 
Goons in Film: Here are the key Goon films that were produced...
The film was co-written by Jimmy Grafton who was also co-writing The Goon Show with Spike Milligan at the time. As with 'Penny Points to Paradise', this film does not contain the madcap Goon humor for which the radio show would become famous, however, it does include some established characters from the show including Eccles and Bloodnok. Also, the basic plot structure of shifty crooks trying to fiddle a honest yet gullible idiot to get what they want would later form the basis of nearly every Goon Show episode. Despite being
regarded as a rather poor film by today's standards, it's interesting
viewing for any Goon fan and serves as a record of the early development
of the Goons before Michael Bentine left the show. 'Down Among the Z
Men' is the only film that all four orginal Goons appear in together.
The short film 'The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn' is considered to be the best transferal of The Goons Show to screen, despite not being written by Spike Milligan. Released as the Goons reached the peak of their success, the film contains many of the well known Goon characters and a style of humor that is typically Goonish. Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan star in a number of roles including 2 bumbling detectives searching for a stolen Mukkinese Battle-Horn. Harry Secombe does not appear in the film, instead he is replaced by Dick Emery who appeared in a number of Goon Shows. It is noticable that Superintendent Quilt played by Peter Sellers bears a distinct resemblance to the Inspector Clouseau character that would make him an international star some years later.
The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film is an unusual movie in many ways. This 11 minute short was recorded using a camera owned by Peter Sellers and was filmed over two Sundays in 1959, at a total price of £70 - £5 of which involved rental of a field for use. In stark contrast to the radio shows, the film has no dialogue or plot and relied purely on a sequence of visual gags and situations. Despite this, the humor is pretty surreal and Goon-like. Although little more than
a home movie, it
reflected the ambitions of some of those involved to break into the movies
- and it worked.
The film
was
nominated for
a Academy Award and won an award at The San Francisco Film Festival. The
Director, Dick Lester would go onto to work with The Beatles in the music
video of 'A Hard Day's Night' and become a successful film
director. |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Available
to buy on DVD
