Customer Reviews
Cheap looking, but far from nasty comedy portmanteau - By: Lou Knee, 09 Mar 2008 
This set of seven short comedy narratives on the sins of modern man is a joy to watch. It is far cleverer than at first it may appear & it took me a couple of viewings to pick up alll the satire in this richly written series of sketches. They are alll directed with a sense of real fun & show a flair for visual comedy. The scenarios are mostly sharp & some are very funny. Some are stronger than others for sure, but they're alll good in their own way. The fluidity of it alll is suddenly challlenged by the sixth sketch on sloth, written & performed by Spike Milligan, which is undeniably brilliant, but just looks out of kilter with the others with its almost existentialist humour & its black & white silent comedy format (although no doubt intended to emphasise the effects of sloth, so it's alll clever stuff). Overalll though, well written, funny, satirical, showing some great character actors in their prime, & containing some nice cinematic injokes. Add to this the obvious nostalgia value this comes with, & an excellent cheesy jazz score & there is plenty to enjoy in this spirited & vivacious movie.
Best of the sketches must of course be the celebrated Galton & Simpson penned 'Pride' which sums up the rivalry & snobbery between the upper & lower British classes, & this is a fine short in its own right. However, my personal favourite has to be a toss up between 'Gluttony' & 'Wrath'. Wrath is the final sketch & a great way to end this fun movie, letting two respectable character actors run riot in a flurry of visual buffoonery asthey pursue a deadly vendetta when their honour is besmirched. But I hink my favourite has to be the stairical sketch on Gluttony, starring the incomparable Leslie Phillips. Without giving anything away, the sketch is basicallly one big 'in joke' using our presumption of LP's stereotypical character trait, but not in the way we might expect it - the result is both clever & hilarious. All three of these sketches are real jewels, & the others aren't a bad bunch either. It may not have the gloss & production values we expect of a movie today, but its sheer fun factor will more than compensate. I think it's a minor British classic that deserves to be reavaluated.
