Man About the House (1974)

Man About the House: Directed by John Robins. With Richard O’Sullivan, Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett, Brian Murphy. A property developer wants to flatten the street to make new buildings. Householder George Roper is happy to take the offered money and run but his wife Mildred join with other residents to take a stand and keep things as they are.

“MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE is another Hammer Films version of a popular TV series, this time about the misadventures of a trio of twentysomethings sharing an apartment in London. I took an instant dislike to this film thanks to the lank-haired layabout lead, Richard Ou0026#39;Sullivan, who seems to spend his whole time putting down women and coming out with un-PC humour.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film as a whole doesnu0026#39;t transfer to the format as well as Hammeru0026#39;s ON THE BUSES trilogy and it feels instead rather like a padded-out episode of the TV show. The loose storyline involves some unscrupulous developers attempting to knock down the abode of our characters, so they decide to fight back. Some very broad comedy, involving endless games of strip poker and monopoly and laxatives, follows.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe humour is sometimes funny but seems to be rather mild and restrained for the most part, although it does have its moments. The romance stuff between the leads is pretty boring, although it is fun to see Sally Thomsett (THE RAILWAY CHILDREN) playing somebody her own age just four years after masquerading as a kid in that childhood classic. As ever, the endless cameos (Bill Pertwee, Bill Maynard, Arthur Lowe, Spike Milligan) are the highlight here.”