Take Me High (1973) User Reviews

Even tower blocks were fashionable once

[dsewizzrd-1 · 5/10 · 9 May 2016]

Essentially an extended music video clip for Cliff Richards.

Richards is a merchant banker who is moved to Birmingham and what follows is a montage of the brutalist concrete architecture that made Birmingham worse, and shots of flyovers before they were covered in tags and vomit.

George Cole is there and there's a famous scene of shooting the television set. Later there is a 1980s direct-to-video film style plot line where Richards and his girlfriend plan to open a burger bar selling "Brumburgers".

There's quite a lot of embarrassed people in the street scene, as if having to live in Birmingham wasn't punishment enough ! Product placement - BOAC airlines.

Brumburgers?

[neil-douglas2010 · 6/10 · 30 June 2022]

I'd loved to have gave this a higher rating, but I found the story so mediocre. Cliff and Deborah make a pleasant couple, decent performance by George Cole, playing Arthur Daley 5 years earlier than TV series Minder. The songs are average at best, but Cliff's fight to own the best Burger bar in Birmingham almost had me won over.

Flipping Cliff Richard

[ygwerin1 · 4/10 · 30 August 2020]

Just started watching this film on the Talking Pictures TV Channel, when I saw it had Cliff Richard in it I wasn't going to bother as I am not a fan of his.

But because Hugh Griffiths was in it I changed my mind, as I have always liked him.

I like George Cole and I hadn't realised he was in the film, it didn't mention his name.

I hoped that there wouldn't be any singing in it, and when I heard the music I was really put out.

I don't know how I managed to cope with it, but when I heard Richard start to sing that was enough for me.

Cliff at his Cliffest

[greg-04082 · 1/10 · 1 July 2019]

Glad Amazon doesn't require enormous review length any more, since this review doesn't need it. Awful British movie industry fodder at its worst. The sound for everything outdoors is looped and audience for this, even in 1973, would be whom? No one I knew. Richard successfully bucked this stuff about 3 years later with his "I'm Nearly Famous" album when he realized his career was tanking. The Brumberger song takes the biscuit.

The Nabob of Naff

[joachimokeefe · 1 August 2002]

This is the sort of film to watch in a crowd with a cruel sense of humour. Can you imagine a travelogue of Birmingham? With musical numbers? You don't have to, because TMH does it for you. The song that stays with me to this day is 'Brumburger!'. Really, if Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder hadn't got 'Springtime For Hitler', 'Take Me High' would have done the trick. Beyond kitsch, beyond parody, beyond belief.

Rum in brum

[malcolmgsw · 2/10 · 29 January 2018]

The only bearable way to watch this film is to fast forward through all of the songs.So then you can watch George Cole before Minder,Hugh Griffith's overacting like mad and Richard Wattis making the most of his cameo and Anthony Andrews in his first film,before his role in Young Churchill.The brutalist architecture of Birmingham is unspeakably bad,like the film.

Despite the Cliff fans trying to influence this dull film, it remains pants!

[ouzman-1 · 1/10 · 14 May 2021]

Awful. OK if you love Cliff (and I mean you would have to love the lad) then fine, well maybe?

I am not sure that his fans can save such a dire film?

Just buy the LP/ CD if you are a fan.

Avoid, avoid, avoid if this is the only viewing option on a dull, raining, freezing Sunday. Instead go get the raincoat and take on the weather every time over this shoddy rubbish.

Amazingly awful

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 18 September 2020]

TAKE ME HIGH is an amazingly awful '70s musical starring none other than boy wonder Cliff Richard as a banker sent to close down a struggling restaurant in Birmingham, of all places. While there he romances a waitress - played by former DR WHO assistant Deborah Watling - and decides to set up his own burger bar. Yes, it plays out as a kind of silly spoof but without anything in the way of proper comedy, while the songs - including various odes to fast food - are remarkably awful. The only reason anyone would want to tune in is for the '70s trappings, which dominate the proceedings, and the glimpses of familiar faces: Richard Wattis as the harried boss, Madeline Smith against type as the frumpy, shrewish wife, and a youthful Anthony Andrews as a lothario.

Not so good

[japdot · 1/10 · 30 August 2020]

This must be the worst film Cliff Richard made no wonder it was his last one, the only good thing about the film was the scenery.

Implausible story - but helped put Birmingham on the map

[okonski · 7/10 · 17 December 2007]

Back in the late 1960's, Birmingham's canal network was in sad decline - with more miles of canals than Venice, this undemanding story with tracks sung by Cliff had a reasonable story-line, but the REAL star is the City of Birmingham itself.

Since the film was made, the canal network has been given the respect it deserved and is now a working waterway, with new developments at Gas Street Basin (behind the 'Brumburger' shop) a testament to the regeneration. Since the 70's, Birmingham is probably unrecognisable, with many of the modern buildings shown already replaced.

The cast worked well, but it was often painful watching the Fox hunting scenes (now a banned activity) and seemingly added only to add some 'english quaintness' for non-native viewers.

Not Cliff's best, just average for its day

[pietclausen · 2/10 · 28 January 2020]

Coming across this old flick of Harry Webb, better known as Cliff Richard, nowadays Sir Cliff Richard, I had to give it a try. Made in Birmingham appealed too.

The Story is so-so, definitely old hat. What may have worked for 1973 does not do it in 2020. The 12 songs, all never heard of, are fair but not hit material. A lighthearted movie with a comical touch, appealed to teenagers then with Cliff looking like a dressed-up beatnik with long hair, the style of that era.

May appeal to older people for nostalgia.

A Real Classic

[thetyrrellz · 10/10 · 4 January 2005]

OK so it's Cliff in flares in Birmingham but this film has a charm all it's own. The soundtrack is brilliant, these songs are very good and the storyline is refreshing in that it's based in England. Anthony Andrews and Hugh Griffiths are great and Cliff is, well, Cliff!

Watch it enough times and you'll soon have your favourite scenes, lines and even songs. The moral is still relevant today - money and the pursuit of real happiness. There are some good actors in this and George Cole is superb as a hardbitten socialist. Cliff has some great outfits in this, truly 100% 1973 gear and it's an interesting snapshot of life in this country all those years ago. I'd like to add that Gas Street IS in the middle of Birmingham - we did the map fold!!!!!

How Sir Cliff became the Burger King!

[ShadeGrenade · 7/10 · 25 October 2010]

I love those films you get free in newspapers. I love even more the ones you get free in papers you don't actually read - this one was generously given to me by a neighbour with a lifelong hatred of Sir Cliff Richard. 'Take Me High' ( 1973 ), his last film, re-teamed him with Kenneth Harper, producer of many of his earlier pictures, including the much-loved 'Summer Holiday' ( 1963 ). It is an altogether different sort of picture. There's no Shadows, for instance, nor winsome Una Stubbs or Melvyn Hayes in a hat or Richard O'Sullivan looking like 'Harry Potter'. It is a product of a more cynical age.

Cliff is 'Tim Matthews', an ambitious young banker looking forward to promotion to a top New York job. Alas he falls out with girlfriend Vicki ( Maddy Smith ) and not even a new food mixer brings her round. There is more bad news for Cliff ( sorry, Tim ). The New York job has fallen through. Tim is instead bundled off to Birmingham. The film looks as though it is going to be a retread of Lindsay Anderson's 'O Lucky Man!', but then goes in a different direction. Tim has a rival in the shape of slimy Hugo Flaxman ( Anthony Andrews ), who is steadfastly refusing financial help to Sarah Jones ( Debbie Watling ), the owner of a struggling restaurant. Tim not only gives her the money, but a solid gold idea - why not open a new restaurant devoted to one product - the Brumburger?

Enlisting the aid of local businessman Hugh Griffith, Sarah gets her restaurant ( which seems to be doing a roaring trade even before it opens ), Hugo gets the New York job, and Tim gets to go to bed with Sarah. Happy ending time! I expected to hate this, but was pleasantly surprised. I cannot think of many musicals about the creation of a new burger, so in that respect it breaks new ground. Cliff is much too nice to be taken seriously as a ruthless banker, but gets by. He looks great throughout. Buxom Debbie Watling was a former 'Dr.Who' companion ( in Patrick Troughton's time ). She too looks great, particularly in that Pink Panther T-shirt. Lucky old Tim. New York? Who needs it? Birmingham with Debbie looks more appealing.

Director David Askey worked on L.W.T.'s 'Doctor' series and 'Bless Me Father' amongst other things. The sterling supporting cast features Richard Wattis and George Cole. Griffith's tycoon is a riot though. Watching Cole denouncing him on television, he is so incensed he whips out a gun and blasts the set. He's like one of those eccentrics who inhabits 'The Avengers'.

The opening of the Brumberger restaurant has to be seen to be believed. Crowds cheer enthusiastically as Tim and Sarah glide through the streets in an open-topped car. You have never seen so many people excited over a burger in their lives! The 1981 Royal Wedding looks like a back-garden barbecue by comparison. This tosh was penned, amazingly, by Christopher Penfold, author of many great 'Space:1999' episodes. Watling said of the film years later: "everyone knew it was going to be dreadful but didn't say anything!". She is a bit harsh. Yes it is mind-crushingly daft, but pleasantly watchable. The songs are nice too ( if you like this era's music ). The I.T.V. children's programme 'Clapperboard' devoted a two-part special to its making, not an honour bestowed on many movies so Cliff and co. must have gotten something right.

A belated Happy 70th birthday, Sir Cliff!

Take Me High

[CinemaSerf · 4/10 · 27 May 2023]

This is a shocker. No other word for it. Cliff has certainly grown up since his adolescent efforts of the late 1960s, but what they had by way of innocent charm and boppy numbers then has been replaced here by a ridiculous plot, some serious hamming from Hugh Griffiths, conceivably the worst song I've ever heard in a film - "Brumburger" (the story being set in Birmingham) and a banal dialogue that would test the patience of Mother Theresa. The poster claims there are twelve new songs, but they have neither the weight nor the catchiness to sustain this over-long story that shows the city at it's most architecturally brutal. The assembled cast including a debut appearance from Anthony Andrews and some mischief from veteran George Cole just make it worse. The story is all over the place, and the direction seems uncertain as to whether this is a piece of entertainment or a series of video-guides of the city's rather grim urban landscape - either way it really is quite a struggle. Sorry, but even his most ardent fans must appreciate that this is a poor film on just about every front.

Nice and harmless

[mike_olley · 10/10 · 18 July 2011]

By any measure this is a very cheesy film, but it's so harmless and wholesome you can't really take umbrage with it. Based around the jewel of the British Waterways, the Gas Street basin it offers a fascinating historical insight into this very special area of Birmingham. Sort of film you can enjoy as long as you restrict watching it to, say, every ten years or so.

It's a pity that it has yet to be released on a modern format as I know many Brummies would enjoy just watching the film for the shots around the City. A City which has changed much, Take me High provides a good visual snap shot of the capitol of the British Midlands just before it's decline as a light industrial engineering world centre.

During Cliffs tenure on his canal boat in the Gas Street basin he would have had a neighbour in the fictional Wilf Harvey popular elderly Crossroads character who lived on dry land adjacent to the canals.

A good family movie

[ToLauren · 10/10 · 14 November 2007]

I saw this movie this evening and found it not only entertaining but uplifting. There is a real story and no sparsity of Cliff's songs. Many of the songs are worked in by presenting them as Cliff's thoughts. The songs are good not silly. It is not a teen feel good movie .It is more of a young adult choosing what standards to live his life by kind of movie. Cliff, as always , is looking good. The casting on the whole is perfect. There were many performers I was not familiar with but they all performed wonderfully. I think I smiled through the whole movie. If you are a Cliff fan you shouldn't miss it. If you want a good old fashion love story this is it. If you want a movie the family can watch together.this won't let you down. It is the kind of family film Disney used to make. I can't think of one reason not to try it.

Cliff is grown up in this one.

[jade-4 · 9/10 · 16 November 2003]

While his 60s films fit in with the juvenile delinquent and teenage beach movies of the time, this one keeps up with those fans who were now in their 20s. Another romantic comedy with a memorable music score and set in the UK's second city, Cliff now has an office job but he's still a bachelor.

It would be a dozen years before Cliff would do the Dave Clark musical TIME in the West End (no longer in the office but a rock star) followed 10 years later by his version of Wuthering Heights. The musical Heathcliff was a life-long ambition of Cliff's (and he played the married, then widowed seriously misunderstood man quite well). TIME was never released in video format but Heathcliff was. Take Me High is also available on video. His voice only got better, so you can't go wrong with any of these releases.

take me high starring cliff Richard 1973 by mt

[michaeltyler898 · 10/10 · 30 May 2006]

i was introduced to 'take me high' by a friend and avid cliff fan. i was sceptical at first but soon got absorbed by the plot and songs and as i herald from Birmingham i found the scenery of 'yesteryear' Brum just hypnotic. the 'Jiggedy Jaggedy' buildings are still there today! the film has fantastic moments like the hilarious way cliff discovers gas street (by folding a map into 4 pieces)and saying...."gas street!!!" and the Clifftastic 'winning' its just a must.and the way he converts his barge into a floating mansion is superb.great cameos from George Cole and the ever-young Anthony Andrews make this film a must see. Cliffs least known work but surely his best as his great voice and zany personality shine through.

i only wish there was a Brumburger in real life as it looks lovely!!

Michael

Unusual musical set in Birmingham

[louiseculmer · 8/10 · 21 June 2017]

This is not the best known of Cliff Richard's films, but personally I like it very much. Cliff plays an ambitious young businessman helping a girl who lives on a narrow-boat to start her own restaurant. Deborah Watling is charming as the young chef, and George Cole and Hugh Griffith provide strong comic support, with Anthony Andrews suitably suave as Cliff's rival. The songs are good, especially the title song Take Me High. The most striking thing about the film though is the Birmingham location, i don't think there are many films set in Birmingham, and I imagine very few musicals, possibly this film is unique in that respect. Birmingham is not the most picturesque of cities, but this film shows it in quite an attractive light, especially the canal scenes. Altogether this is a charming film.

Lovely film

[juliewllsn · 8/10 · 13 May 2021]

If your a Cliff Richard fan you will love this film. Looks a bit dated now and not one of his better films.

Summer Holiday is his best film in my opinion.

Songbird Sir Cliff has little problem playing a convincing Merchant banker!

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 13 April 2022]

David Askey's largely amiable musical comedy 'Take Me High' (1973) is wistfully 'wired for sound', having picture-perfect pop-tastic Sir Cliff Richard making a goodly racket in Birmingham with the buxomly bubbly, deliciously delectable Deborah Watling at his side! This untaxing, light and frothy 70s comedy is greatly enlivened by the rather pleasing upbeat ditties! Cosy, rather than crucial, but dashed fine, easy on the lugholes fun nonetheless! As you might well imagine, songbird Sir Cliff has little problem playing a convincing Merchant banker, and the stately presence of George Cole gives 'Take Me High' far more gravitas than it deserves! Along with the especially fine score by Tony Cole, Vintage British film fans are frequently given a warmly nostalgic, Brum's-eye view of this iconic city that gave the world Black Sabbath and the Brumburger!

The capable cast is colourfully dappled with stalwart veterans of stage and screen: Ronald Hines, comely Hammer Films siren Madeline Smith, the witheringly handsome Antony Andrews, Richard Wattis, and barnstorming, bug-eyed Stentorian actor Hugh Griffith boisterously delivers another louder-than-life performance as blustering, hypertensive gun-happy Brummie millionaire Sir Harry Cunningham. By no means essential viewing, since 'Take Me High' is dramatically slight, and, will, no doubt, be appreciated with greater fervour by Sir Cliff's legion of dotty fans, residents of Birmingham, musical comedy completists, and those more refined individuals who simply can't get enough of the sinfully curvaceous beauty Deborah Watling! Cult TV fans might also care to note that screenwriter Christopher Penfold also wrote episodes of cracking Sci-fi serial 'The Tripods'.