The Plank (1967)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Great Film overall

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The acting in this movie is really good.

The Plank is a slap stick short featuring Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper. Sykes wrote and directed this nearly silent short film and managed to get an all star cast. Keep you eyes peeled for Stratford Johns, Roy Castle, Jim Dale, Jimmy Tarbuck, Hattie Jacques, Graham Stark, Jimmy Edwards, John Junkin and other familiar faces of the 1960s and 1970s.Sykes and Cooper are two workmen, when one of them uses the last floorboard for heating and they go out to buy a replacement. They return to the house with the plank on top of a van, but the journey is fraught with unexpected difficulties. The short film is a series of slapstick routines involving the plank and featured guest stars.However some of the scenes do not quiet work and go on for too long such as driving around and trying to get out of the timber yard. Also the scenes with the female hitchhiker in the truck now looks distasteful.

A short, slapstick British comedy from the late '60s. Be warned that there's also a remake from 1979 with Arthur Lowe in the Tommy Cooper role. The main inspiration behind THE PLANK seems to be the silent comedies of yesterday and the early talkies that followed, particularly the Laurel & Hardy film where they starred as a couple of workmen.THE PLANK is fun, albeit slightly overstated. It doesn't have the feel of a timeless classic to it, and for the most part it goes through the motions with all kinds of predictable humour. Saying that, there are quite a few decent gags, particularly those involving the plank being tied to the top of a car and all the accidents and incidents that ensue.The film is well worth watching for fans of classic British comedy, because the cast is a veritable who's who of famous names. Tommy Cooper, as one of the two central workmen, is by far the best value, essaying a kind of naturalistic humour that never seems force. Beside him, as straight man, Eric Sykes seems almost staid.Look out for Roy Castle in an ill-fitting wig, short cameos for Jim Dale and Hattie Jacques, plus plenty of other notables from the time.

No, this isn't a new starring vehicle for Keanu Reeves; it's a chirpy, cheesy British homage to the slapstick era.Though quite admirable for it's time, thirty-three years later The Plank has dated somewhat. This is the sort of comedy where you hear breaking window sound effects (though don't get to see the cracked window) and comedy music, cute cats and yapping dogs take a part. Tommy Cooper was a very amusing man who knew how to time a joke, so it's perhaps a waste of his ability to cast him in a nearly silent role.One pleasant thing about the film is that it is, apart from one or two light examples of sexism, entirely innocent, and can be watched by all ages. (Though look out for the newspaper advertisement for The News of the World, not covered up, which reads: "Pop Stars and Drugs"). Perhaps another example of this dated style is that the three black cast members all play dustbinmen.This was probably highly amusing stuff at the time, but looked back upon it doesn't really stand up. Seeing men jumping with rage till their false teeth fall out, or a man being pulled along by a car isn't that funny anymore. In fact, I remembered this film being a hell of a lot funnier than it patently is, and had my memory jogged by the IMDb: it turns out this is the first time I've actually seen the film, and I was thinking of Sykes' work for television in the late seventies/early eighties, which included Rhubarb, Rhubarb and a TV remake of this film starring Harry H.Corbett and Charlie Drake. Maybe that's why I was so disappointed as the '79 version obviously brought this tired format up to date, and, by all accounts, halved the overlong run-time.Ultimately The Plank can only be watched in it's own era. If you wanted the greatest silent comedy then you'd look to the more professional standards of the 20s and 30s (sound dubbing is quite poor here). And if you wanted to laugh at Eric Sykes holding a plank, then you'd watch the remake with it's laughter track half-way convincing you it's funny. For the '67 version there's the feeling that all of its heavily signposted gags don't have the pay-off they deserve, or that the pace isn't quite right. This was a time when The Beatles, The Stones and Dylan were redefining music. In the meantime, Jimmy Edwards was getting excited at young girls in miniskirts. But nevertheless, as a historical document, it's okay, one for a rainy afternoon when there's nothing else on. 5/10.

This film is actually quite good. Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper are brilliant. But I would say this film is not one I would buy but one that is good to watch on TV.A myriad of stars usually mean a film is rubbish but this film proves wrong. The stars all have funny little cameo roles that keep you going "ooh I know him" and having to go here to look for them!