The Plank (1979)

Perfectly adorable

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Does anyone know how or where to buy this movie. It is so much better than the original (1967) but has seemed to have been lost - would love to see it again. Arthur Lowe is the key character for me and his role in the opening scene sets the mood so well. Mind you Jimmy Edwards had had quite a few years to let his facial hair turn into white wilderness!!

I watched the 1967 version of The Plank and then later on I watched the 1979 version of the Plank. For some reason some of the funny scenes from the 1967 version have been cut out of the 1979 version to make it a half an hour programme instead of the original's 50 minutes. I like the idea of having lots of well known comedy faces in it such as Brian Murphy, Reg Varney, Charles Hawtrey, Harry H Corbett and Joanna Lumley, but the comedic effect is not as good as it was in the original 1967 version. Shame that Eric Sykes replaced Tommy Cooper with Arthur Lowe, but Lowe still does a good job. I also feel that it is a bit strained in a way as there are some silly moments, where for example, the workmen (Eric Sykes and Arthur Lowe) leave their car in the way of the exit, but it is a wide exit with tons of room to get through! Same happens a few minutes later when Brian Murphy's truck won't start. There is plenty of room to pass the truck but the drivers of the cars keep blowing their horns! OVERALL VERDICT: A good, entertaining film, not as good as the original, as some of the best moments (such as the UDC wet cement section, or the police station ending) are not in. Not as good as the original but still worth a watch.

With a poll coming up on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best movies of 1979,I started looking round for titles to view. Initially looking from its running time like an episode of Sykes,I was surprised to stumble on a short (almost) Silent movie,written/directed and starring Eric Sykes! Which led to me picking up the plank.The plot:As they get set to continue their work,two construction workers discover that one of their building planks has disappeared.Looking round for it,the workers discover that it has been taken by kids,who are now using it as a sea-saw.Not wanting to interrupt their play,the workers decide to just go and buy a new one,but soon find themselves on a sea-saw of chaos.View on the film:Bringing the movie out later in a "Silent" version,the TV cuts showing the pull between Silent cinema and TV Comedy that the film is stuck in.Offering slight whispers of Alan Braden's jazzy score,the playful mood is stamped on by an unrelenting fake laugh tracks,which yelps like a pack of dogs even during the set-up of gags. Deciding to go Silent due to hearing troubles,director Eric Sykes reveals a natural flare for Silent Comedy,with smooth tracking shots making the rubbery slap- stick Comedy hit its mark. Keeping the screenplay free and easy,Sykes packs the short running time with a cast of Comedy legends walking the plank from Harry H. Corbett to Diana Dors! Despite each just being given small roles,the cast make their sightings a delight to see,with Arthur Lowe being wonderfully stuffy as the fellow workman who walks the plank.

In 1967, Eric Sykes wrote, directed, and starred in 'The Plank', a short, silent comedy film about two incompetent builders ( Eric and Tommy Cooper ) who are short of a plank of wood for the house they are currently working on. Climbing into their battered old car, they head for the timber yard. With the plank safely secured to the roof ( so they think ), they set off, but lose it before too long. The plank causes mayhem whenever it goes.Twelve years later, Eric remade the film for Thames Television. Arthur Lowe replaced Cooper ( who was reunited with Sykes in 1982's 'Its Your Move' ). Right from the word go when Eric puts his jacket on a non-existent nail on the wall, you know you're in Jacques Tati territory; a delivery man ( Charlie Drake ) is knocked onto the cream cake he is carrying; a painter ( Bernard Cribbins ) is distracted and daubs red paint onto his boss' ( Lionel Blair ) face; a sexy hitch-hiker ( Joanna Lumley ) is picked up by a lorry driver ( Harry H.Corbett ) and when the plank strikes her on the back of the head she falls onto his lap; a man drinking a pint of beer ( Henry Cooper ) loses his glass ( and temper ) when the plank knocks it into a window-cleaner's ( Reg Varney ) bucket. And so on.Eric admitted later he never wrote an actual script for 'The Plank'. It adhered to the old 'cowboy movie' principle of an idea on a sheet of paper. He said: "I don't write yards and yards of funny dialogue, because you can't film dialogue.". The producer, Dennis Kirkland, was used to silent comedy - he worked on many of Benny Hill's shows for Thames.I actually prefer this to the original. It is shorter and snappier, and Alan Braden's music is splendid. Amongst the other guests are Brian Murphy, Charles Hawtrey, Kate O'Mara, Jimmy Edwards ( reprising his role as a policeman on a bike ), racing driver James Hunt, Frankie Howerd ( as a photographer ), and Wilfrid Hyde-White.Two versions were screened on I.T.V. - one with a laugh-track, and one without. The one on D.V.D. is the latter. Eric went on to make three more silent half-hours in similar vein - the aforementioned 'Its Your Move' ( probably the best of the lot ), 'Rhubarb Rhubarb' ( another cinema remake ), and 'Mr.H. Is Late', and all are good clean fun.Funniest moment - the plank slipping under Constable Edwards' bottom and propelling his bike along the road at great speed, and into the river. Frank Spencer could not have done it better.