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Storyline
1947 in a small town in England. The war has been won two years ago, but there's still rationing of meat. When princess Elizabeth is going to marry, a group of businessmen wants to impress (or probably bribe) the local government by giving a big party. They want to slaughter an illegally raised pig for this event. Unfortunately someone steals the pig. Written by
Anonymous
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Taglines:
Vicious, Delicious and Tasteless.
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Did You Know?
Trivia
The German title of the movie is 'Magere Zeiten', which translates roughly as 'Lean Times' (or 'Hard Times'): the film is set during a period when food was heavily rationed in the United Kingdom.
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Quotes
P.C. Penny:
[
upon spotting a single, solitary banana]
Mrs Medcalf, are you wanting that banana?
Mrs. Dorcus Medcalf:
I am, love; I'm planning a trifle.
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Soundtracks
"Rose of England"
Music by
Ivor Novello
Played on piano by Maggie Smith
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A near classic; like something Ealing might have done if, perhaps, raunchier though not necessarily darker. Set at the time of the present Queen Elizabeth's wedding to Prince Phillip, it's about the petty jealousies of the ostensible middle-classes of Northern ration-book Britain.
Michael Palin is Gilbert, a mild-mannered chiropodist, looked down upon, in all senses, by the local community who finds his trump card and way into society in the form of a pig that is being fattened for the private function of the title, a dinner for local dignitaries in celebration of the royal wedding. Maggie Smith is his genteel wife who turns into Lady MacBeth in pursuit of her dreams of fitting in and that great character actress Liz Smith is her slightly dotty mother. Scriptwriter Alan Bennet's depiction of the milieu of false noblesse oblige is as sharp as ever and the entire cast rise to the occasion.