It's refreshing to see a surreal film that is not full of gloom and doom or mystical mayhem. Granted THE BED SITTING ROOM does take place in a post-apocalypse England with a cast of absolute lunatics, but somehow it's all very fun. Director Richard Lester assembles a who's who of great British comics working in the late 1960s and allows them to run rampant. It's hysterical. Ralph Richardson has the title role (you'll have to see it to believe it) and Marty Feldman, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Roy Kinnear have featured roles. Best of all is the crazy family headed by Arthur Lowe and Mona Washbourne, who live on a never ending Metro train afraid to come out into the nuclear wasteland. When they finally do, daughter Rita Tushingham (17 month pregnant) is thrown into an arranged marriage with lunatic Michael Hordern. A priceless piece of entertainment & showcase for a lot of talented comics who did not necessarily have substantial film careers. It's chock full of great moments: Secombe's kinky request of Washbourne that she have a domestic dispute with him, as his wife used to; Kinnear giving Hordern a haircut without scissors or razor; Feldman's appearance as a nurse! One of Lester's best films. With very clever opening credits.
Review of The Bed Sitting Room
