How to Get Ahead in Advertising ** (1989, Richard E Grant, Rachel Ward, Richard Wilson) – Classic Movie Review 6559

Director Bruce Robinson again casts his Withnail & I (1987) star Richard E Grant, this time as Denis Dimbleby Bagley, an advertising executive who finds a stress-related boil on his neck that metamorphoses into his doppelgänger. (Hence the weak pun of the title and the film’s more amusing ad line ‘The Career Where Two Heads Are Better Than One’.)

But, alas, lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place. Robinson’s weird and laborious 1989 British comedy is a more miss than hit satire than from the writer- director who triumphed so seemingly effortlessly with the classic Withnail & I. Unfortunately, the film is seriously troubled with an irksome central character, which is overplayed by Withnail’s star Grant, struggling in a very unsympathetic role.

The film is too cold and showy to be truly enjoyable, but the opening 30 minutes (out of 95 minutes) do deliver some good laughs, so at least a third of it is quite fun.

Rachel Ward, Richard Wilson, Jacqueline Tong, John Shrapnel, Susan Wooldridge, Mick Ford, and Jacqueline Pearce are also in the cast.

It is made by HandMade Films, released by Virgin, shot in Technicolor by Peter Hannan, produced by David Wimbury, and scored by David Dundas and Rick Wentworth.

The classic 1961 DB4 Convertible Aston Martin in Bagley’s garage belonged to Bruce Robinson. Only 70 were made. He owned it for 30 years till he auctioned it in 2008.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6559

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