The
lowdown: Yet another vehicle to showcase the sublime acting
talents of Peter Sellers, 'Soft Beds, Hard Battles' is
set in occupied France in
1940. Sellers plays six separate characters, including Adolf Hitler. Much
of the action takes
place in a brothel, where
Madame Grenier and her ladies entertain the German troops while working
with the resistance
to drive the Nazis out of
France. Madame Grenier works with Major Robinson of British Intelligence
(played by Sellers,
of course) to kill off Nazi
soldiers who visit the brothel. Herr Schroeder of the Gestapo (Sellers
again) is suspicious and
believes that Madame Grenier
is up to no good.
Nicholas Courtney has a brief
cameo as a French Intelligence Officer (no, it is not an oxymoron!) who
meets with his
British counterparts at
a special operations HQ somewhere in France. Sadly, he is only in one brief
scene, and he was
not even credited in the
film's closing credits, but his character was very much like the Brigadier
(and indeed the film was
produced in 1974, at a time
when Courtney was well-known for his other military role). Several others
actors in 'Soft Battles'
will be familiar to Doctor
Who fans - Philip Madoc (Solin in 'The Brain of Morbius') and Rula Lenska
(Styles in 'Ressurection
of the Daleks') also have
brief roles, while Blake's 7 fans may get a glimpe of Stephen Grief, who
played the original Travis.
Aggedor's
Verdict: Not one of Sellers' best efforts, to be honest. The
film has a few good one-liners but is generally short
on laughs, has too many
predictable double entendres, and just feels way too long. Peter Sellers
of course is magnificent,
although some of his characters
could have been cut without making any difference to the film. This include
Japan's Prince
Kyoto, and it is frankly
embarassing to watch a white man playing an Asian - complete with unconvincing
makeup - today).
Recommended for die-hard
Sellers fans, but otherwise you are better off watching 1980s British sitcom
'Allo Allo', which
provides a lot more laughs
in a similar vein.
Quote:
Brigadier:
We
shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them in the hills.
We never thought we'd be fighting them in the knocking shops. |
Video
Clip:
Intelligence
meeting (3.1mb)
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