Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "The Plank" is a British live action short film from 1979 written by, directed by and starring Eric Sykes. It runs for slightly under half an hour and does not include any spoken language, which means that even if you aren't fluent in English or are even a deaf person, you will not need any subtitles to enjoy this one. Still, it is a bit of a challenge admittedly to enjoy it because I believe it was not really too funny to watch the misadventures of the protagonists here. I guess it all comes down to how much you like pantomime overall. Maybe this one here makes a better watch as well if you love the works of the silent film greats from the early 20th century. It is probably among the more known works by Sykes, but in terms of the script I can only hope it is not one of his best because I found it ultimately really forgettable and it does not get me in the mood at all to watch any of his other stuff. Gotta give it a thumbs-down, even if it is not a complete failure. Acting is somewhat decent I guess, but not good enough to make up for everything else. And it manages to drag a bit, which is certainly nothing to be proud of at this runtime. Watch something else instead.

ShadeGrenade In 1967, Eric Sykes wrote, directed, and starred in 'The Plank', a short, silent comedy film about two incompetent builders ( Eric and Tommy Cooper ) who are short of a plank of wood for the house they are currently working on. Climbing into their battered old car, they head for the timber yard. With the plank safely secured to the roof ( so they think ), they set off, but lose it before too long. The plank causes mayhem whenever it goes.Twelve years later, Eric remade the film for Thames Television. Arthur Lowe replaced Cooper ( who was reunited with Sykes in 1982's 'Its Your Move' ). Right from the word go when Eric puts his jacket on a non-existent nail on the wall, you know you're in Jacques Tati territory; a delivery man ( Charlie Drake ) is knocked onto the cream cake he is carrying; a painter ( Bernard Cribbins ) is distracted and daubs red paint onto his boss' ( Lionel Blair ) face; a sexy hitch-hiker ( Joanna Lumley ) is picked up by a lorry driver ( Harry H.Corbett ) and when the plank strikes her on the back of the head she falls onto his lap; a man drinking a pint of beer ( Henry Cooper ) loses his glass ( and temper ) when the plank knocks it into a window-cleaner's ( Reg Varney ) bucket. And so on.Eric admitted later he never wrote an actual script for 'The Plank'. It adhered to the old 'cowboy movie' principle of an idea on a sheet of paper. He said: "I don't write yards and yards of funny dialogue, because you can't film dialogue.". The producer, Dennis Kirkland, was used to silent comedy - he worked on many of Benny Hill's shows for Thames.I actually prefer this to the original. It is shorter and snappier, and Alan Braden's music is splendid. Amongst the other guests are Brian Murphy, Charles Hawtrey, Kate O'Mara, Jimmy Edwards ( reprising his role as a policeman on a bike ), racing driver James Hunt, Frankie Howerd ( as a photographer ), and Wilfrid Hyde-White.Two versions were screened on I.T.V. - one with a laugh-track, and one without. The one on D.V.D. is the latter. Eric went on to make three more silent half-hours in similar vein - the aforementioned 'Its Your Move' ( probably the best of the lot ), 'Rhubarb Rhubarb' ( another cinema remake ), and 'Mr.H. Is Late', and all are good clean fun.Funniest moment - the plank slipping under Constable Edwards' bottom and propelling his bike along the road at great speed, and into the river. Frank Spencer could not have done it better.

Mr-Impossible Once in every lifetime a show comes along like The Plank.A remake of the 1967 version, this again, has a large collection of the funniest people of their day.A story of a wayward plank and who it meets on it's travels.Watch it if you want to know what true comedy is...or should I say was.Gone are the days of Fawlty Towers, Dad's Army and the Two Ronnies.Comedy now is not the same. Watching The Plank transports the viewer back to the days of high comedy. Simple yet effective.The universal language of laughter.The Plank will forever live in history as a tribute to many who started TV comedy.

ingemar-4 The Plank is a straight-forward slapstick short. To me, it summarizes the old-style slapstick of the old silent movies in a single movie. This means that some of the humor feels pretty outdated, like getting a cake in the face. But that is as it should in this movie. It is still very enjoyable. It has a wonderfully minimalistic theme, the transportation of a plank, executed with nice under-acting by Eric Sykes and Arthur Lowe.So don't expect the British humor from the same times by Monty Python/Feldman/Allen/Goodies/Atkinson. Watch it as a tribute to the old classics. Sykes and Lowe do it the old way, and they do it very well. I laugh at the references to the origins as much as the jokes as such. I could live without the laughter track though.Apart from Sykes and Lowe, the cliché old-times policeman (Jimmy Edwards) is wonderful, with mustache and all! Also, some scenes driving around with the plank are very good. As so often, the more subtle the humor, the better, and that is the case here too. The "delivery man" (Charlie Drake) is usually too crude (but necessary to deliver that side on the classic humor) as well as the painter, while the photographer, the milkman and the van drivers are funnier.Chaplin and Laurel&Hardy are (mostly) funny even today, and this movie builds on their work. It is the 20's in color.