THE BED-SITTING ROOM
UK, 1969, 92 minutes, Colour.
Ralph Richardson, Michael Hordern, Mona Washbourne, Rita Tushingham, David Warwick, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Marty Feldman, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Dandy Nichols, Arthur Love.
Directed by Richard Lester.
The Bed- Sitting Room is only for those who like British goon-humour and/or anti-war satire and/or Richard Lester films. Of these elements, the one most needed is the first, a liking for goon humour.
The film is a clever and zany comedy about the comparatively few survivors of World War III (the war took just over two minutes from the declaration of war, the dropping of the bomb and the signing and blotting of the peace treaty) who crawl over slag heaps or ride perpetually in the tube. They include a dared English lord who turns into a bed-sitting room, a girl who has been pregnant for eighteen months. Nurse Marty Feldman and a duo who drive round in the air to keep people moving so that they will not be standing targets for another bomb - and Dudley Moore turns into a dog.
This is the plot and the mad actions and situations and funny lines correspond. If you would like this, you will enjoy the anti-war satire, which is really a satire on our own pre-World War III world. We are really laughing at ourselves.
Richard Lester is a master of this kind of thing, using all the tricks and techniques from T.V. commercials that he has practised in his other films - his film previous to this one was Petulia.
Not to everyone's taste or sense of humour, but superior of its kind.
1. Do you like 'Goon' humour? Was this successful 'Goon' humour?
2. What was the film really about? What was the satire against -future, present or past?
3. Why was the film made? Solely to entertain? What was its message? Has the satire effective?
4. Comment on the vision of World War III, its rapidity, the lord sleeping through it, the widespread devastating effects.
5. What pretensions of modern society were attacked in the film? How different were the antics and behaviour of the war survivors from the antics and behaviour of contemporary society - e.g., T.V. announcer, people on the tube, doctor, supervisor of people to keep moving?
6. Who were the main characters and what did they represent?
7. The people on the tube - the boy and the girl (and her pregnancy), girl's marriage? What was this all about?
8. Why did people turn into things? Was there any significance in this or was it merely nonsense humour?
9. What of the totalitarian Peter Cook and making people keep moving? ("Every crisis throws up a leader. Here I am.")
10. On the basis of the film, how effective is satire as a vehicle for criticising and lampooning society? How effective is it for communicating a message or teaching us a lesson? Does it move people and does it linger in the memory?
