Penny Points to Paradise (1951) YIFY - Download Movie TORRENT

Reviewed by Igenlode Wordsmith 6 / 10

Half a success

This film is an odd mixture of about fifty/fifty success and failure, but manages to remain quite enjoyable withal: Monty Python, however, it ain't.It's a somewhat odd experience for those, such as myself, with only a passing acquaintance with the Goons, to see them in person rather than just as radio voices. I had no idea that Harry Secombe was so short, for instance, or Spike Milligan could be so unexpectedly good-looking. And they take advantage of the new medium to experiment with some purely visual comedy, for example Secombe's mimed surgical operation. The hit rate for this, though, is about the same as for the verbal humour: about half of it worked for me and the other half didn't.The most consistently impressive performer is Alfred Marks, who appears to be channelling Alistair Sim in his role as a smooth criminal mastermind; his derogatory relationship with the sidekick he calls 'Laddie' is almost invariably hilarious. The statuesque Paddy O'Neill's impression of Bette Davis is also wickedly apt, while she and Vicki Page as Sheila have a good double-act going. The Goons have a tendency towards being manic just for the sake of it (epitomised in the speeded-up sequences, a form of Keystone Kops comedy that just doesn't work for me at all) but come up with some nice sequences.The history of the print we saw was chequered, the picture having been cut for re-issue under the title "Penny Points" with some of the footage surviving only in 16mm format (and apparently extra footage of Peter Sellers interspersed to take advantage of his increased fame!) The differing quality of certain scenes did, however, provide the opportunity to see just what had been cut; largely plot-development and dialogue scenes between the set-piece gags, by the look of it, and certainly the restoration gives the impression of being an improvement.By and large I found this film about as funny as the average Goon Show episode (which were always a bit haphazard), although not as funny as the best of them... but then I'd been told to expect the worst by two separate people before the screening started, and was consequently quite pleasantly surprised! Provided you don't expect too much this film is quite enjoyable, and manages to avoid being tedious or annoying throughout.

Reviewed by JoeytheBrit 6 / 10

Reasonable early Goons film

I was never a fan of the Goons, but I'm a sucker for anything that looks remotely obscure so thought I'd give this early effort of theirs a go. It's quite good, with some inspired moments to be found amongst the more mundane material. Secombe and Milligan play a couple of innocents, one of whom has won £100,000 on the pools, who return to their holiday boarding house in Brighton only to find themselves the target of gold-diggers and con-men. Highlights include the rather well-built Paddy O'Neill pulling off a clever Bette Davis impersonation, and Freddie Frinton as a drunk who angrily berates the person he's talking to for walking away from him without realising he is actually the one staggering backwards (well, I thought it was funny, anyway). Although he has a couple of parts, Peter Sellers does little other than announce to the world his insuperable skill at making a limited comic talent stretch an

Reviewed by allenrogerj 4 / 10

The beginning of Sellers

An odd mixture: cheap and quickly made, a strange mixture of clichés piled on top of each other, old (and stolen) jokes and improvisations. Harry Secombe has won £100,000 on the football pools, but still goes to Brighton with his pal, played by Spike Milligan, for his usual holiday at at their usual nightmarish guest-house. Two girls already there set up as gold-diggers, a confidence trickster sets out to get his money from him and a pair of counterfeiters (one- Alfred Marks- doing a W.C. Fields impersonation) follow them for the same purpose. The plot is just a thread to hang a set of gags on. The only trouble is, the gags aren't very original or very good. There are one or two moments when they are on the edge of the surreal comedy that they achieved in The Goon Show or they might fly off into farce, but it nearly always fails. A short scene when Secombe, hypnotised to think he is a soprano, and one of the girls, thinking she is a bass, sing a duet is genuinely funny as are moments when all of them and a pair of comic policemen run round a waxworks museum, but on the whole they don't seem to have had the knowledge of film, the confidence or the time to work out something good, though so often they seem just on the edge of it.

Penny Points to Paradise

1951

Comedy / Crime

Penny Points to Paradise

1951

Comedy / Crime

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Movie Reviews

Half a success

Reasonable early Goons film

The beginning of Sellers

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