Most people when they think of Morecambe and Wise, always think of the lavish Christmas specials they made for BBC One in the seventies, but before this they had a very successful run on ITV in the sixties and also ventured into films, though I'd avoid The Magnificent Two is it's just not up to standard and flopped at the box office. Of the three films they made, The Intelligence Men is the funniest.
Basically the plot is this, Eric is a Beatles obsessed coffee bar worker, frequent references to the group occur in the film, who overhears a conversation by a Russian agent in the coffee bar about assasinating a ballerina who is about to defect and both he and best friend Ernie are recruited by MI5 to stop the assassination.
Well Eric and Ernie are to spying what the Police Academy recruits are to policing ie totally inept. Think of a comedy version of From Russia With Love and you can't go wrong. Also memorable is Eric's hilarious line when a contact is poisoned and collapses in front of him in a restaurant
Eric Morecambe: ,on seeing that Phillipe, who is sitting next to him, has just collapsed into his soup after being poisoned, Waiter!
Ernie Sage: Yes?
Eric Morecambe: I have a complaint to make. Ernie Sage: What? Eric Morecambe: There's a dead man in this soup
Also memorable is Ernie singing and not making too bad a job of it, Eric's laughable attempts to learn martial arts( now get out of that, ya ting too), and the climax where Eric and Ernie dress up as not very convincing ballerinas to thwart the Russian assassin during a performance of Swan Lake.
Only bad points are The Intelligence Men is a bit cheaply made and dated in places, though the same could be said of most British comedies at the time, and the more serious actors seem a bit out of place in a comedy romp like this. Otherwise enjoy.
Basically the plot is this, Eric is a Beatles obsessed coffee bar worker, frequent references to the group occur in the film, who overhears a conversation by a Russian agent in the coffee bar about assasinating a ballerina who is about to defect and both he and best friend Ernie are recruited by MI5 to stop the assassination.
Well Eric and Ernie are to spying what the Police Academy recruits are to policing ie totally inept. Think of a comedy version of From Russia With Love and you can't go wrong. Also memorable is Eric's hilarious line when a contact is poisoned and collapses in front of him in a restaurant
Eric Morecambe: ,on seeing that Phillipe, who is sitting next to him, has just collapsed into his soup after being poisoned, Waiter!
Ernie Sage: Yes?
Eric Morecambe: I have a complaint to make. Ernie Sage: What? Eric Morecambe: There's a dead man in this soup
Also memorable is Ernie singing and not making too bad a job of it, Eric's laughable attempts to learn martial arts( now get out of that, ya ting too), and the climax where Eric and Ernie dress up as not very convincing ballerinas to thwart the Russian assassin during a performance of Swan Lake.
Only bad points are The Intelligence Men is a bit cheaply made and dated in places, though the same could be said of most British comedies at the time, and the more serious actors seem a bit out of place in a comedy romp like this. Otherwise enjoy.