George and Mildred is a 1980 British comedy film directed by Peter Frazer Jones.[1] It was an adaptation of the television series of the same name, with Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy reprising their roles as the two title characters.[2] It was written by Dick Sharples.[1]
| George and Mildred | |
|---|---|
British quad poster by Tom Beauvais
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| Directed by | Peter Frazer Jones |
| Written by | Dick Sharples |
| Based on | George and Mildred byJohnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke |
| Produced by | Roy Skeggs |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Frank Watts |
| Edited by | Peter Weatherley |
| Music by | Les Reed |
Production |
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| Distributed by | ITC Film Distributors |
Release date |
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Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Mildred is keen to ascertain whether or not her husband George has remembered their 27th wedding anniversary. Needless to say, he has not. When he finally remembers, he books a table at the restaurant where he first proposed to Mildred. But to his horror, he discovers on arrival that it has been turned into a greasy spoon café run by Hells Angels style bikers. Mildred then decides that she and George will celebrate their 27th wedding anniversary in style at the plush, world famous London hotel – however unhappy George might be at the cost involved. But on arrival, George is mistaken for a ruthless hit-man by a shady businessman, who wants a rival eliminated.
Released on 27 July 1980, less than a month before the death (on 24 August 1980) of star Yootha Joyce, the film was neither a commercial nor a critical success.[3] The film first aired on ITV television on Christmas Day 1980, only five months after its theatrical release.[4]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Spun-off from a TV series that was originally a spin-off from an earlier series, George and Mildred is flaccid entertainment even by routine sit-com standards, and amounts to no more than one attenuated music-hall joke: the boorish husband. Brian Murphy's snivelling, runtish Roper drives a beat-up Morris Minor, guzzles brown ale and sports woollen underwear; Yootha Joyce (an icily accomplished comedienne) matches the tone with a caricature that trades on loud costumes, cheap accessories and ambitions way beyond her means. Whatever sparks may once have fired this screen relationship have long since been snuffed by the overwhelming pettiness of the characters. They behave here exactly as they would in the half-hour TV sit-com, but by nature of the expanded format are forced into more socially embarrassing confrontations than the characterisations can cope with. Hence the hasty wrapping-up of the absurdly exotic gangster plot, and the cop-out solution of the closing car chase (in which Stratford Johns finally loses one of several hairpieces he has essayed in the course of the film)."[5]
Bright Lights Film Journal described the film as "one of the worst films ever made in Britain ...so strikingly bad, it seems to have been assembled with a genuine contempt for its audience."[6]
The Guardian stated that the film's failure marked "the death knell" for the 1970s British practice of producing motion picture spinoffs based on sitcoms.[7]