Richard Lester was American but one could be forgiven for mistaking him for British based on his work. Lester directed The Beatles’ madcap movies, A Hard Day’s Night and Help, and went on to make several British comedies in the 1960s. They were shot through with the mordant surrealism he picked up while working with Peter Sellers in U.K. television shows during the 1950s. Three of Lester’s films from the era have been released on Blu-ray.
The Knack... and How to Get It
The male gaze is undisguised and unashamed in The Knack (1965); feminist academics could write books on how to interpret this comedy romp through Swinging London. Brilliantly edited, sonically as well as visually, The Knack seems to spoof a cocky young stud with a parade of interchangeable sex partners—along with the grumpy older generation complaining about the bad ways of the young. Lester’s outrageous comedy hovers somewhere between Laurel and Hardy and Monty Python.
How I Won the War
The late ’60s stirred up many satires of war and the military mind, including Lester’s How I Won the War (1967). The conflict in question was World War II. The screenplay focuses on the ineptitude of a British army with characters bearing such Evelyn Waugh names as Goodbody and Gripweed. A surreal series of pratfalls and mishaps, How I Won the War survives in memory from John Lennon’s role as a snarky enlisted man.
The Bed Sitting Room
Desolate scenes of post-nuclear war London give way to poker-sharp British comedy as bedraggled remnants of authority carry on with a stiff upper lip. A ragged man pedaling a stationary bike is reminded that he is “generating power to the whole nation”; a BBC anchor continues to broadcast for an audience of one, sitting behind an empty TV screen. Shades of Monty Python, the credits for this 1969 film list the cast “in order of height.”
