Reviewed by Duncan Bain
Stars Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe | Written by John Ormonde
UK certification U | UK RRP £22.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 179 minutes | Directed by Tony Young
Restored by the BFI with clearly a lot of love and attention to detail, Penny Points To Paradise is the first evidence of film work by landscape-changing comedy group The Goons. Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and a very young Spike Milligan are all present and correct in this gloriously silly and intrinsically British post-war comedy.
The tale involves a simple set-up of Secombe scoring big on the Football Pools, and celebrating by taking his best mate to Brighton. Of course, in the hands of The Goons, such a seemingly innocuous set up is all it takes for a farcical 68 minutes of quirky characters, and untold misadventures.
Let’s Go Crazy was filmed immediately after Penny, and is more a half hour showcase of Goonish skits and oddities than something purporting to have a coherent plot!
Sellers was reportedly not a fan of these early films and indeed others have dismissed them as “cheap and cheerful” but after the 16mm reels were accidentally unearthed several years ago, the genesis of this Blu-ray is a testament to the passionate fan-base that The Goons still have after half a century, and naturally it now serves as an interesting and valuable jigsaw piece of history in the life and career of one of the 20th century’s most beloved comedic talents.
EXTRAS **** The Slappiest Days of Our Lives – a 78 minute compilation of black and white silent movie footage which Sellers then voiced with his own absurd comedic creations. This was actually my favourite video of the three on the disc and the sort of rare treat which justifies why the BFI as renowned as it is.