User reviews

I absolutely love this film. I have watched it so often I could dictate the screenplay from memory, but still new subtleties become apparent, even twenty years after I first saw it. Imagine a festering synthesis of Evelyn Waugh and Bunuel via Monty python, then make it ten times better than you might imagine. The fevered and eccentric imagination of 60's Dada-jazz-pop-freak Vivian Stanshall has brought to life a film that is by turns insanely funny, intellectual, schoolboy coarse and charmingly nostalgic for a never-been, golden age of Englishness. If you think you have wrung out every subtlety and pun from the dialogue then you have probably not been listening carefully enough. Layers of meaning run through everything (visuals, dialogue and songs). Apparently Vivian, never satisfied with his own work, hated it but, for me, this film is very nearly perfect. I saw this before hearing any of the Sir Henry radio or LP recordings and to be honest, there are some things that can't be fathomed from the film alone but they only serve to make it more surreal. 'Bizarre' magazine voted it the weirdest movie of all time. That is open to debate but it is decidedly, wilfully odd. If you are one of those (irritating) people who like to quote whole chunks of pungent comic dialogue then leave the safe waters of Monty Python and Derek and Clive and set out on an epic journey to Rawlinson End. It's not hip, it's in B&W and it has ukelele music, it makes no concession to commerciality and 95% of the population will not understand the appeal, but if you are one of the lucky twentieth then your life (and your repertoire of quirky film quotes) will be enriched. A lost British classic.

'Sir Henry ..." is irritating mainly because it is so damn funny while it makes no sense at all. Bizarrely adapted from Stanshall's radio series, and starring the quintessentially English actor Trevor Howard as Sir Henry in one of his last movie roles, this odd, odd film is a total blast from start to finish.

Helped by Howard playing the role of the crusty old racist (shackled in the filth of his ancestral pile - Knebworth House in tatters for the film) with utter seriousness, the film manages to get a flavour of the Rawlinson saga which began all those years ago on the LP 'Let's Make Up And Be Friendly'.

I'm not going to spoil it for you by giving any of those wonderful and daft lines away - suffice to say if you love Viv's work with the Bonzos and have caught any of this daft tale in its various projects over the years you'll appreciate this movie. If you just stumble across it without any prior knowledge - well, you've been warned. Give it a go anyway. The world needs more Viv Stanshalls, he's greatly missed ...

I wanted to like this. I usually enjoy off-beat humour, and respect the spirit in which this film was made, and although the film's narrative is disjointed, it isn't hard to follow, so that is not my issue with it.

The problem comes from the individual scenes in themselves. The dialogue is inventive, and I actually like the almost lyrical narration, but non-sequiturs are only funny if they are used in the right context, that is to say that a logical chain of language sets up our expectation, but the non-sequitur subverts it, as seen in The Young Ones and Look Around You.

What you have here is non-sequitur after non-sequitur, meaning nothing surprises you because you soon come to expect wackiness for the sake of it, and so the film's attempt to be mad is actually wholly predictable and boring. There are a few moments of inspired comedy - the hang-glider scene in particular - but again, unlike most people, it isn't the haphazard narrative that put me off, and while the dialogue is quite original, it's just a string of unusual lines without a conversation to belong to, 'Have you killed?' and 'he called me his/a perfect brick' are just nonsense for the sake of it. Nothing makes those funny in of themselves.

As I'd heard a little about its cult status, I expected something with the quality of Withnail and I or Python or Peter Cook's work. This is unique, but uniqueness is not enough.

It's 18 years since I saw Sir Henry at the cinema. My friends and I had to go two nights in a row, just to make sure we hadn't imagined it the first time.

Sir Henry is a stroll through the mind of Director, writer, performer, and Bonzo Dog Band frontman Vivan Stanshall's mind - which, by the early 80's, was probably coming seriously unravelled. Fans of hard-core British surrealism absolutely must see this movie. Everyone else should probably avoid it. Rooms filled with rotting fruit, ghostly mechanical bulldogs, face-jumping competitions, and not least of all Sir Henry's Brother Hubert (Viv), who goes fishing for hairdressers. Stanshall's humour has far more in common with Dali than with Eddie Murphy, and the overwhelming majority of (at least, American) filmgoers will simply be stupified.

A few things should be said about sir Henry. First, Trevor Howard, in the lead role, plays such a magnificent drunk that it's a little hard to believe he was putting it on (I do believe it was his last movie.) Secondly, the film alternately plods and lurches in such a fashion that , as with early Woody Allen films, you'll find yourself sitting through a fair bit of material that doesn't work, just for the blinding moments when it comes together. Thirdly, as wonderful as this movie is (and despite its faults, my memory insists it _is_ quite wonderful), it isn't as good as the album. Sir Henry the film is terrific. Sir Henry the LP is a comic masterpiece; Stanshall's finest moment.

8 out of 10.

A truly eccentric British film based upon an even more eccentric story by Viv Stanshall. Trevor Howard is magnificent as Sir Henry and is supported by many other stalwarts of the UK film industry. Trevor Howard was a true actor - tackling both mainstream and experimental parts - some of todays famous actors should take note. The plot, Sir Henry's attempt to exorcise the ghost of his brother Humbert, has many strange and entertaining asides woven around it. Look out for the "pet prisoners of war", the unicycle scene, the dinner party and the incredible Mrs E. The film suffers from a very low budget - the sound is appalling at times and I suspect it may have been shot on 16mm. It was also in B/W though this seem to add to the overall feel. Sir Henry is also available as a book and was also an LP though this seem to be very rare. The LP is quite different to the film in both content and expression. This film is not for anyone wanting a British "carry on" style comedy - but rather a highly sophisticated and subtle film with comic elements. The UK film industry should have taken note instead of producing the comedy dross that it did at this period.

Sir Henry, a bigot, unfit father, drunkard, thug, commandant of his personal prisoner of war camp 40 years post world war two, one of Trevor Howards best parts and reminiscent of his part as Lord Cardigan in Charge of the Light Brigade. The rest of the cast is excellent although not 'Big' names. Viv Stanshell directs and appears as Sir Henry;s younger brother, coincidentally Viv died on the same day of the year as the real Sir Henry Rawlinson. Explaining the stream of consciousness that makes up this film is difficult to explain to the uninitiated but Rawlinsons End is haunted by the ghost of Sir Henrys brother, enter erstwhile exorcist the Rev Slodden and cockney wideboy partner hoping to benefit financially. At the same time a family gathering for a drunken Viking orgy of violence. This film needs the understanding of the English class system and 1500 years of oppression to fully appreciate so I would not expect much of an American audience to truly understand the finer graining but give it a try and have a limey friend on hand to explain. However still the funniest film you are likely to see. Favourite Line. "Silence, if I want your opinion I'll thrash it out of you!" Stanshall himself was a product of an authoritarian upbringing his father being an RAF officer, Sir Henry is what he is a bigot and a stone cold killer the sort of person that made and ran the English empire and we need these examples to remind us of what has gone before and what can change, if you really have difficulty in understanding the concept of irony just cuddle up with your friends DVD boxset. BACK OUT ON DVD, POUNCE NOW BEFORE THEY GO!

I don't have a lot to add to the previous comments - just wanted to get that one-line summary in.

I saw "Sir Henry" when it first came out, not knowing the Bonzos or Viv Stanshall at the time and not knowing the characters' previous incarnations. Sometimes baffling but incredibly amusing. The "German" prisoners are wonderful. Sound was pretty bad, a problem for American viewers given the thick, country-ish English accents. Most annoying during the scene where Old Scrotum sings a comic song at a (comically) ratty town festival of some kind. I was laughing, but not knowing exactly why.

Direction is good, too. Alan Mowbray and Peter Chelsom are the only other true representatives of this drolly rambling style, and Roberts seems to have given it up subsequently. There's definitely a method to the madness.

Favorite lines: "Germany calling!" "Fetch me my antlers - no, not those antlers - the ones I use to deface Reader's Digest!"

I saw this film in the Cinecenta in Panton Street when it was first released. I was so surprised that I went back in to watch it a second time. That was probably not the best use of £3.25 but I didn't regret the spending of it. I have seen it many times since and am still filled with that original sense of awe and mystification. And I love to share it. The sheer poetry and feeling of Theatre de Absurdisme. The unpredictability and blunt refusal to genuflect at the altar of political correctness (gone mad).

I recently had the opportunity of watching it with an American film buff. At the end he turned to me and asked "Can you tell me what that was about?" From this I gathered that American film buffs need to know about things like themes and analysis. Anyway, the answer still is that I don't know what this film is "about", any more than I know what my son's haircut is "about".

Some years ago I had the chance to ask Vernon Dudley Bowhay-Nowell (the ukulele player who gets stabbed with the bison horn) what it was all about. He didn't know either.

First heard by yours truly as recited on John Peel's radio show by the Ginger Geezer (Vivian Stanshall) himself this cinematic offering is crammed with the eccentricities of the 'English Country Gent'. The drunken eccentric, Sir Henry 'me-blikin-Rawlin-sunshine' who passes his time drinking excessively, shooting everything that moves, thwarting escapes from his very own POW camp and reliving the bombing of Dresden is played exquisitely by Trevor Howard in an absolute 'tour de force' performance which is undoubtedly one of Howards best. Howard is ably supported by a pot-pourri of classic 'English' comedy actors including Denise Coffey, playing Mrs E, who had previously worked with Stanshall on the classic 60's TV series 'Do Not Adjust Your Set'. In 1980 Sir Henry played out of festival at Cannes to general bafflement. Stanshall described it as a sur-Ealing comedy, a fitting description indeed.

Worth watching again and again

I've seen this movie twice and yet still can't make head or tail of it. However, that doesn't prevent it from being near on brilliant, perhaps the lamentably late Vivian Stanshall's masterpiece. Trevor Howard as Sir Henry rambles on pompously (and nonsensically) and maintains a bunker which houses two guys who pretend it's still World War II for Howard's sake. There's some sort of plot involving exorcising Howard's brother's ghost (played by Stanshall) and a sub-plot involving Patrick Magee as a Reverend up to no good (can't figure out what sort of no good, however). The extremely low production values add to the feeling of run-down old money that make this dada narrative so damn funny. It's also got some good music and Howard in blackface on a unicycle. Director Steve Roberts was responsible for writing the Max Headroom TV show, of which I have extremely fond but vague memories.

This was described as "The Last Great English Comedy" ,and I'd followed it through the initial ten minute monologue on the Bonzo's Album "Let's Make Up" through the John Peel broadcasts, to the album (still available on CD and well worth tracking down) , it's follow up "Sir Henry at NDidi's Kraal", I believe there was a book but I missed out on this.

Filmed in low quality sepia it's like watching something from an age gone by (which it now is), full of great characters (Sir Henry , Old Scrotum <the wrinkled retainer> , etc) and great one liners , "I don't know what I want , but I want it now!!".

It features a plethora of "English" actors, and was Trevor Howard's last film, and also has Gary Waldhorn (Vicar of Dibley).

Viv Stanshall was involved with the pre Monty Python "Do Not Adjust Your Set" and the film also features Denise Coffey from DNAYS.

Highly recommended, because you will not have seen anything like this, and won't see anything like it again. I't comedy captures an essential Englishness , almost like a skewed "Darling Buds of May", but if you're want to try something different this is it. Hopefully they'll scrunb it up, put it on DVD with some extra's like John Peel's excellent "Diamond Gezzer" feature on the late , lamented, genius that was Viv Stanshall

Mad, propelled by language and stereotype reinvented by surreal humour, this is a unique and brilliant film of a text which ranks with 'Under Milk Wood'or 'Facade' by Edith Sitwell. There are, however, too many references to 'sambos' and 'jungle bunnies' for my liking although I appreciate that the characters are supposed to be reactionary, the narrator also joins in. I suspect that Vivian Stanshall both loved and hated his subject matter. If you want a living parallel, try the poetry of Mike Haslam.

Given the junk, like Pirates of the Caribbean, which gets 7.5 +, I don't think the assessment of this film reflects its uniqueness. It's good to see Trevor Howard debunking Englishness too.

What is remarkable about this film is the way in which the characters appear exactly how they were imagined when listening to the original episode's on John Peel's radio show. The casting of Trevor Howard (who IS Sir Henry) was inspired genius, although I suspect Stanshall had him in mind from the moment he wrote the very first lines. It is certainly a very English film, with all kinds of references that very few Americans could possibly understand, although even many of its younger English viewers will probably struggle with the understanding of some of the cultural references, which will be helped by at least a passing acquaintance with some of the post-war comics such as Lion, Eagle and Hotspur, etc.

One viewer criticised the occasional use of words like jungle bunnies and sambo, but context is everything and you would have to be making a determined effort to be offended by them in some very funny scenes.

The film is a rival to Withnail and I for its number of quotable lines: "Bring me Calvin's horse radish, with vicious mustards to pierce the tongue like Cardigan's Lancers" "Do you know what a palmist once said to me?" She said "Will you let go" "If I had all the money I'd spent on drink, I'd spend it on drink"

Personally I didn't have a problem with the sound, in fact most of the actors speak with far greater clarity than in many more modern films. Only Old Scrotum (the wrinkled retainer) might cause a few occasional problems. As for the plot - it seems blindingly obvious to anyone who has ever watched any film written by N.F. Simpson or one featuring The Goons - or is under the influence of hallucinogenics.

The film obviously ran into trouble with its budget, although I doubt if Hollywood millions would have improved it in any way. In fact they would almost certainly have ruined it. It was actually shot in colour, but after begging and stealing any film stock they could get hold of it was impossible to match it together at the editing stage. The rather clever solution was to convert it all to sepia (disappointingly, the DVD is in black and white) which some believe adds a lot to its character. In the scene of The Blazing, the extras are supplemented by staff members of the film's backers, Charisma Records, who were press-ganged to make up the numbers. I was amused by the way the DVD is advertised as being in colour, purely on the grounds of having red lettering in the titles.

Eventually this film will be recognised both as the masterpiece that it truly is, and is a fine tribute to both Vivian Stanshall and Trevor Howard, playing his character to perfection in what must surely be one of the finest roles of his career.

"The cracks are showing, listen to the loonies croon". Perhaps the most remarkable thing among many remarkable things about this film is that it was ever made. It is a surreal, nonsensical, sepia tinted memorial to a glorious, politically incorrect, past that never was that will nevertheless inspire a sense of nostalgia in every British viewer of a certain age. Beyond that, even to British viewers, it makes very little sense whatsoever. That however is to entirely miss the point. Whether the product of alcoholiday or derangement, or both, the film is a buried and largely unknown gem.

Buy the DVD! Why? - Because to watch the great Trevor Howard, seemingly perfectly in his element as the "brandy baffled rhinoceros Fuhrer" of Rawlinson End is, alone, worth the money; because you will almost certainly never see it on television again; because you will want to watch it time after time, (the second to at least actually confirm that you weren't hallucinating when you watched it the first), and then to get more and more of what is a very, very, rich seventy one minute running time. Some scenes don't work, but the pace of the film is so rapid you won't have the opportunity to become bored. Like me you may also get huge if guilty enjoyment out of casually slipping it into your DVD player when unsuspecting friends come to visit and you suggest they might like to watch a movie you've come across.

Having done that please also buy the album. Yes, there is an album, (not a soundtrack) which, in my opinion is even stranger and laugh out loud funnier than the film.