"The Naked Truth" (a.k.a. "Your Past Is Showing") is a good example of the dividing line between bad and awful. While never quite unpleasant, it is also a comedy that isn't funny, a caper film that isn't clever, and a showcase for talents who never manage to rise off the ground, even if they don't fall flat on their face.
Nigel Dennis (Dennis Price) is a journalist with a special calling. He self-publishes a magazine called "The Naked Truth" revealing the seamy underbelly of celebrity life in pre-Swinging, still-naughty London. He makes a special offer to those he gets the dirt on, like TV personality Wee Sonny MacGregor (Peter Sellers): Come across with a sizable donation to a charity called the Distressed Journalists' Association (sole beneficiary: Dennis himself) and we won't tell England the sordid details of your private lives.
"But I haven't got 10,000 pounds," protests MacGregor.
"Spoken like a true Scot," Dennis replies. "But where has the bonnie accent gone?"
The presence of Price immediately reminds one of the classic Ealing comedy "Kind Hearts And Coronets," which Price starred in to great effect. Though given the same kind of weaselly character to play, lashing out against the upper classes, he's not nearly as good here. In part that's because Price here is more detached and harder to pull for, but mostly because "The Naked Truth" doesn't have the craft of "Kind Hearts" when it comes for making the audience care about its array of base characters.
What makes "Naked Truth" more of a failure is the presence of Sellers, just gaining his chops in screen comedy and a year or so away from launching one of the most fertile five-year periods any screen actor ever had. He's not bad here, just a wasted opportunity. MacGregor dons an assortment of disguises trying to gain the upper hand on Dennis, the first of many such multiple role-plays for Sellers, but the laughs are few and faint.
That's a problem throughout the movie, actually. Michael Pertwee's script is full of double takes and misheard words but few laughs, especially as it starts things off with a suicide and a suicide attempt. Director Mario Zampi has a hard time shooting day-for-night scenes and lets Peggy Mount play to the cheap seats in an overly broad performance as a mystery novelist. Poor Joan Sims as her daughter overacts even worse, reminding one of how comedy is a business of degrees. Zampi does shoot some arresting floor-level shots now and then, but he doesn't do much for his cast from Price on down.
What's good about "The Naked Truth"? Terry-Thomas, in what amounts to a nominal lead performance as another of Dennis's blackmail victims, louche Lord Mayley, inhabits his character with his usual playful verve. Like tom-darwin noted here in an earlier review, T-T was a bit of a one-note Johnny but played his one note well. He does so here especially in exchanges with Price and Sellers and with Georgina Cookson as Lady Mayley, about as amiable a henpecker as you'll find on screen. The score by Stanley Black is busy but game. You wish you were having as good a time as he is here.
"The Naked Truth" is neither funny nor witty, but there are moments of engagement here or there. Mostly though, it's a chance to appreciate that British comedy wasn't always so golden even in its "Golden Age."
Nigel Dennis (Dennis Price) is a journalist with a special calling. He self-publishes a magazine called "The Naked Truth" revealing the seamy underbelly of celebrity life in pre-Swinging, still-naughty London. He makes a special offer to those he gets the dirt on, like TV personality Wee Sonny MacGregor (Peter Sellers): Come across with a sizable donation to a charity called the Distressed Journalists' Association (sole beneficiary: Dennis himself) and we won't tell England the sordid details of your private lives.
"But I haven't got 10,000 pounds," protests MacGregor.
"Spoken like a true Scot," Dennis replies. "But where has the bonnie accent gone?"
The presence of Price immediately reminds one of the classic Ealing comedy "Kind Hearts And Coronets," which Price starred in to great effect. Though given the same kind of weaselly character to play, lashing out against the upper classes, he's not nearly as good here. In part that's because Price here is more detached and harder to pull for, but mostly because "The Naked Truth" doesn't have the craft of "Kind Hearts" when it comes for making the audience care about its array of base characters.
What makes "Naked Truth" more of a failure is the presence of Sellers, just gaining his chops in screen comedy and a year or so away from launching one of the most fertile five-year periods any screen actor ever had. He's not bad here, just a wasted opportunity. MacGregor dons an assortment of disguises trying to gain the upper hand on Dennis, the first of many such multiple role-plays for Sellers, but the laughs are few and faint.
That's a problem throughout the movie, actually. Michael Pertwee's script is full of double takes and misheard words but few laughs, especially as it starts things off with a suicide and a suicide attempt. Director Mario Zampi has a hard time shooting day-for-night scenes and lets Peggy Mount play to the cheap seats in an overly broad performance as a mystery novelist. Poor Joan Sims as her daughter overacts even worse, reminding one of how comedy is a business of degrees. Zampi does shoot some arresting floor-level shots now and then, but he doesn't do much for his cast from Price on down.
What's good about "The Naked Truth"? Terry-Thomas, in what amounts to a nominal lead performance as another of Dennis's blackmail victims, louche Lord Mayley, inhabits his character with his usual playful verve. Like tom-darwin noted here in an earlier review, T-T was a bit of a one-note Johnny but played his one note well. He does so here especially in exchanges with Price and Sellers and with Georgina Cookson as Lady Mayley, about as amiable a henpecker as you'll find on screen. The score by Stanley Black is busy but game. You wish you were having as good a time as he is here.
"The Naked Truth" is neither funny nor witty, but there are moments of engagement here or there. Mostly though, it's a chance to appreciate that British comedy wasn't always so golden even in its "Golden Age."