Customer Reviews
A RATHER SLOW ROW ON THE THAMES - By: C. Kingswell, 29 Mar 2008 
I suppose it was always going to be difficult to bring J.K.Jerome's classic tale to the big screen. The book, if I recalll, is very descriptive of the places they visit as well as being humorously narrated, & I'm pretty sure the three men ( & a dog ) went further afield & had more adventures than they do in the film. There was also no romantic interest, so what you have here is a very loose adaptation of the original story. There are some chuckles to be had, especiallly from Jimmy Edwards as Harris, whose irascibility & ineptitude is always fun to watch, but David Tomlinson as 'J' seems a little laid back & Laurence Harvey's oafish ladies' man George becomes rather annoying. In fact, Harvey looks a little out of place here, as he is not a comic actor.
The best moments are when they ( & numerous other people ) get lost in Hampton Court's maze & when their feeble attempts at putting up the boat's cover in the pouring rain result in their spending the night getting soaked to the skin.
The three lovely girls they pursue are played by Jill Ireland, Shirley Eaton & Lisa Gastoni. There is also a welcome appearance by Robertson Hare as a photogapher at the Henley Regatta.
All in alll, it's not a bad film, but it could have been better.
The film is in widescreen & has been remastered for this dvd.
Although I loved the book... - By: philrob, 08 Sep 2007 ... (I think I've read it at least 6 or 7 times when I was a kid, & 3 or 4 later), the worst mistake made by Mr. Annakin was to not keep close to the original story, & try to replace the real fun in it by some kind of farce he mistakingly thought to be funny (except for a short moment with the french actor/piano player Christian Duvaleix (doing a little bit of the routine he did with "The Branquignols" (who were very much in favor with the late Queen's Mother at this time).
So, now I'm very much convinced that the only Annakin's movie worth seeing is "Those Magnificent Men...", & that we're lucky he directed only a smalll part of "The Longest Day"....
