The plot of this British film had real promise for a comedy. The characters are a mostly good collection for pulling it off. The screenplay is fairly good, and all the cast are okay. The dialog is fairly straight forward. So, it's apparently not intended to be a comedy with much witticism. The scenes are well done and the countryside scenery toward the end is fine.
With all of that, "Outside Bet" still missed the bet of being a very good film. Its feel is very slow. The scenes in the print shop seem to set the mood. The time of this film, with labor and social clashes in England, plays in the story and may be too much for the comedy to stand out. And, with pictures of people who hardly seem to be doing much work at the print business, it's hard for a viewer to empathize with this group.
Toss in the gratuitous sex scenes of modern cinema (although not terribly graphic), and the story and movie here are more ho-hum than interesting. What little comedy there is gets buried in the mix.
