The alcohol-blighted career of director Robert Hamer (Kind Heart And Coronets) wound down with this uneven comedy based on the then- popular One-Upmanship books by Stephen Potter. Ian Carmichael, cast dead-to-type as an amiable bumbler, finds himself trounced at every turn by suave bounder Terry-Thomas (also cast d-t-t), and looks like losing his girl to him, too. So he takes himself off to the College of Lifemanship at Yeovil, where Professor Potter (Alastair Sim) teaches him the dastardly art of always staying a step ahead. After which, predictably, tables are turned. A Billy Bob Thornton remake opens in February, but in the meantime the original’s passable gags and a few vintage cameos will have to suffice. However, it’s never quite as funny as it should be and suffers a ghastly last-reel lurch into sentimental moralising. The film was completed, uncredited, by Cyril Frankel after poor Hamer showed up on set pissed once too often.
Film Details
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- DVD RELEASE: Oct 30th 2006
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