You Must Be Joking! (1965)

Yes, you must be joking.................

As with the "Curtain Up" review I did, this Michael Winner film is the same for me as it left me cold, and WHY did we have to have an American in the lead part? Peter Sellers for example would have made a far better job and might have made it more watchable. And again, mixed reviews in the IMDb with 4/10 to 10/10.

Considering the many British comedy stars in it you would have hoped for something better than this - the only ones that made anything of it were Terry-Thomas and Wilfrid Hyde-White. Even Lionel Jeffries and Bernard Cribbins failed to make me laugh, which is unusual for them, but the parts they were playing were just plain daft and silly.

No Sam Kydd surprisingly considering it had an Army theme, but there was the ubiquitous Miles Malleson, along with James Robertson Justice, Irene Handl, Richard Wattis, Clive Dunn, Arthur Lowe, Graham Stark, Peter Bull, James Villiers, Peter Barkworth, "Oo! Roses Grow On You - Dodgy" comedian/compere Norman Vaughan and David Jacobs the DJ.

One very sad note - on trying to find out who the pretty "pop singer" was it turned out to be a French actress Patricia Viterbo, who only a year later was (and I quote) drowned in Paris when she was filming a scene for Judoka-Secret Agent in which she was supposed to reverse her convertible car slowly a few centimetres towards the River Seine. The car went too fast into the river and Patricia drowned; her passenger Henri Garcin who played her lover in the film was dragged free and survived. Oh dear. :(

Yes, the user reviews sound more amusing than the film. From Cracking Comedy to Woeful.

No matter how good an actor you are, if you haven't got a good script it's no joke.

Yes, Alan Hackney wrote the screenplay based on his own story and so, surprisingly he wrote the "I'm All Right Jack" book; BUT (according to the IMDb) THAT screenplay was written by Frank Harvey and John Boulting, which may explain why this film was frankly, dire.