| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Carol Burnett | ... | Dotty Otley / Mrs. Clackett | |
| Michael Caine | ... | Lloyd Fellowes | |
| Denholm Elliott | ... | Selsdon Mowbray / The Burglar | |
| Julie Hagerty | ... | Poppy Taylor | |
| Marilu Henner | ... | Belinda Blair / Flavia Brent | |
| Mark Linn-Baker | ... | Tim Allgood | |
| Christopher Reeve | ... | Frederick Dallas / Philip Brent | |
| John Ritter | ... | Garry Lejeune / Roger Tramplemain | |
| Nicollette Sheridan | ... | Brooke Ashton / Vicki | |
| Katie Rich | ... | Des Moines Stagehand | |
| Zoe R. Cassavetes | ... | Miami Stagehand | |
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Kim Sebastian | ... | Cleveland Stagehand |
| Louise Stratten | ... | Broadway Stagehand (as L.B. Straten) | |
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J. Christopher Sullivan | ... | Miami Backstage Guard |
| Kimberly Neville | ... | Miami Usher | |
Lloyd Fellowes (Sir Michael Caine), the director of an eccentric theatre company, is desperately trying to get his production together, despite the worst efforts of the cast, crew, and Lady Luck. We follow the production from final rehearsals through opening night, and onto the tour. As with any group of actors forced to work closely together for any great length of time, romances and arguments are bound to break out. Quite often, what's happening on stage is nothing compared to what's happening backstage. Written by Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>
Michael Frayn's "Noises Off" is the farce to end all farces, a hilariously funny play that had me fall off my cinema seat repeatedly because I just couldn't stop laughing.
In it, a group of moderately talented actors attempts to perform a bedroom farce called "Nothing On", but their own incompentence and personal disagreements get in the way to result in perfect, bizarre chaos like nothing ever seen before on screen.
This is a long-time favourite on the stage, and Peter Bogdanovich has masterly brought it to the screen. It's all about timing, you see (oh yes, and "doors and sardines", as one of the characters puts it), and the timing is just perfect, which is quite an achievement, given the movie's extraordinarily fast pace.
I give this movie 10 points, not for depth (which there isn't), but for 90 minutes of perfect, witty, fast-paced and extremely funny comedy.