Retired army officer + shotgun-wielding damsel + vengeful ghost = British chaos.
A Gothic comedy, featuring a distinguished cast, and starring Leslie Phillips and Margaret Tyzack. Retired colonial army officer George Thacker has high hopes of recapturing his memories of an idyllic English village life after a lifetime of meting out justice in the Far East. But instead of peace and quiet, he is greeted by violence, voodoo and a distressed damsel, brandishing a shotgun. Worst of all, the ghost of his old flame, Edith, still haunts him, threatening both his marriage and his life.
Acting
Leslie Phillips's perpetual bewilderment is pitch-perfect comic timing.
Production
Gothic manor looks deliciously drafty and authentically crumbling.
Director
Richard Spence
Leslie Phillips
George Thacker
Margaret Tyzack
Marjorie Thacker
Graham Crowden
Humphrey Folland
Freda Dowie
Edith Folland
Stephen Moore
Bernard Hadon Smith
Celia Imrie
Ann Hadon Smith
Philip Jackson
Ben Royce
Selina Cadell
Lizzie Royce
Andrew Tiernan
Davey Royce
Samantha Bond
Ginny Morgan
John McArdle
Martin Strickland
John McEnery
Reg Faulkner
Steve Sweeney
Dennie Faulkner
Wayne Foskett
Malcolm Faulkner
Rupert Holliday-Evans
Geoff Waldron
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was a rare late-career lead for Leslie Phillips, best known for his 'Carry On' cad persona.
The film quietly satirizes the 'return to England' narrative common in post-colonial British stories, where the homeland proves just as ungovernable as the colonies.
GB
