The Great McGonagall ** (1975, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Julia Foster) – Classic Movie Review 9332

Director Joe McGrath’s 1974 comedy The Great McGonagall stars Spike Milligan as the obscure and terrible unemployed 19th-century Scottish poet William McGonagall, married to Mrs McGonagall (Julia Foster), and determined to become Queen Victoria’s poet laureate.

Peter Sellers, in a relatively brief star appearance as a love-crazy Victoria (‘I am Queen Victoria, and I am very big in England!’), and Milligan have fun in the revue-style McGoonery. But The Great McGonagall is a rather dated, ultimately slightly tiresome piece that by and large fails to tickle the funny bone enough.

On the other hand it is comedy gods Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, and it does have its odd quirky charms, and some good laughs.

Also in the cast are Julian Chagrin, John Bluthal, Valentine Dyall, Victor Spinetti, Clifton Jones and Charlie Atom, all in multiple roles.

The writers are Joseph McGrath and Spike Milligan. It includes several of McGonagall’s poems, his appearance as Macbeth having improved Shakespeare’s plot, his pilgrimage to Balmoral Castle, Roderick McLean’s attempted assassination of Queen Victoria on 2 March 1882, at Windsor, and a tribute to McGonagall from Lieutenant Frederick Rollo of the Royal Scots in Zululand.

McGonagall wrote a poem about Maclean’s attempt on the Queen’s life.

The title character was played by W C Fields in The Old Fashioned Way (1934). William Topaz McGonagall was a real poet, possibly the worst ever. Milligan and Sellers often read his poems to one another.

The Great McGonagall is directed by Joe McGrath, runs 95 minutes, is made by Darlton and Oppidan Film Productions, is released by Tigon Film Distributors (1974) (UK) and Scotia American (1975) (US), is written by Joe McGrath and Spike Milligan, is shot in Eastmancolor by John Mackey, is produced by David Grant and is scored by John Shakespeare and Derek Warne, with Production Design by George Djurkovic.

The film was made in three weeks at Wilton’s Music Hall, London, including one week of rehearsal, with Sellers working for only one week. McGrath recalled that Sellers ‘insisted on coming and guesting in it’ and played Victoria on his knees, wearing roller-skates.

The film was produced by English porn producer David Grant, who got McGrath to put in nude scenes and used the film as a tax write-off. Grant was jailed for six months distributing so-called video nasty Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1981) on video on 3 February 1984. Grant died in 1991, probably the victim of a contract killing.

McGrath dubbed person of short stature Charlie Atom’s lines when he was unavailable for the dubbing session.

It was Sellers’s seventh box-office flop film in a row.

The Great McGonagall Scrapbook by Spike Milligan and Jack Hobbs was published in 1975. They wrote three more McGonagall books: William McGonagall: The Truth at Last (1976), with illustrations by Peter Sellers; William McGonagall Meets George Gershwin: A Scottish Fantasy (1988); and William McGonagall: Freefall (1992).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9332

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