Penny Points To Paradise/Let's Go Crazy

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Synopsis

Unavailable for decades, Penny Points to Paradise - considered by Peter Sellers as his film debut - sees all three Goons beside the seaside in a cheap and cheerful comic escapade climaxing in Brighton waxworks.

Shot immediately afterwards, Let's Go Crazy is a madcap selection of variety turns, interspersed with zany improvised sketches by Sellers and Milligan.

For many years something of a missing link in British comedy history, but now rescued and restored by the BFI National Archive, these rare films are a must-have for all vintage comedy fans.

Picture 7/10

For their first release in their new “Adelphi Collection” BFI Video presents the two films Penny Points to Paradise and Let’s Go Crazy (a short feature made just after the completion of the other film) both in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 on this dual-layer Blu-ray disc. The image for both is also presented in 1080p.

While it’s certainly not going to truly impress people at first the transfer here is actually amazing when one considers the task at hand. I’m only somewhat familiar with the main feature, Penny Points to Paradise (meaning I’ve heard of it,) but I had no idea about the rather complicated history of it. The original version (which is what is available here) was a flop and years later, to cash in on Peter Sellers’ success, the film was drastically cut down and then had some of Sellers’ bits from Let’s Go Crazy edited into it (the film apparently had a total running time of 58-minutes, 13-minutes shorter than the longer version.) To restore both versions the producers of this disc had to search far and wide for the best elements, having to piece together the film from multiple sources, most of the transfer coming from 35mm copies. Unfortunately some scenes were still missing and they had to go to 16mm sources for the rest.

And considering all of this the picture quality is far better than what one would expect. Throughout a majority of Penny Points to Paradise damage is quite minimal in both films, limited to a bit of debris or a vertical line or two showing up. The only moments that really stand out are the moments where a 16mm source has to be used, these scenes looking a little less detailed and with far more grain than the rest of the film. These moments can a be a little jarring but are infrequent. Let’s Go Crazy has more noticeable debris I felt but it’s been extensively cleaned up.

The digital transfer itself is fairly decent between both films. Sharpness and detail is solid with a few moments of looking soft (but this may have more to do with the source elements than the digital transfer.) Contrast looked a little off to me in Penny Points to Paradise, looking a little brighter like its been boosted somewhat. Let’s Go Crazy looks better in this regard.

Again I must commend BFI for the work that went into these films, specifically going out there and gathering up the most complete version they could and then seeing fit to give it a new, fairly clean high-definition transfer and then putting it out on blu-ray.

While a UK release the disc is region free and should play on all Blu-ray players (it works in my PS3.)

Audio 6/10

Both films come with lossless mono tracks that are adequate for the films. Dialogue is fine, easy to hear and understand, but that’s about it. The booklet suggests that the audio was no easy feat as well and the track is probably limited by the source materials. It’s a little flat and edgy, music sounding a bit rough. It gets the job done but that’s about it.

Extras 5/10

BFI has taken a bit of an opportunity here to look at the early work of Peter Sellers (and his fellow Goons Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan.) Not only does the disc include the 71-minute feature film Penny Points to Paradise and the short 33-minute film Let’s Go Crazy they have also included The Slappiest Days of Our Lives, a 76-minute 1953 feature with Sellers acting as narrator. It’s a rather bizarre project, a French production that edited together a large amount of silent film footage (featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and numerous others) into a single narrative that finds Stan Laurel (more or less) touring America. This production was then picked up by Adelphi Films, who then re-edited it and added in new voice acting and narration. It’s an amusing piece, not great, but it’s more fascinating as a representation of Sellers’ earlier work, showing his knack for creating multiple characters and voices.

While this feature is presented in 1080p and has also been given a lossless audio track it has had very little, if anything, in the way of a restoration.

And typical of BFI Video we get a rather wonderful booklet included with this release. Inside you’ll first find an essay by Vic Pratt on the film’s history and the multiple sources they had to sort through to get a complete version of the film, an essay on Sellers and The Goon Show by Mark J. Cousins, a short piece by Kate Lees on Adelphi Films, and then a break down by Kieron Webb on what source materials were used to reconstruct the films. Like all BFI booklets I’ve come across so far it’s an excellent read.

Disappointingly nothing else appears. It would have been interesting to see the more common, shorter version of Penny Points to Paradise, though that could be pushing it, and while I am a long time Sellers fan I wish there was more about Milligan and Secombe in the set. But I must say while I didn’t think The Slappiest Days of Our Lives was a great film it was certainly still a fascinating piece and I’m glad they dug it up.

Closing

BFI have yet again put together a rather intriguing release. I can’t say the films themselves are altogether that special, probably only interesting as an early look at Sellers and the other members of The Goon Show, but they’ve put a lot of work into this one, restoring the films as best as they could and delivering them in surprisingly good high-definition transfers. The two main features look fairly striking when one considers all they’ve been through. And with the inclusion of another full feature the disc is certainly a bargain. I feel sort of bad that I can’t fully recommend it to those that may have a passing interest, but I think fans of the Goons or fans of Sellers would certainly be happy with picking up this release.

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