The Plank (1967) - film review

Two workmen have almost finished laying the floorboards in a new house when they realise that they are short by one plank.  They head off to the nearest timberyard and finally manage to find a piece of wood of the right size.  But on the way back to the house, the plank somehow manages to become detached from the roof of their battered car and seems to take on a life of its own, bringing chaos and disruption to the inhabitants of a busy London suburb...

Taking an idea that he had previously used in an episode of his popular television series, the comedian Eric Sykes wrings every last drop of humour from the old "man-with-a-plank" vaudeville routine in this minor classic of British cinema.  Sykes is partnered by the well-loved comedian Tommy Cooper, a last minute stand-in for Peter Sellers who had to pull out because of other work commitments.  The ample supporting cast includes several faces familiar to a British television audience, including Jimmy Edwards, Hattie Jacques, Roy Castle, Stratford Johns, Bill Oddie and Jimmy Tarbuck – almost a who’s who of British comedy.

This short film, apparently influenced by the work of the French filmmaker Jacques Tati, relies on visual humour and has little intelligible dialogue.  Whilst many of the gags are entirely predictable, and a few that are laboured to the point of tedium, most are inventive and well-realised, offering a fair quota of laughs.  Eric Sykes would re-use some of the jokes in his subsequent film Rhubarb Rhubarb (1980) and later remade The Plank in 1979 for Thames Television.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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