Bob Grant Movies
- 1988
This documentary looks at the relationship between the Jewish people and their country and features interviews with Russian refuseniks, Arabs and Jews that live side by side. ~ All Movie Guide
Various bus crashes combined with damaged property puts a bus depot manager in financial problems. ~ All Movie Guide
On the Buses was an engagingly daffy British TV sitcom set in a bus depot and made in the late sixties. Reg Varney starred as the head of the lost and found department, who spent the better part of his time fielding wisecracks from his fellow bus-company employees. The series proved popular enough to spawn three theatrical features, the second of which was 1972's Mutiny on the Buses. This time around, a labor dispute leads to endless slapstick complications. Reg Varney and Doris Hare repeat their TV series roles. On the Buses was "Americanized" as the 1973 Dom DeLuise sitcom Lotsa Luck. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reg Varney, Bob Grant, (more)
Based on a popular British television series from the late sixties, On the Buses centers on the chaos caused in a bus depot when the boss hires a passel of female bus drivers. This marked the first of three theatrical features based on the series (the second and third installments were the 1972 Mutiny on the Buses and the 1974 Holiday on the Buses, respectively). Though all three films were critically savaged, they grossed dollar one in Great Britain, particularly this first installment - eliciting a host of sequels and imitators. The Motion Picture Guide wrote of On the Buses, " The humor is sexist, of course, and infantile, with no wit or sophistication, which of course ensured its appeal to a large segment of the masses." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reg Varney, Doris Hare, (more)
- 1968
The British television series Til Death Do Us Part was the forerunner to the American TV hit All in the Family. The original series' Archie Bunker was Alf Garnett, a bigoted, profane cockney played by Warren Mitchell. The "Edith" was the dimwitted Else, portrayed by Dandy Nichols. The British series' catchphrase was not "Stifle yerself, dingbat" but instead "You silly moo!" Eschewing the heavy-handed social commentary indulged in by All in the Family producer Norman Lear, Til Death Do Us Part existed principally to invoke loud (and sometime embarrassed) gusts of laughter. Several feature films were spun off from the property: the first of these, Alf 'N' Family flashed back to Alf and Else's marriage, skipped ahead to the wedding of the Garrett's daughter Rita (Una Stubbs) to unwashed hippie Mike (Anthony Booth), and concluded with the family's move from their crowded flat to a home in the suburbs. Alf 'N' Family was scripted by Til Death Do Us Part creator Johnny Speight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This film is taken from the popular British television series. Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) is a middle-aged bigot who loves the Queen and all that for which the kingdom (or what is left of it) stands, right or wrong. He puts up with his dizzy wife, Else (Dandy Nichols), his liberated daughter (Una Stubbs), and her long-haired, liberal-minded husband (Anthony Booth), who causes him no end of grief. Till Death Us Do Part is the exact blueprint used for the popular U.S. television series All in the Family. Alf dreams of being knighted by the Queen, gets drunk at a wedding reception, and struggles with the changing world within the framework of his narrow-minded stubbornness. Ray Davies of the Kinks provides the title track for this offbeat but true-to-life comedy feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Mitchell, Dandy Nichols, (more)
- 1963
This British comedy drama of the lower classes features actors with such thick cockney accents that some prints of the film were subtitled. James Booth stars as Charlie, a merchant seaman who returns home to the East End after two years to find that his wife Maggie (Barbara Windsor) has taken up with another man, a married bus driver named Bert (George Sewell). After taking his brother Fred (Roy Kinnear) hostage in a pub, Charlie gets a reunion with Maggie, who shows up pushing a pram. It seems she's given birth to a child, and the father's identity is uncertain. Charlie and Maggie reconcile, but not before a vicious row with Bert, who doesn't want to give up his girl. Windsor, a BAFTA Best Actress nominee for her role, also performed the film's title song. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Booth, Barbara Windsor, (more)
