With John Cleese & Graham Chapman part of the writing team (and in small roles), there’s a whiff of the just aborning Monty Python in this satire of class, business and politics . . . just not enough. Something of a write-off when released, it’s slowly built a niche, mixing period crudities (woman are objectified to death) and prescient ideas on a dumbed down future of broadcast press, publicity & politics. And if Kevin Billington’s directing is no more than functional (Richard Lester unavailable?), an outstanding cast of off-center scene-stealers (Cleese, Chapman, Dennis Price, Denholm Elliot, Roland Culver) are targets for dry, droll Peter Cook (sly of mind/lank of limb), hiding ambition in plain sight as he effortlessly climbs the ladder from Junior Exec to Company Head; Backbencher MP to Prime Minister. As if Peter Sellers’ character in BEING THERE merged with Uriah Heep to star in HOW TO SUCCEED IN POLITICS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING. More consistently amusing than laugh-out-loud funny, the film improves toward the end when it darkens into a cautionary tale of fascism & fickle masses; even if ultimately better suited for post-viewing conversations than as the rosy-posy knife-edged parody it wants to be.
DOUBLE-BILL: With IN THE LOOP and VEEP, Armando Iannucci got further with this sort of thing; so too Jonathan Lynn on tv with YES MINISTER and YES, PRIME MINISTER.
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