The Bed Sitting Room

THE BED SITTING ROOM

Year Of Release : 1969
Director : Richard Lester
Genre : Comedy
Rating : ***

As the great Roger Ebert once wrote, ''If Monty Python had never existed, Richard Lester would still have invented it.'' He has a point, and one film epitomises this, the fabulous 1969 film 'The Bed Sitting Room'. It is anarchic, zany, surreal, dark and strangely prophetic. Unfortunately, it was a massive box office flop, and Lester wouldn't be commissioned to direct another film for 5 years. Although I loved the film, I can see why this is.

In the middle of the 1960's, an atomic bomb is dropped on the British Isles by an unknown nation, killing every person in the country except for a small group of survivors, and the film is about how they deal with the situation. There are small groups of characters, such a small family who live on the central line of the London Underground, headed by 'Dad's Army's' Arthur Lowe. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore portray the hapless police officers who float around in a car attached to a hot air balloon, shouting down their orders via a dented megaphone. There is also a doctor, a tramp and several insane characters prophesying their doom. Each group of characters are introduced through very funny sketches, but as the story develops and the characters are stretched, the story becomes very grim and quite mean spirited.  A new-born child dies, characters discuss how to sexually assault a woman on the tube and some people end up eating their own parents. These are all accompanied by strange honky tonk music and although these scenes are done in an intentionally funny way, some parts do come across as quite cruel. It reminds me of the final things that Monty Python would do some years later in 'The Meaning Of Life'.

As written before, 'The Bed Sitting Room' contains a stellar cast of 1960's comedians; Marty Feldman, Arthur Lowe, Frank Thornton, Harry Secombe, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. Each of them do as best as they can with the parts, and Secombe and Cook are obviously having fun with their parts. Marty Feldman is hilarious as the nurse wandering around the wastelands, handing out death certificates armed with wonky eyed binoculars, referencing Feldman's strabismus, and is the highlight of the film. The main character is Sir Ralph Richardson portraying a man who is worried that the radiation from the bomb will cause him to turn into the eponymous bed sitting room.

 

The movie is based on a stage play written by the genius Spike Milligan and his sense of zany humour is all over 'The Bed Sitting Room'. There is a very funny scene, where Milligan playing a post officer delivers a pie to someone by throwing it in their face. As my favourite Milligan sketch features Hitler singing whilst pies are thrown in his face, this scene really made me laugh. But there is also a very dark subtext, especially when looking back at recent warfare history. This does make some scenes in 'The Bed Sitting Room' difficult to watch and quite upsetting.

Richard Lester was a very successful director in the 1960's, directing the definitive Beatles movie, 'A Hard Day's Night' and the follow up 'Help!', but this movie almost destroyed his career, and it wouldn't be until 1974 when he could direct 'The Three Musketeers'. It reminds me of the career of the revered Michael Powell who directed 'Peeping Tom' in 1960. When 'Peeping Tom' was released it was considered vile and evil, and completely destroyed Powell's career. It is only decades later that 'Peeping Tom' is now seen as an important and revolutionary British thriller. Although I don't think that 'The Bed Sitting Room' is important, it should be seen as a proto - Python film which established surreal comedy as a comedy sub - genre.

'The Bed Sitting Room' is not going to be for everyone. It will almost definitely anger some people and may just bore others. Unless you're a fan or Pete & Dud, The Goons or Monty Python, you may not enjoy 'The Bed Sitting Room', but I am so I did. However, I didn't enjoy all of it.