Smashing Time

source: Smashing Time

Smashing Time

Really a dumb movie, slightly funny at times but very dated and painful to watch at other times. There were some genuinely smart and fun ideas (like the Yvonne hit single) but then it turns into a piefight. Ridiculous. Apparently the filmmakers must've been straight and sober filming one half and getting high filming the other half. Was hoping to see some of historical "Carnaby Street" on film, but it was just too silly. Also, what's up with Lynn Redgrave in that opening scene, she looks like she's a goddamn giant! Grade 6 out of 10. D-.

Lame almost to an Ed Wood level of lame. Incredibly, these same people (Lynne Redgrave, Tushingham, and director Desmond Davis) made a great movie called GIRL WITH GREEN EYES, but don't watch this one expecting anything like GIRL WITH GREEN EYES, THE KNACK, or GEORGY GIRL. Those are all great compared to this. It's like a long, slow episode of "Lavern and Shirley".

Two girls from up North (Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave) arrive in London looking for a town that swings and to make it, but instead find a craziness that they did not expect. A swinging sixties zeitgeist film if there ever was one. It would probably have been better made or handled if directed by the likes of Michael Winner or Ken Russell with its sketchy old fashioned slapstick comedy skits that come in abundance that many of their films seem to contain. It's all a little too episodic, but the best thing about the film, other than the ever reliable and wonderful Rita Tushingham is the look and colour of the film and the London locations, even if it is a food fight in a good old fashioned worker's caff.

I watched this film in its entirety on Youtube (May 2011) and am glad that I did. This film is a time capsule of the styles and faces of the mid-late 1960s and of 'groovy' London. The film offers a cornucopia of great faces of British comedy, all of which add to the mayhem of a loosely directed, pie-in-your-face slapstick comedy. This film presents you with several extended pie-fight sequences, sixties songs (none of which are famous) and lots and lots of London scenery, the film being shot entirely on location. None of the cast are taking this film seriously and the result is actually quite funny, and adequately entertaining to hold attention for 100 minutes. Rather than feel dated this film is more of a time capsule of an era some 45 years old. In short, the film is good humoured and worth seeking out. Play spot the actor and cringe at the naff songs which are interspersed throughout the movie. It's too much.

The credits for Smashing Time serve as fair warning for what is to follow. Ugly caricatures of the stars are show over an abysmal song sung badly by the movie's stars, Tushingham and Redgrave. It is painful. It is also accurate. The movie itself has the stars playing broad, unlikable, and unfunny caricatures. Billed as a satire, for the most part this is low comedy. This is a notably awful scene in a diner in which everyone is squirting every else with various substances. What it lacks in originality and humor it makes up through length; it goes on and on. There are watchable moments - art robots on a rampage, the recording of a pop song - but even at its best it is uninspired. And it is rarely at its best.

I was living in London when this film opened, and it now seems an oddly accurate time capsule of the period, somewhere between trendy and tatty. Critics hated the film for trying to create a female Laurel and Hardy, but now it's the colours, the clothes and the attitude that seems right (although it's hard to forgive those helium-voiced gay stereotypes). Trivia note; the character names and places, pieced together, form most of the first verse of 'Jabberwocky', suggesting the intention to create a new Alice in Wonderland.

I wanted to like this movie so much more. The episodic and cartoonish approach should work within the late 60s pop-art Mod London setting but too much slapstick (pie and spray paint fights) and a lagging pace keep this from being the true cult film it should have been. Tushingham (with her big bulging eyes) and Redgrave (who looks a bit like Jay Leno) are well cast and there are plenty of wild fashions on display but the film never really gains any momentum until the last 20 minutes or so. I also liked the bit where Redgrave records a typically mindless but catchy pop song. Fun to watch once but not something you'll revisit again and again. Try to see the widescreen DVD which really does justice to all the wild color schemes on display.

look, if you are looking for deep meaning - or songs that make you want to sing along, then you're looking in the wrong place. but if you want a kitschy look (i bet even at the time of release!) at the mid-sixties, then look no further! come on! lynn redgrave as a pop-starlet? rita tushingham as a supermodel?? michael york as a photog???? what could be better??? the scenes of lynn belting out her "hit" song are worthy of admission alone! i was also grateful for some of the shots of carnaby street in it's hayday - god, i just wish i were there! this is a movie that mike myers very obviously borrowed from to create austin powers. it has a lot of the same sensibilities. see the original - maybe skim by most of the songs... but enjoy the ride!