betsy@dartvax.UUCP (Betsy Hanes Perry) (08/02/85)
I rented this movie under the title of Beyond The Fringe from
my local video emporium. It is *not* the entire original
Beyond the Fringe revue; instead, it is a compendium of good
skits by most of the British comedians of the past twenty years.
The stars include:
Alan Bennett (the playwright) Bill Oddie
John Bird John Fortune
Eleanor Bron (the woman in Bedazzled) Terry Jones (Python)
Tim Brooke-Taylor Michael Palin (Python)
John Cleese (Python) Jonathan Miller (The Body Human, et.al)
Peter Cook (Bedazzled) Carol Cleveland (Python)
and others I didn't recognize.
Although the film begins with the infamous 'dead parrot' sketch,
most of the skits in it were new to me. (They include
the parson-murderer's courtroom scene, the lecture on types of humor,
and Peter Cook's monologue about mines). The sound, unfortunately,
is dreadful; I needed the rewind button to figure out much of the
dialogue. The camerawork isn't much better, but at least one can usually
*see* the sketches.
According to my Monty Python biography (The Life of Python), the movie
I saw corresponds closely to a movie called 'Pleasure at Her Majesty's'
which was released in 1976 and is a tape of an Amnesty International
benefit performance.
Overall, I'd recommend seeing the film if you like British humor;
the intelligible parts are remarkably funny.
But make sure you either have an interpreter or can rewind the film
at pleasure.
--
Elizabeth Hanes Perry
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"Ooh, ick!" -- Penfold