oo mr grimsdale, RIP norman pitkin

[fat cherry]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11473214

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

He was much funnier than Jerry Lewis for that slapstick 50/60s humour. My mother met him a while back, she said he appeared as mental in real life, but then he had had a few strokes by then.

That deserves a "Mr Grimsdale!" moment.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6BN-MFQ0qI[/youtube]

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN4HZjSIXq8&feature=related[/youtube]

Ho ho... Looks a great cinemascope picture to see at the flicks this Saturday. I must get me a ticket.

[JackT]

much funnier than Jerry Lewis

The faintest praise imaginable.

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

Same genre. Same slapstick. Take this clip of Jerry Lewis in the popular Paramount motion picture "My Friend Irma Goes West" (1950) for example and based on a long running 1940s radio situation comedy, "My Friend Ima".

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FYc94rIZfM&feature=related[/youtube]

Two things struck me while watching this at an advance screening at the Edmonton Regal last weekend. Our Norman would have made more of a mess with the spaghetti than the rather tame comedic acting seen here from Mr Lewis.

In this scene the peroxide blonde on the left, played by the legendary Hollywood actress Marie Wilson, throws away the banana and keeps the skin, which is supposed to be funny. If this had been a British film, she would have eaten the banana while simulating a blowjob at the same time with the camp Kenneth Williams suddenly appearing through the doorway to declare "oo-er Matron" and Leslie Philips following promptly afterwards with his rather hilarious catchphrase "Ding-dong".

It, of course, proves that British slapstick comedy had surpassed its American equivalent by the late 1950s so much so that Norman Wisdom was our greatest cinematic export... to... Albania.



[Up] yours, Barry Norman (retired)

[Dr Cheese]

I've got all his movies on dvd and apart from a couple of the later ones I love them all.

[Voodoo Billy]

Do you feel better now you've got that out in the open?

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

Our comedy like Norman Wisdom was done so much better. But they copied, begged and borrowed our ideas and took them for their own. Take the very popular "The I Say Team" shown weekly in the 1950s during the Saturday matinees before the main picture. It was a great British series with the best of British actors cast. Then we sold it and they ruined it and have now made a film out of it over 50 years later. Bastards.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk4vXJ9IUc8&feature=related[/youtube]

[fat cherry]

the old glasses on upside down gag (in the apple clip) is a classic. Norm reminds me of sunday afternoons. i liked him but my bruv thought he was the funniest thing to walk the earth and would spend th entire film (apart from the sa bit in the middle when it looked like he wasn't going to get the fit bird) in fits of giggles. terry thomas is particularly goods in monte carlo or bust i seem to remember, i s's's'say, perkins, etc.

[Dr Cheese]

Do you feel better now you've got that out in the open?

I've kept it bottled up for years, now it's out in the open at last I can stand up straight and walk tall.

[Voodoo Billy]

I've kept it bottled up for years, now it's out in the open at last I can stand up straight and walk tall.

My Mum always said tight jeans did a man no favours.

[kook]

Norm reminds me of sunday afternoons.

Same here. Mind you, I thought he was long dead.

[Voodoo Billy]

Mind you, I thought he was long dead.

Quality