The Naked Truth (1958)

One of my all time favorites.

hyped garbage

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This wonderful and wacky comedy pairs two of the best British comic actors of the 20th century. In their quite different characters, Peter Sellers and Terry-Thomas are hilarious for their antics. Thomas is Lord Mayley and Sellers is Sonny Macgregor. They are joined by Peggy Mount as Flora Ransom and Shirley Eaton as Melissa Right. These are just a pittance of the number of people across British society that have come under the spell of blackmail by Nigel Dennis. Dennis Price plays the straight man Dennis, and he is perfect for the role that he played a number of times in comedies. The tool of blackmail is threatened publication of some embarrassing or troubling thing of a person's past in Dennis's tabloid magazine, "The Naked Truth." While Lord Mayley finds it interesting and fun to read some of the dirt about other people, he's horrified to think of his past foible becoming known. The plot for this film is wonderful, and the crisscrossing of paths by the principles being blackmailed - before they get together, is hilarious. A very good supporting cast contribute to the comedy. Georgina Cookson as Lady Mayley and Joan Sims as Ethel Ransom are especially good. This is a very funny comedy that's sure to generate much laughter for adults. One of my favorite scenes is the lot of people drinking the Mickey Finns that Flora has made in all her liquor supply. Another is Sonny Macgregor in the gun shop when he orders 1,500 12-guage shotgun shells "for a day's rough shooting." Here are some funny lines from the film. For more humorous dialog, see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page of the film. Nigel Dennis, "Don't bother to kick me out."Lord Mayley, "How do I look, Lucy?" Lady Mayley, "Very chick." Lord Mayley, "Chick? Thought the word was chic." Lady Mayley, "Yes, darling, it is; but not when applied to you."Lord Mayley, "Your mustache" Sonny Macgregor, "Oh, yes, sir. I I got the creeping alopecia, sir. Yes, sir, it crept all over my lip, it did. Yes, sir." Flora Ransom, "So called policemen, masquerading as ordinary citizens."Ethel Ransom, "I shall be hung." Flora Ransom, "The word is hanged, dear, and you won't be."Ethel Ransom, "Oh, my, what have you done?" Flora Ransom, "What have I done? You have murdered an innocent bystander, that's what."Lady Mayley, "I'll get Maria to lay out your frogman's suit."Lord Mayley, "Never seen her before. It's a lie." Lady Mayley, "What is?" Lord Mayley, "Whatever she says I've done."Lord Mayley, "I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Mayley, Lord Mayley." Rev. Bastable, "Oh." Lord Mayley, "And this is Miss Right." Rev. Bastable, "Oh, congratulations." Lord Mayley, "Oh, no, no! That's her name."Flora Ransom, "Yes, they're onto us all right. He's one of those plainclothes brutes disguised as an ordinary policeman."Sonny Macgregor, as he points toward the library, "I'm very sorry to trouble you at this hour, but, um, is your husband there?" Lady Mayley, "Not all there, I'm thinking."Sonny Macgregor, "Are you crazy? We've just been killing ourselves trying to murder him." Lord Mayley, "Good heavens. Sir Hutton Eastbrook. He's on the board of my directors. He'll have to go. We can't employ disgusting people like that."

While those looking for a rather typical 50s British comedy will not be disappointed, this film also offers some more biting social commentary than usual. An ensemble cast plays out a zany caper story about a creepy amoral grifter (Dennis Price) and a group of assorted loonies who try in various ways to undermine his attempts to blackmail them. It's not dis-similar from other excellent comedies of the era such as "Lavender Hill Mob" and "Kind Hearts and Coronets", but this film from the "Rank Organization" lacks the dry quality of the Ealing Films. Also there is no presence as compelling as Guinness' in the best Ealings. Peter Sellers, second-billed below Terry Thomas (who, as usual, has perhaps one too many scene with certainly one too many eye roll), of course tries his best to steal the film and every scene in it, and Peggy Mount is very funny as a mystery writer intent on acting out her own story. But none of the characters are given the chance to really center the film, and as a result it comes off with less heart than the very best films of this type.Sellers plays a kind of corrupt game show host, in danger of being exposed as a slumlord to the very elderly audience who adore him. I thought that was a nice, if obvious, bit of social statement. Neither Sellers nor any of the other people being blackmailed is a lily-white innocent, so you wonder as you watch it whether Price's character will get his comeuppance or not. That gives it more suspense than some comedy, but not really enough to make it compelling. Still, it's a quality film with good contributions from everybody.

This film solidified Peter Sellers' stardom as a comic actor of the first rank. He had appeared in other films prior to it, but THE LADYKILLERS was the only one prior to this that showed him to any advantage, as an inept "teddy boy" type. Here he is "Wee Sonny MacGregor" a popular young entertainer on television, whose variety show has mostly elderly viewers who think of Sonny as the son or grandson they always dreamed about. Unfortunately for Sonny, one Nigel Dennis (Dennis Price) publishes "THE NAKED TRUTH", a tell all scandal sheet like "Confidential" or (despite their disclaimers) "The Enquirer". Mr Dennis has a nice, somewhat legal, offer. If you will help defray the expenses of his magazine, he will refrain from publishing details of what you don't want known. In his best, intelligent scoundrel style, Price reveals to dear "Wee Sonny" that he knows about the large amounts of rent money "Wee Sonny" has been making with some rotting tenements in London. The audience for "Wee Sonny" would not feel very comfortable with his image knowing about this.Price has similar pieces of information regarding Peggy Blount, playing an "Agatha Christie" novelist - apparently one of her plots may not have been so original. Also Terry-Thomas, as Lord Mayley, is not as respectable as he lets on - he seems to have had several affairs his wife does not know of (although Georgina Cookson - Lady Mayley - has her occasional suspicions). Soon all three are considering the last resort for dealing with blackmail - doing in the blackmailer. Their problems are more than dealing with a brainy adversary. Blount tries to commit a murder (after all she's an expert in killing as a creative writer), only to come a cropper (all I'll say is Price ups his demands for payment as a result). Terry-Thomas seems to keep stumbling into the schemes of Blount and Sellers, to his own discomfort.Best is Sellers though - he is certain he can commit the perfect murder because he is a "master of disguise". His assistant Kenneth Griffith keeps warning him that he has a tendency to overact, but "Wee Sonny" dismisses this. He tries to spy out Price playing an elderly dock expert, and only annoys the latter and makes Terry-Thomas suspicious. He flusters a gun shop owner by appearing as an Edwardian style country squire ordering enough ammunition for a regiment, not for a hunt. My favorite moment is when he tries to impress possible IRA members by speaking to them (as a fellow member) in perfect Welsh.How they finally get rid of Price and his demands is as funny as one can expect, given the rest of the film. It is a comedy that will pay handsome dividends of laughter.

Apparently released both as "The Naked Truth" and "Your Past Is Showing" (the name on the title card and title I remember in the U.S. run), this bustling little comedy about tabloid blackmailer is still jolly good fun going on 50 years later. Credit an amusing script and some fine casting that captures a gaggle of top-flight '50s British comedy talent in top form. Terry-Thomas and a young Peter Sellers (filmed here just before he gained fame with "The Mouse That Roared") are at the pinnacle of their Brit-comedy game and are ably abetted by the redoubtable Peggy Mount, luscious Shirley Eaton (a few years before her turn as the "golden girl" in "Goldfinger"), a caddish Dennis Price (as the oily blackmailer) and assorted classic British comedy stars, a number of whom seem to have had recurring bits in the "Carry On" series. The humor here is not as low and juicy as the "Carry On"s or as high and dry as the classic Ealing Studio Ealing comedies of the period - a pleasing mix. By contemporary standards, the film is a little slow - especially the set-up through the opening reels - but it all pays off very nicely with an avalanche of chuckles and a few great belly laughs. Keep a close eye on Sellers: although he plays a single character (a cheesy TV variety show emcee), he dons multiple disguises through the film, warming up for future roles in "Mouse" and "Dr. Strangelove" (where he played three parts in each) and those later "Pink Panther" comedies.