The Commitments

1991 - Dir: Alan Parker
Shown in FeckenOdeon 2 on 2nd August, 2013

The Commitments was Alan Parker's third film about pop music. His first, “Fame”, was a frothy coming-of-age-musical that made the most of its youthful enthusiasm despite a lacklustre script. The second, “Pink Floyd: The Wall”, was a depressive, insular, and angular pastiche of moody myth-making that was interesting mainly for people who fried their brains listening to "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" a hundred times too often. The Commitments sits somewhere in the middle: An engaging, open-hearted entertainment that pulls off two neat tricks. First, it's one of the few movies about rock-pop-soul music that seems to have the right idea about why and how bands come together, with some fine performances from rank amateurs. But more impressively, it finds some great humour in a setting that's defined by grinding poverty. That setting is North Dublin, where Jimmy Rabbite (Robert Arkins) is trying to simultaneously shrug off his parents' bad taste and the dole-driven life that surrounds him. The film is based on the first of Roddy Doyle's so-called "Barrytown Trilogy" about the lives of the Rabbitt family. The remaining two books, The Snapper and The Van were also made into films starring Colm Meaney as Jimmy Rabbitt, Sr.
The really weird thing about watching “The Commitments” now is that it is suddenly a period film. Not so much dated but capturing an era just before it disappeared. Real time-capsule stuff. Relics like video stores abound. And if you don’t get a wave of nostalgia when the price of a bag of chips gets mentioned, you probably weren’t alive in 1991.
As for the music, it propels the film completely in places powered by Andrew Strong’s blistering vocals - Andrew, son of Irish soul singer Rob Strong, was 16 when the film was made and got the part when he tagged along with his dad to an audition. This is his only film appearance but he continues to record and perform. In casting the band at the centre of what was his fourth musical, director Alan Parker auditioned over 3,000 musicians, picking the top 12. It's the old manufactured pop band trick, but Parker also manufactured his cast - 10 of the main players had no previous acting experience. Full performances of soul standards start to dominate as the film goes on culminating with three songs in their entirety towards the end. It’s an amazing latitude given to the material by Parker that is almost unthinkable today.

Lincoln

2012 - Dir: Steven Spielberg

Shown in FeckenOdeon 2 on 5th July, 2013

A HISTORY LESSON : Lincoln is an American film about an American hero. In case your knowledge of American history is as vague as mine, here is a basic primer:
Abraham Lincoln, a self-taught Illinois lawyer and legislator with a reputation as an eloquent opponent of slavery, shocked many when he overcame several more prominent contenders to win the Republican Party's nomination for president in 1860. His election that November pushed several Southern states to secede by the time of his inauguration in March 1861, and the Civil War began barely a month later. Contrary to expectations, Lincoln proved to be a shrewd military strategist and a savvy leader during what became the costliest conflict ever fought on American soil. His Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863, freed all slaves in the rebellious states and paved the way for slavery's eventual abolition, while his Gettysburg Address later that year stands as one of the most famous and influential pieces of oratory in American history. In April 1865, with the Union on the brink of victory, Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed by the Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth; his untimely death made him a martyr to the cause of liberty and Union. Over the years Lincoln's mythic stature has only grown, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest presidents in the nation's history.
LINCOLN ON THE BIG SCREEN
Abraham Lincoln has made more film appearances than Mickey Mouse...
● The first known motion picture based on Mr. Lincoln was 1908 film The Reprieve: An Episode in the Life of Abraham Lincoln. Directed by Van Dyke Brooke, the film shows Lincoln pardoning a sentry who fell asleep on duty.
● In 1914 D.W.Griffith’s epic “Birth of a Nation” depicted Lincoln’s assassination and the same director made a biopic in 1930 entitled “Abraham Lincoln”.
● In 1939 Henry Fonda played him in “Young Mr Lincoln” - a fanciful piece which had the young Abraham solving a murder that took place 20 years after his death.
● In 1940 Raymond Massey played him in “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” where the love life of the young Abe was brought to dramatic and colourful life.
● In the 1950s he made the transition to the small screen in episodes of The Readers Digest Teleplays and General Electric Theater.
● In the 1960s he appeared in “The Way the West Was Won” and featured in animatronic form in Walt Disney’s “Great Moments with Mr Lincoln” at the Worlds Fair - and he also time travelled into an episode of “Star-Trek”.
● In the 1970s he appeared in “The Muppet Show” and a Flashman film before going even further down market in the 1980s when he starred in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. A biopic by Gore Vidal which paired him with Mary Tyler-Moore did little to salvage his reputation.
● It’s probably best to draw a veil over the next two decades -  suffice it to say that Abe appeared in Red Dwarf, Animaniacs, Histeria, Coneheads, Celebrity Deathmatch, Evil Con Carne, The Simpsons... and many, many more.
● He began the present decade in “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” and one might have thought that his reputation may have been salvaged by tonight’s respectful and dignified film... but, never one to turn a job down, he’s accepted the title role in the forthcoming “Abraham Lincoln vs The Zombies from the Asylum”.

English Vinglish

2012 - Dir: Gauri Shinde

Shown in FeckenOdeon 2 on 17th May, 2013

“Here is a likable family comedy from India with its own air of innocence, and a boisterous cameo from Amitabh Bachchan. Former ad director Gauri Shinde makes her feature debut, and the star is Bollywood veteran Sridevi. It's very amiable, feelgood entertainment that goes down as well as the heroine's tasty ladoos.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
For a Bollywood comedy to receive a review, let alone a flattering one, in a British mainstream newspaper would have been unheard of a few years back - but here we are looking forward to a technically accomplished, cleverly scripted and highly enjoyable movie that has earned a box office return far in excess of anything the big American distributors can attain.
It’s a strangely topical tale when issues of immigration are high on the political agenda in the UK and when women are redefining their roles in Indian society. How do you cope when you find yourself in a foreign land unable to understand or speak the language? How do you cope with the unfamiliar social pressures from a freer society? The film tackles the issues with a light touch but the messages are there and may hit home harder for being delivered with a smile.
The star of this film, Sridevi, is remarkable for the fact that she hasn’t acted for 15 years. Her career was at it’s peak when she decided that her young family came first and took a career break. Her return to the screen was a big selling point and it’s fair to say that she didn’t disappoint her fans.

Lawrence of Arabia

1962 - Dir: David Lean - 3 hrs 40 minutes

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 27th April, 2013

What a bold, mad act of genius it was to make "Lawrence of Arabia," or even think that it could be made. In the words 27 years later of one of its stars, Omar Sharif: "If you are the man with the money and somebody comes to you and says he wants to make a film that's four hours long, with no stars, and no women, and no love story, and not much action either, and he wants to spend a huge amount of money to go film it in the desert, what would you say?" The impulse to make this movie was based, above all, on imagination. The story of "Lawrence" is not founded on violent battle scenes or cheap melodrama, but on David Lean's ability to imagine what it would look like to see a speck appear on the horizon of the desert and slowly grow into a human being. He had to know how that would feel, before he could convince himself that the project had a chance of being successful.
T.E. Lawrence must be the strangest hero to ever stand at the centre of an epic. To play him, Lean cast one of the strangest actors in recent movie history, Peter O'Toole, a lanky, almost clumsy man with a sculptured face and a speaking manner that hesitates between amusement and insolence. O'Toole's assignment was a delicate one. Although it was widely believed that Lawrence was a homosexual, a multimillion-dollar epic filmed in 1962 could not possibly be frank about that. And yet Lean and his writer, Robert Bolt, didn't simply cave in and rewrite Lawrence into a routine action hero. Using O'Toole's peculiar speech and manner as their instrument, they created a character who combined charisma and craziness, who was so different from conventional military heroes that he could inspire the Arabs to follow him in that mad march across the desert.
Although it won the Academy Award as the year's best picture in 1962, "Lawrence of Arabia" would have soon been a lost memory if it had not been for two film restorers named Robert A. Harris and Jim Painten. They discovered the original negative in Columbia's vaults inside crushed and rusting film cans, and they also discovered about 35 minutes of footage that had been trimmed by distributors from Lean's final cut. To see it in a cinema, as we’re doing tonight, is to appreciate the subtlety of Freddie Young's desert cinematography - achieved despite blinding heat and the blowing sand, which worked its way into every camera. "Lawrence of Arabia" was one of the last films to be photographed in 70mm (as opposed to being blown up to 70 from a 35mm negative). We can now, thanks to further restoration work achieved through digital means, see it in 2013 exactly as David Lean meant us to see it in 1962.
● David Lean hoped to film in the real Aqaba and the archaeological site at Petra. Much to his regret, however, the production had to be moved to Spain because of cost overruns and outbreaks of illness among the cast and crew before these scenes could be shot.
● When production was moved to Spain filming did not resume for three months because writer Robert Bolt had been jailed for participating in a nuclear disarmament demonstration. He was released only after Sam Spiegel persuaded him to sign an agreement of good behaviour.
● Peter O'Toole is considerably taller and better looking than the real T.E. Lawrence (6'3" to Lawrence's real life height of 5'6"). Noel Coward is rumoured to have said, on seeing the premiere, "If he'd been any prettier, they'd have had to call it Florence of Arabia."

In Love with Alma Cogan

2011 - Dir.: Tony Britten

Shown in FeckenOdeon 2 on 19th April, 2013

 

The British film industry is good at things like this. Understated, gentle, well written, well acted and highly enjoyable. Unfortunately the people who control our major cinema chains and TV stations don’t agree. "In Love with Alma Cogan" had an excellent script and cast, got backing from the UK film Council and was shot and edited on time. The finished film was shown to universal acclaim at several independent film festivals and gained a major award at the Canadian International Film Festival and then..... nothing. The major distributors, cinema owners and TV programmers wouldn’t touch it. It wasn’t that they thought it was a bad film. It just didn’t fit into any of their categories. Despite the breakthrough of "oldie" films like "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" the big chains still take a great deal of persuading to show anything not aimed at the youth market. It’s possible that the fact that this film doesn’t contain posh theatrical Dames may have counted against it.... Matters are made worse by the fact that most commercial cinemas are in hock to American studios who loaned them money to convert to digital - whilst tying them into deals obliging them to show almost exclusively American films.

The producers did what Tony Hawkes ("Round Ireland with a Fridge") did and what many British film makers are increasingly having to do. They e-mailed small independent cinemas and film societies and asked them to give the film a showing. To date it has been seen in over 60 village halls, arts centres and small cinemas the length and breadth of the land. It’s not quite the same as a blanket circuit release but at least the people who worked hard to make this film have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s being enjoyed by an appreciative public.

The writer and director Tony Britton explains why he made this film:

Some time back, my son Oliver had come back to the UK for a winter visit and sitting on the Pier one windy November, eating fish and chips, insisted that I make a film about the Pier and Pavilion Theatre. A certified Los Angeles film nut, he was convinced that Americans would love this quaint setting and all I had to do was come up with a quintessentially British storyline. I had intended writing something for Norfolk resident Roger Lloyd Pack and the tale of Norman, the world weary boss of the Pavilion Theatre began to take shape. The title and main narrative literally came to me in the bath, just before going to see Roger perform Elliot's "The Wasteland" at the delightful Sheringham Little Theatre.

The Pier Theatre is real. The first recorded show on the pier was in 1905 and it continues to provide summer entertainment in the form of its famous "Seaside Special" show. Far from being on its last legs, it’s a great success and in 2005 the auditorium was extended to increase the capacity to 510.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

1987 - Dir: John Hughes - 1 hours 28 minutes
Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 23rd March, 2013

This is one of those films that has inexplicably stuck in the international sub conscience. It was never a blockbuster. It didn’t attract the sort of critical acclaim that would make it an art house favourite. It’s never been as much of a cult movie as, say, The Blues Brothers... Yet everyone knows it, everyone has a favourite moment, a favourite quote ("You’re going the wrong way" or "Those aren’t pillows" for example) which instantly triggers an empathetic smile. Apart from the excellent writing and the fine acting, it’s probably the thought that this could happen to any of us that gives it that extra lift. Anybody who has ever endeavoured to fly or travel by bus or otherwise transport him-or-herself from one place to another has met Del. For the regular commuter, he is that dreaded archetype - the guy in the next seat. Your life is lived in mortal terror of him. If you're sitting quietly minding your own business waiting for your plane to take off and there's only one seat left on the aircraft and it's right next to you and a not-small person squeezes his way past the stewardesses and advances toward you grinning a big, blobby grin ... that's Del. Only your worst enemy -- or that fiendish deity who takes a perverse joy from scrambling our travel destinies -- would give Del the seat assignment next to yours on a crowded commuter flight. But that's exactly what happens to Neal.... or YOU!

SWEARING ALERT

For those of you sensitive to the use of strong language we suggest you cover your ears when you see Neal approach the car hire counter. He only uses one word. It begins with F. He uses it many, many, many times for about a minute. It’s an object lesson on how the power of a swear word diminishes the more times you use it... which might be the point the scriptwriters are making... or it might not! You can safely unstop your ears at the end of the scene - the rest of the film is F free.

Barnacle Bill

1957 - Dir: Charles Friend - 1 hr 23 minutes

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 23rd March, 2013

By the time "Barnacle" Bill was released, Ealing Studios had already sold off its physical studio (to the BBC) and was about to shut down altogether. After so many great films in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Ealing couldn’t adapt to changing times. But it went out doing what it did best and this is a typical Ealing film. There’s a group of very British, eccentric characters in an outlandish situation and they take it all with superhuman control. It’s all been done before, and done before by Ealing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a lot of fun. Alec Guinness puts in another top notch performance - perhaps with a bit more gusto than normal. The supporting cast is excellent (when has an Ealing film ever had a weak supporting cast?), the characters, particularly Ambrose, are engaging, and the story presents plenty of opportunity for witty banter and comfortable chuckles. It might not be the most hilarious side splitter - but it does give us a final fond look at a world before every movie had to be a blockbuster. It was titled "All at Sea" in the USA.... because the studios feared it would be associated with a lewd seafarers’ song entitled "Bollocky Bill The Sailor".

Red Dog

2011 - Dir: Kriv Stenders

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 8th March 2013
Most Australians were familiar with the legend of Red Dog - a stray Kelpie cross who wound up in the newly established mining town of Dampier, western Australia, sometime in the early 70s. He became such a friend to the locals that a statue of him now greets all visitors to Dampier. It was a sighting of this statue, the town's sole piece of public art, that led Louis de Bernières to turn the dog’s tale into a book upon which this film is based. How much of the resulting movie is embellishment is up for debate. But in the tradition of films such as semi-fictionalised The Castle (shown at the FeckenOdeon in 2008), it's a hilarious and occasionally sad look at a side of Australian life whose essence is rarely captured with such affectionate accuracy. The film gathers incidents from every dog movie you ever saw, from Rescued by Rover and Rin Tin Tin to Greyfriars Bobby and Lassie Come Home.
The film’s two legged star Josh Lucas (who is American) did a bit of research into the truth of the legend by meeting some of the older labourers who knew the real Red Dog, and hearing stories about his presence in their community. "I kept finding these people that would show me a photograph of Red Dog with a cigarette in his mouth and a beer in his paw, passed out asleep in their beds ... They’d say, ‘You’d be pissed off because you’d come home and Red Dog would be in your bed.’ I asked, ‘Well, why didn’t you just kick him out?’ - ‘Oh, no. You’d never kick Red Dog out.” came the reply. The setting also contributed to Mr Lucas' interest in the project. "they showed these images of the place where they were going to film. Out in way remote Australia, where the movie takes place. I’ve known so few people who have ever been to this place out in the middle of nowhere. It looked so beautiful. And knowing that no movie had ever been made there before, and that they were going to tackle this difficult land. Because the land, really, is forbidden. You only go there if you’re part of the mines. There’s no water. The land is literally made of metal."
The real Red Dog was an Australian Kelpie, possibly crossed with an Australian Cattle Dog, and is believed to have been born in the town of Paraburdoo, Western Australia in 1971, and died on November 21, 1979. Sadly Koko, who played the Red Dog in the film died last December. The film had been so successful in its native land that the country went into impromptu mourning. Koko had earlier won the American Golden Collar Award for “Best Dog in a Foreign Film”
The movie received considerable support from the controversial Rio Tinto mining company on whose land much of the film was shot, and they were no doubt hoping to gain some friendly public relations warmth from the Rio Rin Tin Tinto effect (pun courtesy of Philip French!).

UNTOUCHABLE

(Intouchables)
2011 - Dir: Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano
Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 8th February, 2013

"From the people that brought you The Artist," cries the poster for the French comedy Untouchable. The tagline is a bold and obvious statement of the film's intent to recreate the critical success of the winner of 2012's best picture Oscar. In financial terms, though, Untouchable has already surpassed it. Not your run-of-the-mill laugh-filled romp, it has nevertheless taken an incredible $364 million (£225 million) worldwide. The Artist, in contrast, earned a relatively meagre $133m (£82m). However, both films share more than a few things in common other than the obvious French connection. First of all, neither was a particularly easy sell to potential investors - one of whom asked the film-makers if the main character "could walk a little at the end". Co-director Eric Toledano says: "Even with friends at dinner, when they asked what the subject was and we'd try to pitch it, you would see their faces drop. I said, 'Let's stop the pitching'." Instead, he and co-director Olivier Nakache relied on the fact that they already had three relatively successful films under their belt. So they decided to let the tale - based on the true story of French aristocrat Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and his carer Abdel Sellou - speak for itself.
 

The film’s international success was assured when Hollywood distributor Harvey Weinstein came on board. It was he who spotted the potential of The Artist and it is Mr Weinstein who put his financial weight behind such successes as "My Week with Marilyn", "The King’s Speech" and "The Concert" - all shown here recently. Mr Weinstein’s hard hitting attitude came in handy when the film was seized upon by French right-wing politician Jean-Marie le Pen, who accused it of being an example of France's move toward ethnic diversity. In the film, wealthy Philippe's carer Driss, played by French comedy actor Omar Sy, is a Senegalese immigrant. The real life Abdel Sellou is Algerian. "France is like this handicapped person stuck in this wheelchair," Le Pen told a French TV network. "It would be a disaster if France would find itself in the same situation as this poor handicapped person." Weinstein pulled no punches and accused Le Pen of being "a repulsive bigot"... Mr Weinstein was immediately awarded the Legion d’Honeur and the film’s box office soared. Unfortunately Mr Weinstein is considering remaking the film in America - presumably because the Americans can’t read subtitles. Colin Firth is tipped for the wheelchair role.

Philippe Pozzo de Borgo is still living in Morocco and has written his own account of the 10 years that Abdel Sellou cared for him. "A Second Wind" is available in paperback and as a Kindle download from Amazon.co.uk (enter the site via the link on The FeckenOdeon website). Abdel is now married with 3 children and runs a poultry farm in Algeria.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN

2012 - Dir: Simon Curtis - 1 hours 35 minutes

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 26th January, 2013

The year 1956 was a pivotal one in British history. The Suez crisis rocked the nation's standing in the world, and Anthony Eden's authority as prime minister began unravelling. In the theatre, John Osborne's Look Back in Anger premiered at the Royal Court, effectively sweeping away generations of genteel, escapist British plays. Against this backdrop, Colin Clark, a young man of 23, talked himself into a lowly job with Laurence Olivier's film production company. Clark was hired as third assistant director on the film The Prince and the Showgirl, shot at Pinewood Studios and starring Olivier, leading light of the conservative British acting establishment, and Marilyn Monroe, then the hottest star in Hollywood. Young Mr Clark had the presence of mind to write a diary about his experiences on the film, and chronicle a monumental clash of egos and cultures. Clark, who went on to make more than 100 arts documentaries and who died in 2002, published his diaries, The Prince, the Showgirl and Me, to great acclaim in 1995.

Monroe took a shine to the confident yet innocent Clark, and at one point whisked him away from the set to spend a week virtually alone with her, an escape from the pressures she felt Olivier was imposing on her. Together they enjoyed what might be called a chaste romance, though the week in question is omitted from the diary. But in 2000, following the success of the first book, Clark published My Week with Marilyn, an account of their nine days together, an experience, Clark said, 'so dramatic and extraordinary that it was impossible to include it in my daily chatterings'. It is this later book that forms the basis for this film. Diary writing runs in Mr. Clark’s family - his brother was the flamboyant and indiscreet MP Alan Clark. His father was the renowned art historian Kenneth Clark, best known as the writer and presenter of the television series Civilisation.

Charade

1963 - Dir.: Stanley Donen - 1 hr 48 mins

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 29th December, 2012
 

Charade opened in the USA just in time for Christmas 1963. This glossy and slick comedy thriller didn’t fill the New York Times with festive cheer: "Seekers of Christmas entertainment, might do well to think twice about "Charade". This romantic comedy melodrama, in which Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant skitter and scoot around Paris as participants in a cheating-cheaters chase, has so many grisly touches in it and runs to violence so many times the people bringing their youngsters to see the annual Nativity pageant and the Christmas stage show may blanch in horror when it comes on." You have been warned!

Sometimes described as "the best Hitchcock film not directed by Alfred Hitchcock" this film is the work of jobbing director Stanley Donen who started his film life as a dancer. He became friendly with Gene Kelly who gave him the chance to direct musical sequences. He was so good at it that he soon found himself sharing the responsibility for big budget musicals like On the Town (1949) and then Singin’ in the Rain (1952). On his own he directed Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Funny Face (1957) and Damn Yankees (1958). When musicals were no longer in fashion he turned to suspense and comedy - which is exactly what he dishes up in "Charade". He was granted an honorary Academy Award "in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation." In his acceptance speech he declared that one of the secrets to being a great director is "You show up - and stay the hell out of the way. But you gotta show up or else you can’t take the credit".

The story of "Charade" started when screenwriters Peter Stone and Marc Behm offered a script called "The Unsuspecting Wife" to the Hollywood studios who turned it down flat. Stone then turned it into a novel, re-titled Charade, which found a publisher and was also serialized in Redbook magazine, as many novels were at the time. In Redbook it caught the attention of the same Hollywood bosses who had passed on it earlier….

 

When Audrey met Cary…This is Cary Grant’s one and only appearance with Audrey Hepburn and his last playing his stock urbane character - he was wise enough to realise that his age (59) was beginning to show. After a couple of small part appearances he retired from the screen in 1966 and devoted his life to his family… and a lucrative directorship of Fabergé. He died in 1986.

Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. Her father was a wealthy English banker and her mother a Dutch baroness. When "Charade" was made she was enjoying the success of "Breakfast at Tiffany’s" and the glamour of "My Fair Lady" was just a year ahead. While Cary Grant was effectively ending his career honourably, Audrey was on the crest of the wave.

Unlike our supporting film, "Charade" has received the full works - a High Definition digital restoration that gives the film a fresh, glossy, sharp, sparkling look. Like many of the best conversions from film to digital, this one almost looks better than the original.

The Plank

1967 - Dir: Eric Sykes - 51 mins

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 29th December, 2012

This showing was planned last April. Eric Sykes died in July aged 89. We could claim that this is our tribute to one of the greatest screen comedy actors Britain has ever produced - but we’d probably be more honest saying that over the past 12 years we’ve had more requests for this film than any other (apart from Lawrence of Arabia) - which is a tribute in itself! Sykes dreamed this inspired comedy up, cast it, squeezed money out of the stones of Wardour Street, scripted it as he directed it and did everything but the most mundane technical tasks himself. It’s quite simply one man’s masterpiece - and speaks volumes more than any epitaph.

It’s sad and rather shameful that The Plank has been absent from the big screen since the 1970s. The Rank Organisation, who inherited it after London Films went bust, seemed to be ashamed of it and no new prints were made after the original 1967 release. Television showings were sporadic and were eclipsed by a shorter 1979 remake by Thames Television - not as funny but cheaper to repeat. Even in the digital age The Plank has remained elusive and the version we’re showing tonight is far from perfect. In fact the film grew out of a television programme - it’s an idea expanded from "Sykes and A Plank" made for the BBC in 1964.

• The Plank, signed by the entire cast, was recently sold at auction for £1,000.
• Peter Sellers got a better paying job before shooting began and was replaced by Tommy Cooper at the last minute.
• Jimmy Tarbuck was paid in whiskey (4 bottles).