Keep It Clean
Original British trade ad
Directed byDavid Paltenghi
Screenplay byCarl Nystrom
R. F. Delderfield
Produced byMaxwell Setton
John R. Sloan
StarringRonald Shiner
CinematographyWilkie Cooper
Bernard Lewis (camera operator)
Edited byJohn Pomeroy
Music byBruce Montgomery
Production
company
A Setton-Sloan Production
Distributed byEros Films (UK)
Release date
  • 1 May 1956 (1956-05-01) (UK)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Keep It Clean is a 1956 British black-and-white comedy film directed by David Paltenghi and starring Ronald Shiner and Joan Sims.[1]

Plot

Advertising agent Bert Lane plans to market his brother-in-law Peter's new miracle cleaning machine. However, Bert's boss Mr. Bouncenboy wants him to advertise Mrs Anstey's famous crumpets, but Bert's cheesecake advertising slogans incur the wrath of Mrs Anstey and her Purity League, as well as that of his boss.

Cast

  • Ronald Shiner as Bert Lane
  • James Hayter as Mr. Bouncenboy
  • Diane Hart as Kitty
  • Ursula Howells as Pat Anstey
  • Jean Cadell as Mrs. Anstey
  • Colin Gordon as Peter
  • Benny Lee as Tarbottom
  • Joan Sims as Violet Tarbottom
  • Denis Shaw as Slogger O'Reilly
  • Tonia Bern as Colette Dare
  • Gerald Campion as Rasher
  • Mark Daly as Stage Door keeper
  • Albert Whelan as Gregson
  • Violet Gould as Lady Pecksniff
  • Bert Brownbill as George Buxton
  • Tony Sympson as Little Tailor
  • Pauline Winter as Bridget
  • Lillemor Knudsen as Audrey
  • Henry Longhurst as magistrate
  • Roger Maxwell as General Ponsenby-Goreham
  • Arthur Goullet as loan service official
  • Norman Rossington as Arthur, the bearded ad artist
  • Humphrey Kent as Pat's wscort
  • John Wadham as loan service driver
  • Harry Purvis as Charlie
  • Richard George as Police Constable
  • Frank Forsyth as Inspector at Court
  • Howard Lang as Police Sergeant
  • Robert Moore as theatre attendant
  • The Kelroys as acrobats
  • Maya Koumani as showgirl
  • Yvonne Burke as showgirl
  • Lynn Shaw (Jacqueline Jones) as showgirl
  • Christina Lubicz as chorus girl
  • Anne Lynn as chorus girl
  • Yvonne Olena as chorus girl
  • Pat Spencer as chorus girl
  • Thais Jobbling as chorus girl
  • Glynne Raymond as chorus girl
  • Eve Kenney as chorus girl
  • Diana Satow as chorus girl

Reception

Box office

The film was a commercial disappointment.[2]

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "A dispiritingly unfunny farce, which lacks surprise in its story, timing in its slapstick and humorous appeal in its players. Several competent performers are embarrassingly and unhappily involved in the affair."[3]

Kine Weekly said "The picture takes a crack at Mrs. Grundy, a henpecked window cleaner, members of the aristocracy and non-stop striptease variety shows, but does not always hit its mark. What's more, some of its quips are crude, but by and large the fun is reasonably clean, if not clever. Ronald Shiner, who always enjoys his own jokes, never lets up as Bert, Jean Cadell is shrewdly cast as the austere Mrs. Anstey, and the others make eager stooges."[4]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Shiner floundering outside auspices of big studios, time-honoured slapstick situations litter unfunny comedy."[5]

References

  1. "Keep It Clean". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  2. Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference. Oxford University Press. pp. 178–180. ISBN 978-0-19-815934-6.
  3. "Keep It Clean". Monthly Film Bulletin. 23 (264): 77. 1956 via ProQuest.
  4. "Keep It Clean". Kine Weekly. 469 (2542): 99. 3 May 1956 via ProQuest.
  5. Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 332. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.


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