low at 32%.
The plot is that these two get fired from their traffic warden jobs when they ticket the queen for parking in the wrong place. They take their beaten-up old car and book a trip to French Riviera. They end up being the donkey in a diamond smuggling ring when they arrive, they are taken to a spooky chateau full of villain trying to take the diamonds back off them. The head of the crooks sends his beautiful lady to collect the diamonds off of them by flirting with the boys and plying one of the other. With the boys fighting each other and Ernie twisting the mind of Ernie to get as much out of him as possible while the girl is slowly falling for them more in sympathy of their stupidity.
If you love Morecombe and Wise you should and would love this movie this has Eric at his stupid best and genuinely had me laughing out loud. The scenes at the chateau where there is body that Eric finds whilst being hit by villains trying to get him out the way. The body disappears once he brings Ernie back and the wine packs a wallop as he keeps getting walloped by the crooks every time, he swigs the wine. I remember laughing out loud when the boys were on the beach and Eric is trying to impress the ladies by wearing a bathing suit with arms and down to his knees. The volleyball match was enough to tip the giggles into laughs but I am aware that I am on my own with this view as many people don’t like this movie. It can be difficult to make a comedy that everyone likes and this one doesn’t tick everyone’s boxes and I can see why. This is not for everyone particularly if you do not like the stupid humour of Eric or the centric activity of Ernie and how they bounce off each other. I like it but I won’t force this on you if you are not into them, but if you are then you’ve already seen this haven’t you!
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