Rising Damp
- 1980
- 1h 38m
Based on the British situation comedy Rising Damp, which aired on ITV from 1974 to 1978. Stingy landlord Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter) manages to scam his lodgers, arts student John Cooper(Chris... Read allBased on the British situation comedy Rising Damp, which aired on ITV from 1974 to 1978. Stingy landlord Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter) manages to scam his lodgers, arts student John Cooper(Christopher Strauli) and medical student Philip (Don Warrington) making both pay for a room the... Read allBased on the British situation comedy Rising Damp, which aired on ITV from 1974 to 1978. Stingy landlord Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter) manages to scam his lodgers, arts student John Cooper(Christopher Strauli) and medical student Philip (Don Warrington) making both pay for a room they must share. Rigsby's favourite lodger, Miss Jones (Frances de la Tour) flirts with Phili... Read all
- Awards
- 3 wins
- Miss Ruth Jones
- (as Frances De La Tour)
- Workman
- (uncredited)
- Student
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOriginal cast-member Richard Beckinsale died before the film could go before the cameras; consequently his medical student character Alan Moore was rewritten as Christopher Strauli's art student John. At the time Strauli was a well-known face on British screens from his regular role in another Eric Chappell sitcom from Yorkshire Television, Only When I Laugh (1979). Strauli was encouraged by Leonard Rossiter to play his character as the original actor would have; however the young actor (who had been at RADA with Beckinsale) felt uncomfortable with this suggestion as his contemporary had died only relatively recently. He would recall the part as an extremely unhappy one for him, despite the affability of the director and of the rest of the cast, but reasoned his strained relationship with Rossiter feeling unsettled by him replacing the much-missed Beckinsale.
- Quotes
[Rigsby and Miss Jones are at a restaurant]
Miss Ruth Jones: I must say, I do like this place. Do you come here often?
Rigsby: Oh yes. It's one of my old bachelor haunts.
Miss Ruth Jones: I thought you were married?
Rigsby: In name only, Miss Jones. It was a long time ago. At the end of the war - VJ night. She surrendered the same day as Japan. We resumed hostilities a week later.
Miss Ruth Jones: You make your marriage sound like a war!
Rigsby: Oh, it was, Miss Jones. Long periods of boredom followed by short bursts of violence. We should never have got married. There was only one woman I really liked in those days - Greer Garson. I saw all her films. Her and Walter Pidgeon.
Miss Ruth Jones: Did your wife remind you Greer Garson?
Rigsby: No, no... She looked more like Walter Pidgeon, actually.
- Alternate versionsWhen originally released theatrically in the UK, the BBFC made cuts to secure a 'A' rating. All cuts were waived in 1986 when the film was granted a 'PG' certificate for home video.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Rising Damp Forever: Episode #1.2 (2016)
Like most hit comedies of the 1970s, "Rising Damp" earned a big-screen adaptation. The main cast stayed intact, except that Christopher Strauli subbed for the late Richard Beckinsale. Unfortunately Joe McGrath, a comedy specialist used to altogether broader material (Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, The Goons) directed. Farce is played up at the expense of quieter and subtler pleasures.
McGrath, who helmed "The Magic Christian" and "The Great McGonagall", goes for a quick fire approach which Eric Chappell's screenplay-- like so many of these filmed sitcoms, it smells of three TV episodes scrambled together-- does not inhibit. Feeling one must open up the action and exploit a marginally larger budget, Chappell lets the film slip away too much from the house. To aficionados, even seeing the back garden and the street are a little shocking. However, scenes in pubs and restaurants echo the original, and the chief pleasure, Leonard Rossiter as Rupert Rigsby, is undimmed. Some well-loved schticks, such as Rigsby blowing in Miss Jones's ear after being told it's an erogenous zone, are reprised.
Rossiter broke the rules of modern screen acting. He mugged, twitched, grimaced, muttered semi-audibly and shamelessly hogged the camera, instead of underplaying stone-facedly and letting his confreres share the work. Yet he gets away with it every time, simply because Rigsby is a towering character in the great tradition of British "downer" comedy: the frustrated middle-aged male fantasist who is not quite up to living in the real world. That line began with Will Hay and ran through Hancock, Harold Steptoe, Captain Mainwaring and Basil Fawlty to Rigsby, with Derek Trotter and Victor Meldrew to come.
Guest star Denholm Elliott is a smooth ex-RAF conman after the gorgeous Miss Jones's modest savings. He may seem like another cinematic concession, but he is not unlike Peter Bowles's theatrical charmer of a lodger in the series. Elliott's underplaying is in fitting and masterful contrast to the spluttering sycophantic Rigsby. Don Warrington, the black student "chief's son with ten wives" patronised and envied by Rigsby, is gloriously suave, though victim of a disconcerting plot twist at the end.
This potted version is not the best of its breed, but for condensing Rossiter's tour de force it is worth catching.
- Oct
- Oct 2, 2004
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- A Bed of Roomers
- Filming locations
- Notting Hill, London, England, UK(82 Chesterton Road)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 38 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1