- The slapstick perilous misadventures of two clumsy construction builders who require a wooden floorboard.
- Classic British comedy, full of stars, about two workmen delivering planks to a building site. This is done with music and a sort of "wordless dialogue" which consists of a few mumbled sounds to convey the appropriate emotion.—Michael Crew <m.crew@bbcnc.org.uk>
- "The Plank" commences with two carpenters, 'chippies' colloquially, (Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper), laying floorboards in a newly-built house. Nearing completion, they find that they are one plank short. The rest of the film consists of their visit to a timber yard to select a suitable plank, and their journey back to site with, (and sometimes without!), the plank tied to the roof of their elderly car. This journey is laced with a miscellany of famous, and then not-so-famous, actors and comedians, (Jimmy Tarbuck was given a part as a favour to a friend). The comedic incidents encountered along the way, all done without coherent speech, make for an entertaining viewing.
- Two clumsy unnamed construction builders have finished constructing a house except for one last wooden floorboard plank, after the shorter workman chops it up and burns it for firewood, they both realise they need another plank but many unexpected slapstick disasters and misadventures on their journey await them. they travel to a yard full of planks in a Morris Eight car and eventually get the plank which they tie onto the top of the car. After accidentally causing a traffic jam, a Delivery Man named Wilfred Bavistock hops into the back of a truck which the plank is sticking into and accidentally sits on the plank without realising and the truck drives off without him leaving him there sitting on the edge of the plank.
The car drives along until it comes to a corner near Walthouse Passage where it turns and the plank gets stuck between a lamppost pole and a garbage truck, causing the plank to fall off and knock Wilfred into the truck (for the rest of the film, Wilfred is used as a sort of running gag as "The Smelly Man") without anyone (not even the workmen), except Wilfred, noticing. The workmen eventually realise that the plank is gone and come back to find it. They find it and bring it back to the car, after lots more accidents caused through the plank. They drive along and the plank gets stuck into a van truck. A policeman who is riding his bike through town taking note of all the accidents and disasters happening, accidentally sits of the plank without noticing and falls into the back of the garbage truck.
All the characters in the film involved with the disasters except for the workmen eventually end up in a big argument at the Police Station, the workmen happen to work past the Police Station and find the plank lying on the ground in front of it. They take it back home and finally nail it to the floor, finally completing the entire house. until the short workman cannot find his pet black tomcat and rips apart the floor, thinking he may be under it. The tall workman finds the cat upstairs and the short workman is relieved to learn that he is safe, but unfortunately have to start all over again due to the destruction of the floor.
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