Raising the Wind [Roommates] ** (1961, James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams, Sidney James, Paul Massie, Liz Fraser, Eric Barker) – Classic Movie Review 8117

Director Gerald Thomas’s 1961 British comedy Raising the Wind [Roommates] is a kind of Carry On Up the Music Academy, with much of the same Carry On team in front of and behind the camera.

It also stars Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams, Sidney James, Paul Massie, Liz Fraser, Eric Barker, Jennifer Jayne, Esma Cannon, Geoffrey Keen and Jill Ireland.

Some classical music students, competing for a London Academy of Music scholarship, decide to live together as roommates, leading to professional and romantic rivalry. One of them writes a pop song and puts his scholarship at risk.

Raising the Wind is uneven, but it keeps going fast over the unfunny bits with the help of the very amusing cast, raising the laughs. Justice is done for once when funny James Robertson Justice gets top billing as Sir Benjamin Boyd.

The writer of the original story and screenplay is Bruce Montgomery.

Also in the vintage comedy cast are Jimmy Thompson, David Lodge, Lance Percival, Joan Hickson, Ambrosine Phillips, John Antrobus, Jim Dale, Victor Maddern, and George Woodbridge.

Lovely Liz Fraser, who plays Miranda Kennaway, died on 6 September 2018, aged 88.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8117

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