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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1950s
    Movies - 1950s Movies - L 2 Mins Read

    Laughter in Paradise (1951)

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    Four relatives of a recently-deceased horrible old practical joker (Hugh Griffith) are each set to receive a substantial sum of money in his will, but only if they fulfil certain outrageous conditions.

    A stony-faced spinster (Fay Compton) – renowned for her acid tongue and sadistic treatment of her servants – must, in order to reap her share of the old joker’s fortune, work as a maid in a middle-class home. If she’s fired, she is cut out of the will.

    A timid bank clerk (George Cole), a slick ne’er do well gambler and playboy (Guy Middleton), and a very proper ex-army officer who furtively writes blood and thunder tales under a variety of names, are meted out similarly distasteful sentences.

    Films made up of interwoven stories are notoriously difficult to do well, as it’s all too easy either to lose the thread of the difficult episodes or to become impatient with the less substantial ones.

    Director Mario Zampi nearly brings off the trick here, which is almost entirely down to the fantastic performance of Alastair Sim as the henpecked thriller writer, Deniston Russell, whose inheritance depends on him receiving a 28-day jail sentence.

    The scene in which he tries to shoplift is one of the funniest in a career overladen with choice comic moments. The other three episodes aren’t bad, it’s just that Sim’s is exceptional.

    The film was remade in 1970 as the infinitely inferior Some Will, Some Won’t with Ronnie Corbett, Leslie Phillips and Michael Hordern.

    Deniston Russell
    Alastair Sim
    Agnes Russell
    Fay Compton
    Lucille Grayson
    Beatrice Campbell
    Joan Webb
    Veronica Hurst
    Simon Russell
    Guy Middleton
    Herbert Russell
    George Cole
    Sir Charles Robson
    A E Matthews
    Elizabeth Robson
    Joyce Grenfell
    Roger Godfrey
    Anthony Steel
    Gordon Webb
    John Laurie
    Sheila Wilcott
    Eleanor Summerfield
    Mr Wagstaffe
    Ronald Adam
    Police sergeant
    Leslie Dwyer
    Endicott
    Ernest Thesiger
    Henry Russell

    Hugh Griffith
    Stuart
    Michael Pertwee
    Cigarette girl
    Audrey Hepburn

    Director
    Mario Zampi

    Video


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