THE NAKED TRUTH
UK, 1957, 92 minutes, Black and white.
Peter Sellers, Terry- Thomas, Peggy Mount, Dennis Price, Shirley Eaton, Georgina Cookson.
Directed by Mario Zampi.
The Naked Truth is an entertaining British comedy, black humour style. It is in some ways reminiscent of Kinds Hearts and Coronets and The Battle of the Sexes, not least because of the presence of Dennis Price as the sinister scandalous journalist and Peter Sellers as the TV celebrity.
The film offers a showcase for Peter Sellers to display talents which were to emerge in the late '50s and early '60s ? especially his talent for impersonations, accents and disguises. He has quite a range of entertaining disguises here. Dennis Price is a suave sinister type. Terry- Thomas bumbles as usual. Peggy Mount shows that she could become a dragon. Shirley Eaton adds glamour and Joan Sims and Miles Malleson their characteristic comic touches.
The film shows the black side of scandals and scandal sheets and the human propensity for murder!
1. An entertaining comedy? British comedy? Farce and subtle styles? Impersonations? Verbal wit? Self parody?
2. Black and white photography, the styles of the '50s? London settings, aristocracy, Thames barges, flats, television studios? The musical score?
3. The title and the reference to the scandal sheet? The implications of scandal? The irony of truth? The more serious undertones of truth via scandal?
4. The humour of the plot - the introduction with Dennis interviewing various people and their killing themselves? Audience curiosity as to what was happening? The revelation of Dennis with his scandal sheet and his ability to blackmail people? The failed suicides and audience interest in the particular characters, their handling of the scandal situation, the tangles as they crossed one another's paths, their intentions to murder Dennis, the failures of the attempts, the finale and the ironic ending?
5. Dennis and his suave style, collecting his information. his scandal sheet, the sinister quiet tone of his visits, the deaths, his further threats, his hold over people, his relentlessness? The irony of his being arrested? The plan for his being taken from prison? The black humour of his stepping outside the zeppelin to his death? The film's comment on the British scandal monger?
6. The sketch of the victims - Terry- Thomas and his bumbling aristocracy, his photo being taken. the scandals, the visit of Dennis and his laughing,, the tables turned, his strange relationship with his wife, his falling into the river. his visit to Flora, the attempted murder, his not dying, the deal with Sonny Macgregor? His influence and the release of Dennis? Flora and her novels, her shady past, her hold over Ethel. her plans to get the Mickey Finn. the visit to the pub and her arrest, the plan to murder Dennis and Ethel's mismanaging it. her participation in the release? Sonny Mac Gregor and Peter Sellers' range of accents, the satire on the television show. the old people and their sleeping, coming on his programme. his imitating them, his contempt for them and his swindle in the poor accommodation for the old people? His disguises and going to the barge, saving Terry- Thomas from the river? His research for making a bomb, his laying the bomb, the explosion, his disguise as a policeman, the tape recording and his going to rescue the files? His servant and his participation? Shirley Eaton and the glamorous touch as the model, her comic attempt at suicide, her boyfriend continually turning up, her arriving at the wrong time and her not being involved in the final plot? Happy ever after?
7. The minor characters and their contribution, Ethel and her mother's hold over her, her participating in the attempted murders, the wrong corpse? Mac Gregor’s servant and his advice to his master, his help? Terry-Thomas' wife and her aristocratic spurning of him and suspicion? The novel writers' association and the Agatha Christie-like authoress?
8. A farcical entertainment? with some satiric observations on human nature?
