Peter Brett Movies
On a midnight clear 2,000 years ago, three wise men enter a manger where a babe is wrapped in swaddling clothes. It is an infant called Brian...and the three wise men are in the wrong manger. For the rest of his life, Brian (Graham Chapman) finds himself regarded as something of a messiah -- yet he's always in the shadow of this other guy from Galilee. Brian is witness to the Sermon of the Mount, but his seat is in such a bad location that he can't hear any of it ("Blessed are the cheesemakers?"). Ultimately, he is brought before Pontius Pilate and sentenced to crucifixion, which takes place at that crowded, nonexclusive execution site a few blocks shy of Calvary. Rather than utter the Last Six Words, Brian leads his fellow crucifixees in a spirited rendition of a British music-hall cheer-up song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." The whole Monty Python gang (Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam) are on hand in multiple roles, playing such sacred characters as Stan Called Loretta, Biggus Dickus, Deadly Dirk, Casts the First Stone, and Intensely Dull Youth; also showing up are Goon Show veteran Spike Milligan and a Liverpool musician named George Harrison. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, (more)
- 1964
Ken Russell's first feature film is a slight comedy about a stodgy British resort. Gormleigh-by-the-Sea is a holiday community besotted with dullness. But things liven up when Jim (James Booth), a young deck-chair attendant, convinces the local entertainment director and mayor into starting a film festival. The town convinces an ambitious French actress to be the star of the festival. What happens after that is a series of near disasters -- including the failure of a Nudist Beach and a riot at a film premiere. It is left to Jim's American journalist girlfriend (Alita Naughton) to save the situation and the reputation of the town. This first feature for film-director Ken Russell, French Dressing was neither indicative of his future controversial projects nor was it auspicious of his directorial ability. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Booth, Roy Kinnear, (more)
