British Comedy Guide

Helter Skelter (1949)

How do I describe this? Poor man's "Hellzapoppin'" (made 8 years earlier, and I'd just bought the DVD as it happens!) would be the nearest, with loads of British comedy actors going nowhere, in fact for me the funniest thing was Frenchman Robert Lamouret with is Donald Duck clone "Dudule".

Other thing worth a mentch is Terry-Thomas doing his famous BBC "Technical Hitch" skit, but other than that nothing for me - even the custard pie routine was poor.

Rich girl gets hiccups laughing (at Robert Lamouret & his duck, I seem to remember) and then various people, scare or make her laugh in a haunted house and the BBC studios to try and to get rid of her hiccups - SOOOOO funny. Not.

Am watching this on TPTV as we speak. That was a mistake! Should have searched for Herc's review before I arranged my day around it. I note that four of the eight reviews give it 9 or 10 out of ten (including describing it as "riotous comedy") while another describes it as "The worst film I have ever seen".

Still, Cottage to Let follows on Film4 so all is not lost.

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