Smashing Time is a movie that doesn't actually know what the hell it is or even supposed to be. It's a comedy of sorts, then it's a musical, then it's a romance film and it pretty much fails at being all three.
Lynn Redgrave and Rita Tushingham play two Northern girls that arrive in London seeking their fame and fortune and the entire film is pretty much just a series of vignettes showing the ups and downs the pair experience after getting off the train. Neither of the two leads are particularly likeable and they proceed to screech their way through the terrible songs the script requires them to sing. 'CAAAAAARNABY STREET' being a particular annoying example.
However, as disappointing as the film ultimately turns out to be, it is a great look at swinging sixties London in 1967 in its full psychedelic glory. The colours and the visuals are amazing as are the fashions of the day, sadly a period which was all too short as within a few years, it was all over and 70's blandness took over. In fact, the film would have been better just being a travelogue of Hip and Trendy London instead of the focussing on the weak as all hell plot.
Written by George Melly of all people, the skits rarely succeed in raising a smile and the film tends to repeat itself at times and if you want to know what's worse than a film with a food fight to progress the plot, it's a film with TWO food fights to progress the plot although in one we do see the band The Tomorrow featuring a young pre-Yes Steve Howe getting some cream thrown right in his boat race.
The all-star cast fails to rescue it either with names like Michael York, Ian Carmichael, Irene Handl, Anna Quale, Peter Jones, David Lodge, Jeremy Lloyd and Arthur Mullard just doing the minimum the script requires and taking the money and running away.
It's just a shame that one of the few movies made in and around London in this period that actually utilised location shooting didn't turn better than it was.
Lynn Redgrave and Rita Tushingham play two Northern girls that arrive in London seeking their fame and fortune and the entire film is pretty much just a series of vignettes showing the ups and downs the pair experience after getting off the train. Neither of the two leads are particularly likeable and they proceed to screech their way through the terrible songs the script requires them to sing. 'CAAAAAARNABY STREET' being a particular annoying example.
However, as disappointing as the film ultimately turns out to be, it is a great look at swinging sixties London in 1967 in its full psychedelic glory. The colours and the visuals are amazing as are the fashions of the day, sadly a period which was all too short as within a few years, it was all over and 70's blandness took over. In fact, the film would have been better just being a travelogue of Hip and Trendy London instead of the focussing on the weak as all hell plot.
Written by George Melly of all people, the skits rarely succeed in raising a smile and the film tends to repeat itself at times and if you want to know what's worse than a film with a food fight to progress the plot, it's a film with TWO food fights to progress the plot although in one we do see the band The Tomorrow featuring a young pre-Yes Steve Howe getting some cream thrown right in his boat race.
The all-star cast fails to rescue it either with names like Michael York, Ian Carmichael, Irene Handl, Anna Quale, Peter Jones, David Lodge, Jeremy Lloyd and Arthur Mullard just doing the minimum the script requires and taking the money and running away.
It's just a shame that one of the few movies made in and around London in this period that actually utilised location shooting didn't turn better than it was.