Not Now Darling

A bit too risqué to be a Carry On film, despite the presence of the great Joan Sims and Barbara Windsor, this is a farce starring Leslie Phillips as Bodley, who is buying a fur coat for his mistress Janie (the electric blue eyed Julie Ege). Janie is married and her husband comes to the furrier and there begins this true comic farce of double entendres, clothes thrown out the window and hiding in the store room. This film is fast paced, and everyone here has a flair for comedy, including Ray Cooney, who also co-wrote and co-directed this film. Its truly a film of its time, a sex comedy that never reaches porn. Its just fun to watch. Also included is the always welcome Moira Lister as Bodley's wife. A bit improbable as to the story itself, but who cares? If you like sex comedies, this is a good choice. If you want your Carry On film to take one more step forward, here it is. Its fun.

Sets its stall out immediately with an over the titles nip-slip & a bare-chested bather, OK, so this is an adult 'Carry On' a la '70's 'Confessions of an etc etc', unfortunately & obviously, this has none of the charm & sparkle of that iconic film series.

The editing is bizarrely poor & the direction's not much better, they must both have just been chucked out of film school. It's difficult not to feel sorry for poor Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims & Babs to have needed to do this, but work was work then & I'm sure they had fun together. To add to the discomfort, modern audiences will find the situation of a top furriers very uncomfortable, fur coats are indeed lovely, but they're probably best left with their original owners!

Honestly don't bother, even if you love films of this period, stick to something better & revisit a Carry On or similar.

It takes something special to make a miserable old git like me laugh out loud but this managed it. Farces like this (in many ways identical to this!) have been filmed since Ben Travers' Aldwych Farces back in the thirties so it was a tried and tested formula. This might actually be the apex of that genre.

Sophisticated and cerebral humour this isn't but neither is it, as some people labelled it, 'a 70s sex comedy.' Just because various attractive young women end up hiding in cupboards in their underwear does not place it in the same category as those dreadful 'Confessions of' films. This is very much a superbly honed, very funny comedy in the tradition of bawdy old fashioned English farce.

Whether or not this is for you would depend on whether you find Barbara Windsor, carrying a bird cage asking people if they'd like to see her tits, an outdated disgraceful example of sexism or silly schoolboy humour.

One can tell in the fashion of the writing that this is adapted from the stage: the feature is characterized by long scenes, with deliberate timing and no meaningful variation in setting, and a small rotation of characters coming and going. That tight focus allows the interactions between characters to flourish, and it's a great pleasure that star Ray Cooney and co-writer John Chapman do us the honor of translating their own play to film - and that Cooney also doubles (triples?) as co-director. With these sharp minds guiding the production, 'Not now darling' is allowed to revel in the utmost farce of the scenario, the characters, and the fantastic dialogue. I wasn't sure what to expect as I began watching, but in no time I was laughing - this is so, so good!

The twisted tangles the characters quickly knot is rife with outstanding comedy - exaggerated characters, sight gags, marvelous wordplay and repartee, sex jokes and innuendo, and a little bit of physical humor to taste. The fun is as endless as it is fast-paced, and while the timing from one instant to the next is impeccable, every minute is filled with so much wild freewheeling that I never once lost the smile from my face. The entire cast is exceptional, all true delights as they bring these snappy 90 minutes to life. For all the madcap energy herein, they nonetheless demonstrate great range, nuance, and physicality befitting the ridiculousness - showing even in this capacity that each is a swell actor. One can hardly even name a favorite; the moment I do, I think of one of their co-stars.

Relatively simple as the production is, everything here looks and sounds good, even though it didn't need to be. Needlessly but gratifyingly complementing the silliness are elements like Cyril Ornadel's vibrant original music, the cheeky costume design, smart set design and decoration, vivid cinematography, and so on and so forth. Of course, these take a back seat as the bustling romp never loses our attention; one doesn't like to make one comparison after another, but I'm reminded at times of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus.' And I think that's really about all the more I can say without beginning to betray plot points or some of the jokes: anchored with superb performances and terrific, funny writing, 'Not now darling' strikes me as an underappreciated gem that demands more recognition. I should note a fair bit of nudity, and that the narrative revolves an antiquated concept (high-end fur coats) that are thankfully going away, but even with those caveats in mind, I enthusiastically give this my very highest recommendation - this is worth going out of your way to find!

It has been a quarter-century since I saw this movie, which was making a far-east tour of military bases in the early 70's (1974?), and I thought then (and still think so now) that it was one of the funniest movies I had ever had the pleasure of seeing. Although it was probably not as well made as some movies, it made up for that in hilarious content. I can still remember how much I laughed and enjoyed myself. Don't know if you can (or will) use these comments, but I've been looking for this picture ever since I first saw it, and just wish I could find it again. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best), I would rate this film a 9 or 9.5.