Not to be confused with last week’s critical darling What A Whopper!, despite the presence of that same films dynamic duo Sid James and Adam Faith, What a Carve Up! is a very British film is a curious pedigree. While it’s an unassuming dolts-in-a-haunted house programmer from 1963, What A Carve Up! has become a genuine cult item against all odds. Regularly shown on the Talking Pictures channel, Pat Jackson’s film was the subject of a Jonathan Coe novel also called What A Carve Up! which was about a man obsessed with viewing the film What a Carve Up!, and also as a play of the same title. That play of the novel inspired by the film first premiered in 2020, which was also called What A Carve Up!, and starred Stephen Fry.
If you’re a fan of Tim Burton, John Carpenter or the Bond films, there’s strong links here; Michael Gough went on to butler for Michael Keaton’s Batman, Donald Pleasence gets his Sam Loomis on well before Halloween, and Shirley Eaton warms up for Goldfinger; it’s notable not only as early work for these stars, but that they’re playing the kind of characters that they stuck with for all their careers. Pleasance plays a creepy lawyer who summers up our protagonists (Sid James and Kenneth Connor) to a stately home where a will is about to be read; we’re talking about eyes moving behind paintings-type whodunnit? shenanigans, with Gough’s butler hanging around in the shadows. Dennis Price is amongst the posho family keen to gip the boys out of their potential inheritance, but with a mad killer on the loose, finance is the least of their worries.
Saddled with a dull title in the States (No Place Like Homicide), What A Carve Up! hasn’t made much impression abroad, but it’s a sleeper success that nails down a few truths about the class system. There’s no actual horror here, despite being adapted from a play called The Ghoul, but there is cult appeal in a story which aims to lay bare the grasping nature of UK life in comical fashion. And as a snapshot of some break-out actors just on the cusp of international stardom, it’s quite a bit of fun for cineastes. The 2008 DVD is a snip at just £73.
I just love how old dvd prices on amazon get like this. No one is going to buy it so the sellers might as well just toss it in the garbage for all the good it’s going to do.
As for the movie itself. I like “dolts in a house” usually. As long as the whole theme is funny and not just stupid. Half the time I can’t even blame the movie, as that kind of humor changes from person to person and what I think is funny some lep denier is going to think is stupid, and vice versa.
I’ll put you down for two copies then, and a five pack of ladies tights.
We TALKED about the tights last time. 10 pair, 10!!! You gotta stop being such a cheapo…
How many copies of Incendieries of Drizzlewitch IV; Spacebadgers of Nebula Nine will I get in return?
0.
THAT is a highly collectable book worth more than your car. I wouldn’t give that away even on my death bed.
Right, well, no ladies tights for you, Bunty. How’s you like them apples?
I like apples! How’d you know?
Well, you’ll get them instead of tights, then.
I like them whole, please. Not skinned, not cut up, not with peanut butter. Just plain wholesome, healthy apples. And don’t try to slip in a poisoned one in with the rest. I’ll know!
Ok, now I know how you like your apples. So how many books are you sending me?
All of them. Once I get those apples I will send them right off. Honest….
Hmm…I’ve got apples for you, jsut how you like them, but I’ll need to see the books arrive first. No fast moves, Bunty…
What? You’re calling my honesty, integrity and deeply held but publicly shown ethics into question?
I am hurt! Deeply hurt, right here
*puts hand on heart*
I overlooked the Lep Denier thing, but this? Oh, the humanity!
Calm your jets, I’m calling your bluff, your book-giveaways are hopelessly slanted against European readers! It’s an outrage!
It is as open to you and your little green friend Lucky as it is to anyone. You just have to pay. sounds to me like you’re being cheap again…
Why should I pay for a supposedly free giveaway?
It’s only free in the good old US of A.
All you old world people, well, you have to pay for a genuine piece of 20th Century Americana….
What, Space-serpents of Zarraroff 19?
No. See, this is why you need to actually READ the post before saying silly things like this.
I’m giving away How to Rule the World without anyone knowing by that anonymous recluse B. Ookstooge. What a fellow! He’s my role model and everything any man, at any time, in any universe, could ever aspire to be.
Well, if it’s free, send me 10…
Unsurprisingly, I’ve never heard of this. Another one that sounds intriguing and worth a go!
Well, if Shark Tank isn’t on tonight, give it a go!
Sounds decent enough. What a crazy place Britain used to be.
It’s on message for 1961!
I got confused in that first paragraph. There was a film of a novel, then a play of the film, then another film about the play?? And they’re all called What A Carve Up? Anyway £73 gives me Nopefever!
I can see how it might seem confusing; the 2020 version is a film of a play of a book based on a film of a play. Any questions?
Nope. Clear as sausages.
Cheery, cleary sausages?
Cheery cleary triple chilli sausages. A nice change from onions this morning.
You must be joking, that sounds like something you’d buy at a carvival? For breakfast?
Yep, with beans, fried eggs and fried bread. Winning at breakfasts.
Sandwich and coffeee here. Light and sensible.
That’s wrong. Sandwiches are lunch things.
Sigh. NOPE!
Must be a Scottish thing then.
Sensible thing, not eating chillies for breakfast. Frosties and coke much better for you…
Frosties in a sandwich?? Scottish and strange. Doesn’t the milk make the bread soggy?
Sigh. Wrap the whole thing up in haggis skin and you have a great start to any day!
Blerk.
Sigh.
Just sent this link to Alex, who said he’d never seen Are You Being Served? I think if we don’t hear from him by noon, we should contact local authorities to make sure he’s OK….
https://www.facebook.com/BritBoxUS/videos/grace-brothers-christmas-display-unit-are-you-being-served-streaming-now-on-brit/1667815433371103/
To be exact, I said I’d never sat through a full episode of Are You Being Served? And I think that’s a boast I’m going to hold on to.
Right, I’m sending the Joanna Lumley re-education police round, we’ll get this sorted licketly-split.
Has it got anything to do with What A Carve Up??
Sigh. As I explained to Bookstooge, I’m like a chess grand master playing ten games at once; Alex is still working on his Joanna Lumley badge of homour….
Is she in the Carvery movie then? The Lumley wasn’t in Are you Being Served! You’re thinking of Miss Brahms which was Wendy Richard’s character.
Are you going to press forward with this erroneous argument without checking? I’ll give you a sporting chance to bail….
She was in 2 episodes as a minor character, NOT part of the proper cast. Doesn’t count.
It does if you’re president of her fan club (Scottish chapter).
Do you need any help with your WALKING BACK of the phrase ‘wasn’t in’ ?
As previously stated, being a minor character doesn’t count in this case. A total screen time of 5 minutes does not constitute ‘in’ for a long running series.
You can keep talking, but you thought I meant Wendy Richards, schoolboy-girl error! Lumley IS is Are You Being Served?, not just once but twice, and I declare myself the winner!
If it makes you happy I will concede she graced the series with her illustrious presence, brieflier than a brief thing on a brief day. But if she’d been IN it I would have the box set, and I haven’t, so she isn’t. My world, my rules. Anyways, I’m off to have my sausages now. Behave whilst I’m away.
According to her IMDb page Lumley was on AYBS? And that’s as far as I could take it.
See my reply to Ol’10.
Apparently the British entertainment world is all one degree of separation from Joanna Lumley.
From a Lumley denier who reviews two of her films in a row without mentioning her! Shame on you!
She was never in a Leprechaun movie though, and that will always be a huge gap in her CV.
No, it’s not, and you had the chance to get all this Lep stuff out of your system yesterday…
It all comes back with the Lumley stuff. There’s no taking them apart.
Lumley=the best.
Leprechaun= The worst.
The end.
They could do worse.
Agreed.
I read the Coe novel years ago and have always been curious about the film. Thanks for linking it!
There’s an original black and white version kicking around too if you look, obviously as a precursor to blowing £73 on a DVD. Oh, interesting that you’ve read the book, I’m planning to do the same, what’s the novel like?
My memory is a bit sketchy but it was a good, if a bit dark, story. That’s a LOT of money for a dvd. Is it gold-plated?
It is, but if you’ve got a DVD of last week’s What A Whopper!, you can trade that in to get £50 off this one….Coe then write another book dealing with What A Whopper, if that helps…
How often did Pleasence play someone who was mentally well?
Never. I think it was a rider in his contract.