'One way pendulum' is a 1964-5 film I saw only once on the TV in (I think) way back in the early 70s. I've been looking for it ever since and found and watched it on Youtube last night. Its as good/better than I remember and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
We start with some nice footage of early 60s London but what could morph into either a standard kitchen-sink drama or the opening episode of a soap opera gradually sucks you into an increasingly absurdist world that sits very comfortably between early Spike Milligan and Monty Python. Its heritage includes Alice in Wonderland, challenging as it does that great book for flights of logic that will bemuse and amuse.
The acting is excellent and contains many of the regulars from the period's British movie scene. One of them, Eric Sykes, gets to play one of his greatest roles.
The characters are both believable and absurd at the same time. A young man who dresses in black and teaches 'I speak your weight' machines to sing songs in harmony in the attic. A husband who's recreating the Old Baily (London's Central Criminal Court) in his living room. A wife who pays a woman come in each week to eat any uneaten food in the house. A daughter who worries about the length of her arms.
A great film. I'd put it in the top 20 I've ever seen. I wonder if you will?
We start with some nice footage of early 60s London but what could morph into either a standard kitchen-sink drama or the opening episode of a soap opera gradually sucks you into an increasingly absurdist world that sits very comfortably between early Spike Milligan and Monty Python. Its heritage includes Alice in Wonderland, challenging as it does that great book for flights of logic that will bemuse and amuse.
The acting is excellent and contains many of the regulars from the period's British movie scene. One of them, Eric Sykes, gets to play one of his greatest roles.
The characters are both believable and absurd at the same time. A young man who dresses in black and teaches 'I speak your weight' machines to sing songs in harmony in the attic. A husband who's recreating the Old Baily (London's Central Criminal Court) in his living room. A wife who pays a woman come in each week to eat any uneaten food in the house. A daughter who worries about the length of her arms.
A great film. I'd put it in the top 20 I've ever seen. I wonder if you will?