Rising Damp (1980)
Directed by Joseph McGrath

Film Review

One of the best-loved British television sitcoms of the 1970s, Rising Damp finally got the movie makeover in 1980, one in a slew of middle-of-the-road comedies that came out around this time to capitalise on the success of their TV counterparts.  It was generally a dismal time for the British film industry and producers obviously thought that by putting familiar faces on the big screen in shoddy versions of popular shows they could stem the rot.  Far from it.  Whilst it is by no means the worst offender, Rising Damp The Movie fails where so many similar films failed before it, by not recognising that the TV sitcom format only works for half hour television sitcoms.

Judged on its own merits, Rising Damp The Movie is not so bad as you might expect (and nowhere near as dire as similar offerings, such as the truly risible On the Buses films).  It shamelessly recycles most of its situations and jokes from episodes of the television series, but the four principals, led by the magnificent Leonard Rossiter, manage to make them as fresh and funny as ever.  Eric Chappell's humour (revolving mostly around sex, racial prejudice and mindless cruelty to domestic animals) may be woefully dated by today's standards but the gags still get a laugh, although it is the on-going struggle by Rigsby to get into a clinch with Miss Jones that provides most entertainment value.

Rigsby is one of the immortal grotesques of British television.  He and his dilapidated, damp-ridden boarding house provide the most succinct representation for all that was wrong with Britain in the 1970s (which may account for the series' immense popularity).  Leonard Rossiter was born to play the part and pulls off the seemingly impossible feat of making him both odious and sympathetic, a believable character yet one who is also the worst kind of caricature, pathetic but also irresistibly funny.  Frances de la Tour is just as superb as the tragically passionate Miss Jones, another sad stereotype given depth and charm by an inordinately talented actress.   Confounding the prevailing racial stereotypes, Don Warrington brings sophistication and dry wit to his portrayal of the supposed African prince Philip, whilst Christopher Strauli does a reasonable job standing in for Richard Beckinsale, who tragically died from a heart attack the year before the film was made. 

Yes, the film has glaring faults that are hard to forgive:  a hideously naff title song (which was, incredibly, released as a single) and some pointlessly arty direction from Joseph McGrath (going by his obsessive use of low- and high- angled shots, you'd think he was shooting a film noir).  But all this is made up for by Leonard Rossiter's last great turn as Rigsby, the self-important landlord from Hell that no one can resist falling in love with.  If nothing else, the film helps to keep alive the memory of one of Britain's most successful and best-written sitcoms.  If you think Rising Damp The Movie is okay (apart from the odd mouldy patch here and there), you'll be blown away by the brilliance of the original series.

Film Synopsis

Mr Rigsby is the self-deluding, mean-spirited landlord of a town house that has definitely seen better days.  Long since divorced, he rents out his rooms to carefully scrutinised tenants, who presently include Miss Jones, a repressed spinster prone to amorous delusions, and Philip Smith, a black medical student who claims to be the son of an African chief with ten wives.  With accommodation apparently hard to come by, Rigsby has no difficulty attracting his next lodger, John, a naive arts student who ends up sharing an attic room with Philip.  For years, Rigsby has sought to make an amorous conquest of Miss Jones, and he is so close to realising his dream when a smooth-talking con artist named Seymour enters the fray...