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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1970s
    Movies - 1970s Movies - R 3 Mins Read

    Rise & Rise Of Michael Rimmer, The (1970)

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    This brilliantly observed satire of party politics and spin doctors was commissioned by David Frost in 1966 and was a box office failure on release, although it has since gained cult status.

    The cast reads like a who’s who of British comedy, with Graham Chapman, fellow Monty Python member John Cleese, Ronnie Corbett, Denholm Elliott and Arthur Lowe all showing up to lend Peter Cook a hand.

    The laughs are patchy and the series of farcical sketches sometimes fails to hit the mark, but the tightly constructed story is a frighteningly incisive forecast of modern day politics.

    rimmer3 rimmer1

    The shadowy “coordination expert” Michael Rimmer (Peter Cook) gets a job with an advertising agency, swiftly rises through the ranks, and turns around its fortunes until he eventually runs the company.

    He instigates a flood of polls aimed at English householders and sabotages his competitor’s reputation by sending a bus full of stooges to Nuneaton and telling the opposition’s market researchers they’re Buddhists. When the poll results show 95 percent of the Nuneaton populace are Buddhists, the rival agency’s reputation is in tatters.

    His imaginative scheme enables him to predict the outcome of a by-election by polling the whole constituency.

    rimmer4 rimmer5

    Rimmer then enters politics at the behest of Conservative opposition leader Tom Hutchinson (Ronald Fraser) and sets out to capture a trophy wife to aid his political goals.

    He quickly becomes Conservative Member of Parliament for Budleigh Moor (geddit?), becomes a cabinet minister and eventually moves into 10 Downing Street after slyly pushing the serving Prime Minister off a North Sea gold platform.

    Rimmer’s futuristic vision of true democracy is that every eligible voter in Britain can cast ballots via a television remote control.

    Alas, the electorate tire of the endless referendum questions and propel the ruthless Rimmer to the position of dictatorial President of Great Britain by relinquishing all decisions to him.

    Michael Rimmer
    Peter Cook
    Peter Niss

    Denholm Elliott
    Tom Hutchinson

    Ronald Fraser
    Patricia Cartwright

    Vanessa Howard
    Ferret

    Arthur Lowe
    Blocket

    George A. Cooper
    Steven Hench

    Harold Pinter
    Crodder

    James Cossins
    Sir Eric Bentley

    Roland Culver
    Federman

    Dudley Foster
    Fairburn

    Dennis Price
    Pumer

    John Cleese
    Tanya
    Valerie Leon
    Fromage
    Graham Chapman
    Waring
    William Job
    Mrs Ferret
    Elspeth March
    Mrs Spimm
    Diana Coupland
    Mr Spimm
    Michael Bates
    Mandeville
    Michael Trubshawe
    Gerald Pringle
    Leslie Heritage
    Alderman Poot
    Norman Bird
    Bishop of Cowley
    Graham Crowden
    Wilting
    Richard Pearson
    Ranjit X
    Jerry Ram
    ‘Spot’
    Jonathan Cecil
    Freddie Daring
    Ronald Baddiley
    Tom Stoddart
    Frank Thornton
    Bream
    Richard Caldicot
    Snaggot
    Nicholas Phipps
    Potter
    Guy Middleton
    Colonel Moffat
    Julian Glover
    General Strike
    Robert Raglan
    Admiral Crichton
    Bruce Carstairs
    Major Mathieson
    Martin Boddey
    Major Scott
    Michael Barrington
    Buffery
    Desmond Walter-Ellis

    Director
    Kevin Billington

    Video


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