British Comedy Guide

What A Whopper (1961)

Adam Faith is not a bad actor, and so I gave this a look, but he was wooden in this, and the whole thing made for an absolute load of rubbish. Didn't even make me smile.

Sid James, Freddie Frinton, Charles Hawtrey, Wilfrid Brambell, Spike Milligan (briefly), Clive Dunn, Terry Scott, Gordon Rollings etc. etc. and the gorgeous Carole Lesley, who sadly committed suicide aged 38 when the studio cancelled her contract.

As somebody on the IMDb put it :-
Sadly, despite a whole host of reliable British comedy actors in the cast list and some well-known names behind the scenes (Terry Nation and John Barry) this is a pretty dreadful movie.

Four hip kids need money and so decide to mock a Loch Ness monster, take photographs in London's Serpentine, then drive up to Scotland and Loch Ness in a Rolls Royce hearse, to make a killing on the photograph. I mean, the very idea is just awful.

I think Adam Faith released a record of the title, which may have been more successful than this pile of doo doo.
2/10

I think we could have guessed that from the title!

You could have guessed the film's ending within the first 15 minutes!

And the crowd chase scenes were farcical!

SPOILER ALERT! ?

I've a soft spot for this film. It's very daft and no, not particularly funny, but it's not actively objectionable.

As they used to sing in the early 60s "Some People" - takes all sorts I suppose.

You might be interested in these two sites :-

Reelstreets, which (mostly) finds films outside shots - I find it fascinating, especially how London is vastly changed, and Heatherden Hall at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, which is in this film and has appeared in many, many, many, many films!

https://www.reelstreets.com/films/what-a-whopper/

And, if you want to know what the cars/motorbikes/scooters are, there's the IMCDB - interesting debate by the nerds, trying to identify the RR hearse. The info these people have on vehicles is mind boggling.

https://www.imcdb.org/movie_55615-What-a-Whopper.html

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 24th August 2022, 11:27 AM

Heatherden Hall at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, which is in this film and has appeared in many, many, many, many films!

I was there just about 10 days ago, as it happens, and am very happy to report Pinewood have been restoring the Hall's exterior. It looks quite magnificent.

Good, but links of no interest?

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 24th August 2022, 11:50 AM

Good, but links of no interest?

Well I know ReelStreets. Fascinating resource, but I've found plenty of errors in it before.

The car database is a new one on me though - ?. Very, very nerdy!

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