Terry-Thomas + Peter Sellers = Many Laughs !
"The Naked Truth", also known as "Your Past is Showing" is one of those hilariously daffy comedies that Britain seemed to turn out with great regularity in the 50s and into the 60s. The premise is quite outlandish and "over-the-top", but--hey--it's a comedy with never a dull moment, so who cares ?
First I must begin with a confession--I am a life-long, diehard Terry-Thomas fan. Since this film gives him one of his best roles, my review might be a bit prejudiced ! He is "Lord Mayley", a self-important, pompous English peer, who suddenly finds himself being blackmailed by Nigel Dennis ( wonderfully smarmy Dennis Price ), a dirt-digging journalist and publisher of a scandal tabloid, "The Naked Truth". It seems that Lord Mayley has not always been a "faithful husband", and his escapades will be printed for the world to see--unless, of course, he pays 10,000 pounds to slimy Nigel !
Nigel also has other "victims". Obnoxious "Scottish" television personality, Sonny...
Light-Hearted British Comedy
The selling point for "The Naked Truth" is that it features a young Peter Sellers. Truth be told this is more of an ensemble effort and not what you would call a break-out role for Sellers. Sellers as a "Scottish" television personality is given the opportunity to employ a number of disguises and voice characterizations that are amusing but not fitfully so. The film's central premise of a group of prominent Brits who conspire to dispatch a blackmailing tabloid publisher(Dennis Price of "Kind Hearts and Coronets") is played more for broad slapstick than for the macabre dark comedy of classic Ealing comedies. These observations aside this is a highly enjoyable film with a good laugh quotient. Solid cast also includes the irrepressible Terry-Thomas and Shirley Eaton("Goldfinger").
Hilarious!
This is one of my favorite comedies, not far behind other British offerings from the 50's and 60's, such as Make Mine Mink.
In this madcap farce, a group of hapless people find themselves being blackmailed by a sleazy tabloid publisher played to perfection by Dennis Price. The blackmail victims independently and jointly decide to "eliminate" their problem. But since none of them are murderers by nature, their attempts end up more in bungled backfire than in relief.
The first problem they face is obtaining the means to do the deed. Peter Sellers is featured in one of the funniest scenes as he crosses over to Ireland assuming he can readily obtain some bomb material there from the notoriously explosive Irish rebels. He goes into a typical Irish pub, sprouting shamrocks from his lapels, confident of passing as a true Irish patriot in their midst. But of course, it doesn't quite work out that way. The Irish townspeople in the pub all too readily "smell the blood of...
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