A Review of Noises Off

Let me start off this review with a few warnings to address the largest criticism this film has, “it’s better on stage”. I unfortunately am unable to agree with or conflict with this statement because I have never seen the play this film is based on. That being said one of the great things about film as a medium is that it is extremely accessible, compared to other forms of entertainment it’s cheap and you can find any film you wish under a multitude of platforms. Therefore I must acknowledge that if this film did only one thing right, it is that it exposed this story to countless others including myself. Fortunately, that is not the only thing this film did right. Noises Off tells the story of a struggling performance of an American adaptation of a fictional British stage farce called Nothing On. During the course of the film the great Michael Caine plays Lloyd Fellowes a hot-tempered and philandering director doing his very best and raucously failing to get his cast and crew ready to perform the play. Among the fictional cast of Nothing On is Dotty Otley played by Carol Burnett an aging star who is in a contentious relationship with fellow actor Garry and who has the play-within-a-play part of Mrs. Clackett a housekeeper. Garry Lejeune is played by the late-great John Ritter and is a scatter-brained, ill-tempered actor who himself plays the stage role of Roger Tramplemain an estate agent. In his last role before passing away, Denholm Elliot, famous for the Indiana Jones films, plays alcoholic actor Selsdon Mowbray who is hard of hearing and constantly missing his cue as The Burglar. The similarly passed-away Christopher Reeves plays into the Clark Kent side of his career as meek and shy but kind-hearted actor Frederick Dallas whose role as Phillip Brent casts him as a tax-evading millionaire. Marilu Henner, 9 years after Taxi ended, plays Belinda Blair, a compromising and reassuring voice among the Nothings On cast and crew while also being a bit of a gossip. She has the play-within-a-play role of Flavia Brent, Philip’s wife who like her husband is pretending to be in Spain to avoid taxes. The last actor of the stage cast is Brooke Ashton played by Nicollette Sheridan a nearsighted and somewhat ditzy actress who nevertheless doesn’t miss a line and has the stage role of Poppy Taylor, a prospective client of Roger Tramplemain. Finally, the film cast is rounded out by stressed-out stage director Poppy Taylor and sleep-deprived set handyman Tim Allgood played by Julie Hagerty and Mark Linn-Baker respectively.

Now that’s a long list of actors and roles within roles but like many plays that this film is based on it either lives or dies by the strength of its cast, and this film reaches that bar and vaults over it. Despite all the chaos that occurs on and off stage the cast and impeccable writing lets you know what each character is thinking and feeling in any given moment. A herculean task indeed, especially considering the largely silent second act that takes place behind the curtains of the play in progress. Beyond its cast, the film brings to the screen the life behind the curtain with well-executed jokes, physical comedy, and props. I mean truly no film has ever before made a plate of sardines, a miniature cactus, and a fire axe so uproariously funny. A quick fun fact: we the audience never see anything beyond the last moments of the second act, the majority of the movie takes place during reruns of the fictional play’s first act. This allows us, the audience, to enjoy the comedy of when we know the cast is missing a cue, line, or scene which is used to great effect in an ingenious writing device by the original playwright Michael Frayn. While I am not the biggest fan of the ending or the wraparound narration it comes with, it feels too much like it’s trying too hard to reign in the chaos in at the last minute, it by no means ruins the sheer joy and laughter I get out of watching this gut-busting comedy over and over again. With that review finished I shall declare “Please take your seats the performance is about to begin.”