jc-osms I really wanted to like this British comedy short from the mid-60's. Although just before my time, Tommy Cooper and to a lesser degree Eric Sykes could reasonably make me laugh on their TV variety or sit-com shows plus I came to this piece after watching a rather fawning TV biography of the recently deceased Sykes containing eulogies of praise from the surprising likes of Eddie Izzard, Michael Palin and others. Sykes wrote and directed this off-beat, near-silent short move about two dozy workmen's encounter with a plank of wood and peopled it with friends and colleagues of the time, including the inevitable Hattie Jacques and Jimmy Edwards, but also in small parts if you closely enough the likes of Bill Oddie, Jim Dale and Jimmy Tarbuck. But the humour really is quite dated. Sykes makes reasonable use of running gags but the sketch-like sequences often run on too long and much of the material is somewhat predictable and stilted, even resorting lazily to sexism as a young female hitch-hiker gets manhandled for her trouble.In its favour, the hitch-hiker section notwithstanding, the humour is clean, gentle and inoffensive. I didn't really think Cooper and Sykes gelled together in their roles as two chippies off the old block and while I acknowledge the debt paid to Sykes comedy heroes of the Silent Era, most obviously Laurel and Hardy, there the comparison ends, indeed I was reminded more of Crackerjack's Peter Glaze and Don MacLean (now they were my era!), hapless double-act more than the immortal Stan and Ollie.The film's a nice little document of old-school comedy of a bygone age but sad to say it hasn't aged well and in truth is more a museum piece nowadays than genuine entertainment.

Leofwine_draca A short, slapstick British comedy from the late '60s. Be warned that there's also a remake from 1979 with Arthur Lowe in the Tommy Cooper role. The main inspiration behind THE PLANK seems to be the silent comedies of yesterday and the early talkies that followed, particularly the Laurel & Hardy film where they starred as a couple of workmen.THE PLANK is fun, albeit slightly overstated. It doesn't have the feel of a timeless classic to it, and for the most part it goes through the motions with all kinds of predictable humour. Saying that, there are quite a few decent gags, particularly those involving the plank being tied to the top of a car and all the accidents and incidents that ensue.The film is well worth watching for fans of classic British comedy, because the cast is a veritable who's who of famous names. Tommy Cooper, as one of the two central workmen, is by far the best value, essaying a kind of naturalistic humour that never seems force. Beside him, as straight man, Eric Sykes seems almost staid.Look out for Roy Castle in an ill-fitting wig, short cameos for Jim Dale and Hattie Jacques, plus plenty of other notables from the time.

screenman I saw this movie at the cinema long ago. In fact, it was so long ago that the main feature still included a B-movie companion. And here 'The Plank' was it. Oddly; I can remember this, but not the A-movie it supported.Eric Sykes' effort included a who's-who of British comedy from the time. Each of them become involved at some stage or another with this plank of wood in a series of banal set-piece gags. Frankly, I found it childishly contrived even then. Which is probably why I remembered it. Some 20 years later I saw it on television and the stunts were quite painful to behold. Sphincter-puckering is the term.It's a sort-of silent movie. It might even pass for surrealism at times. But the idea doesn't quite work. If the French had done this, I suspect the result would have been an absolute scream. But it's not the kind of concept we Brits are particularly good at. And this is the proof.There's the cream of comic talent at the director's disposal. Any one of several could have a theatre rolling in the aisles; but here they, and their unique skills, are each subordinated to Sykes' old-fashioned brand of predictable variety-hall humour, and they are simply wasted.Although it was released in 1967, it represented a simplistic, juvenile 'take' that had pretty-well run its course 10 years earlier. As nice a bloke as he was, Eric Sykes was a comedian who simply couldn't move with the times. If he were in light entertainment even today, this is still the stuff he would be producing. By 1969 came 'Monty Python', with modern comedians and fresh comedy. Both styles observed back-to-back represent two different generations yet separated by just 2 years.As a chance to play 'spot the comedian' this item is a quiz in itself, but as comedic entertainment it's a bit of a disaster, unless you're under 5 years old. I suspect they'll love it in Albania.

sheptonmallett I've just recently found a copy of "The Plank" I didn't know I had, I watched it and discovered that, yes, as one reviewer as wrote, it was good for it's time. The gags are slightly hammered home a little, but it does have it's place as a british short, describing: What times were like back then, in reality and as a movie industry. Eric Sykes is a clever comic actor whose timing is quite nice to watch, but here Tommy Cooper is more or less wasted. The colour and look of the film, give the impression that it was done by a die-hard Jacques Tati fan. Overall, innocent, good for it's time and (without patronizing) worth a look if your elderly relatives want a giggle if you can't find your Mr Bean Tapes.