Bottoms Up *** (1960, Jimmy Edwards, Arthur Howard, Martita Hunt) – Classic Movie Review 9700

Director Mario Zampi’s daftly entertaining 1960 British comedy Bottoms Up! stars Jimmy Edwards as the irrepressible and incorrigible Professor Jim Edwards, dodgy headmaster of Chiselbury School, and he brightens this rather creaky, over-extended big-screen adaptation of his hit BBC TV series Whack-O!, which ran from 1956 to 1972.

In the story, similar to the one in The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954), the Professor persuades his Cockney bookmaker’s lad Cecil Biggs (Melvyn Hayes) to masquerade as an oriental princeling to save his job. Paul Castaldini plays the real Prince Hassid, who turns up to complicate things.

There is a breathless series of silly situations with familiar farcical shouting, mistaken identity and running about in no particular direction in this musty school-set comedy, written by Michael Pertwee, with helpful additional dialogue by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.

Edwards, Arthur Howard as his long-suffering deputy Oliver Pettigrew and the British comedy stalwarts (Martita Hunt, Sydney Tafler, Raymond Huntley, Melvyn Hayes, Reginald Beckwith, Richard Briers) turn a modest script into sporadically tittersome fun in a tattily toothsome relic of comedy from a very different bygone era.  Martita Hunt is relishable as Lady Gore-Willoughby, the new Chair of Governors who threatens reform, and Reginald Beckwith and Vanda Hudson are essential components as Bishop Wendover and Matron.

Also in the cast are Vanda Hudson, John Mitchell [Mitch Mitchell], Donald Hewlett, Neil Wilson, Gordon Phillott, John Wilder, Graham Tonbridge, Paul Castaldini, George Pastell, George Selway, Richard Shaw and John Stuart.

Bottoms Up! Is directed by Mario Zampi, runs 90 minutes, is made by Mario Zampi Productions and Associated British Picture Corporation, is released by Warner-Pathé Distributors (1960) (UK)  and Warner Bros./Seven Arts (1962) (US), is written by Michael Pertwee (screenplay), Frank Muir (additional dialogue) and Denis Norden (additional dialogue), is shot in black and white by Gilbert Taylor, is produced by Mario Zampi, and is scored by Stanley Black.

It is shot at Associated British Elstree Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England.

Melvyn Hayes, playing a schoolboy, was 24 at the time of production. He and Donald Hewlett starred in the BBC sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot Mum (1974-1981).

John Mitchell (1947–2008), who plays Wendover, became percussionist Mitch Mitchell, the longest-living member of The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

This relic was dug up by Network Distributing (2014) (UK) for release on DVD.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9700

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