Terry Scott Movies
Popular British comedian Terry Scott was best known for starring in Happy Ever After, a sitcom about an unhappily married middle-class couple that ran from 1974 to 1988. Back in the mid-'50s, when he was just starting out, the BBC paired the portly Scott with fellow funnyman Bill Maynard and starred them in Great Scott! It's Maynard. In the 1960s, Scott starred in Hugh and I with Hugh Lloyd. In film, Scott was a regular in the Carry On series of films that were popular during 1960s and 1970s. He also appeared in other British films, including I'm All Right Jack (1959), The Night We Got the Bird (1961), and A Ghost of a Chance (1969). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1963
In this drama, two young attorneys working for their uncle, find themselves facing off in court. One of the is defending a wife; the other, her husband who is suing for conjugal rights. As both lawyers are fresh from law school, things in court are often chaotic, and they suffer several fiascoes to the point where the judge is ready to disbar them. At the end of the tumultuous case, it looks as if the wife will win, when the other lawyer learns that the wife was afraid her husband would blackmail her if he found out that she was already married to a millionaire. Finally all is resolved and justice served. The two lawyers then decide to get married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1961
A typical British slapstick farce, this comedy by Darcy Conyers based on Basil Thomas' play The Love Birds, involves reincarnation, huckstering, and jealousy. Cecil Gibson (Ronald Shiner) led a shady professional life as an antique furniture restorer, and after he dies his widow Julie (Dora Bryan) and her new husband Bertie (Brian Rix) pay the consequences. A gangster is after them because of a bogus antique bed that the late Cecil pawned off for a quick buck. Aside from this constant threat, Cecil has reincarnated as a talky parrot whose main ambition is to make life difficult for his wife and Bertie. Several hilarious slapstick scenes involving chases or sexual encounters, as well as the more reserved wit found in caricatures like an inept magistrate, are all hallmarks of a typically British sense of humor here (shared by many non-Brits). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Rix, Dora Bryan, (more)
- 1961
Essentially a one-joke comedy hanging on the thinnest of plots, this routine series of slapstick situations is directed by Don Chaffey and concerns the ineptitude of an Air Force officer, Captain Kingsley (Jimmy Edwards). The likeable Captain has a fixation on mechanical contrivances, but at the same time he is an accident waiting to happen. The wait is never long, and so the Prime Minister himself orders everyone into action when the Captain comes up missing -- who knows what disaster may lie in the wings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Edwards, Kenneth Connor, (more)
- 1961
In this British farce, an impoverished lord teams up with the plumber he mistook for a burglar. Together they conspire to steal one of the lord's own paintings. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In this comedy, a writer tries to scare up some quick cash by writing a book about the Loch Ness monster. Unfortunately, none of the publishers will buy it. The writer and his bohemian friends then create a mock monster, photograph it, and head for Scotland to convince the locals of the picture's veracity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Faith, Sidney James, (more)
- 1961
A strange bet provides the basis of this comedy, a British theater producer decides to make some easy money by betting a psychiatrist, whom he overheard telling a colleague that he could create the perfect child by hypnotizing a pregnant woman, that the shrink has as many holes in his theory as he did in his head. The wager is made, and the producer then talks an actress friend into masquerading as the pregnant woman to ensure his win. Unfortunately for him, the actress and the doctor fall in love. Seeing that her sweethearts theories are being derided by his peers, she decides to help him out and get pregnant for real. To do this, she gets drunk, staggers over to the producer's apartment and demands that he satisfy her right then and there. Unfortunately in the middle of it all, the doctor shows up. Then the producer's fiancee pays a visit and the whole scam falls apart in his living room. Fortunately happiness ensues when the doctor and the actress marry and decide to try the experiment for real. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnes Laurent, John Bentley, (more)
- 1961
In this comedy, the daughter of a British aristocrat is sent to Parisian finishing school where she falls in love with a charming American student, and discovers that his father is a business associate of her own. Paternal trouble ensues when her young man forgets to deliver an important letter to her father and he is forced to fly to New York to do the business himself. While gone, he sends his daughter to Scotland with his friend. Her boy friend follows and slyly begins suggesting that they elope. When her father learns the lad's identity, he offers his blessing. Unfortunately, the young daughter has fallen deeply in love with his best friend's handsome son and they elope. Both fathers are very pleased. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Redgrave, Michael Craig, (more)
- 1961
A battered houseboat on the Thames provides the setting for this romantic British comedy. Two newlyweds rent the leaky floating home. The trouble begins when the husband decides to move the scow to a better location. The rickety barge disrupts river traffic. Next the two get lost in a fog bank. When it finally lifts, they find themselves in France. Fortunately, their landlord's yacht is moored nearby and they are able to borrow some petrol. The landlord bets that he can beat them across the Channel with his yacht. The race begins. The yachtsman gets terribly drunk and his cannot stay on course. The newlyweds win the race. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian Carmichael, Janette Scott, (more)
- 1960
An A.P. Dearsley stage play was the basis for the seven-reel British comedy And the Same to You. Brian Rix stars as the pugnacious nephew of clergyman Sydney Mullett. Stuck with the name "Dickie Dreadnought," Rix feels he has no choice but to pursue a career as a boxer. To mollify his uncle, Rix pretends to be the soul of religiosity, while his tough-talking manager William Hartnell poses as a Man of the Cloth. The script for And the Same to You was penned by melodrama specialist John Paddy Carstairs and veteran comic actor John Junkin (the too-tall road manager in A Hard Day's Night). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
The Bridal Path is standard comedy fare about a young man, Ewan McEwan (Bill Travers) sent out from his island home to go bride-hunting. The introverted, taciturn Ewan is reaching marriageable age just when the island's elders come up with a new decree. They have decided that there is too much in-breeding on their fair shores and as a consequence, they forbid first cousins to marry. With his bridal selection almost curtailed at home, Ewan heads off to the mainland with a little book of commandments on what to look for and what to avoid in a potential lifetime mate. Aside from encounters with several charming, winsome young women, Ewan soon discovers that the police are after him -- and he does not know why. The chase is on, though all misunderstandings are eventually cleared up. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Travers, Alex Mackenzie, (more)
Set in the 1950s in Britain, this award-winning social comedy by director and co-writer John Boulting features Ian Carmichael as the inept Stanley Windrush, a hopeless twit with -- we are to believe -- an Oxford degree. Unlike others in his social circle, Stanley wants to work. When he tries out for jobs in industry with the full expectation of working his way into a management position, he sets off disasters and alienates his interviewers. So his uncle gives him a job in his munitions factory, knowing what an idiot he is, and relying on him to eventually cause a strike (the uncle needs this for his own reasons). Fred Kite (Peter Sellers in a performance that would launch him as an international star) takes Stanley under his wing yet that does not exactly turn out as expected either. Stanley screws up by accidentally being too efficient, and the entire British work force is affected. If one can accept a portrayal of factory workers as shiftless men unwilling to work, and managers as good 'ole boys whose jobs are gained only by networking, then this film will be all the more entertaining. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian Carmichael, Peter Sellers, (more)
- 1958
An uneven but at times hilarious slapstick comedy, Too Many Crooks features an inept gang of four would-be criminals who manage to botch every job they plan. After a few dismal failures they try to rob the wealthy, philandering Billy Gordon (Terry-Thomas) and fail again. Unwilling to let go of a good resource when they see it, the gang decides to kidnap his daughter, drug her, put her in a coffin in a hearse, and take off to their safe hideaway in a mad, mad dash. The plan amazingly succeeds except for one minor detail -- they have kidnapped the tycoon's wife, and he could not be happier. The offended spouse sees red at her philandering husband's attitude and sets the stage for revenge. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Cole, Brenda de Banzie, (more)
- 1958
This first entry in the long-running (some would say interminable) British "Carry On" series is at base a collection of motheaten army jokes, albeit served up with freshness and energy. Future Doctor Who star William Hartnell plays Sergeant Major Grimshaw, whose fondest wish is to win the coveted Best Troop Award before his retirement. Alas, this may never come to pass: his newest batch of conscripts include some of the biggest and stupidest foul-ups in military history. Popular comedian-cartoonist Bob Monkhouse and cockney bombshell Shirley Eaton head up the supporting cast, which includes such "Carry On" stalwarts-to-be as Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams. Carry On Sergeant was very loosely based on The Bull Boys, a novel by R. F. Delderfield. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Hartnell, Bob Monkhouse, (more)
- 1956
Writer/artist Roland Searle's diabolical "belles" of St. Trinian's Girls School return in this raucous British comedy. Because the girls cannot behave themselves, their headmistress (Alastair Sim in drag!) has been thrown in jail, and the school is surrounded by police and army troops. The students escape their durance vile by winning an all-expense-paid trip to Europe (by cheating, of course). While laying waste to the Continent (with Terry-Thomas driving the bus), the girls are enmeshed in a diamond theft instigated by the father (George Cole) of one of the students. The film ends with an elongated water polo game, played with the ladies' usual sense of sportsmanship and fair play. In the 1950s and 1960s, the "St. Trinians" series was as popular a British movie attraction as the "Carry On" films--but unlike "Carry On", they don't play quite as well with American audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry-Thomas, George Cole, (more)
