Bed Sitting Room, The (1969)

The Bed Sitting Room (1969), produced and directed by Richard Lester.

This has to Lester's wackiest film, a series of absurd comedy skits set in post-apocalyptic London where everyone is keeping calm and carrying on. It's like Monty Python mashed up with Samuel Beckett.

Frankly a little bit of this goes a long way and 90 minutes is a lot. I could have used subtitles. Like a lot of satire on horrible topics, it can be disturbing after a while.

Like Python it is amazing the effort that goes into a bit of physical humor.

Great ensemble cast: Ralph Richardson and Michael Hordern are heavyweights, as hilarious as needed. With comic experts Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Marty Feldman, Roy Kinnear, and Spike Milligan, who co-wrote the original play. Also with the increasingly familiar Rita Tushingham.

Photographed by David Watkin.

Available on Blu-ray from Kino.