"Noises Off"

The older four of us laughed most of the way through Noises Off* last night.  We ran across it on Netflix recently, and I was very surprised that I hadn't run across it before (until I realized that it came out in 1992 when I had a 4 yo and a new baby and I was totally out of popular culture).  It stars two of my favorite actors, Michael Caine and Carol Burnett, and numerous others I enjoy, particularly John Ritter, whose physical comedy worked very well in this movie, and Christopher Reeve.

Here's the Netflix description:

Theater director Lloyd Fellowes (Michael Caine) is told he must bring a British hit play to the American stage with a cast including a feature actor (John Ritter), a washed-up star (Carol Burnett), a vacant leading man (Christopher Reeve), a blond bombshell (Nicollette Sheridan) and a besotted character actor (Denholm Elliott). It seems like a smash hit … until the backstage drama threatens to eclipse what's happening in front of the curtain.

It was originally a stage play, and the Broadway version was nominated for Tony Awards in the early 1980's.**

I quoted the Netflix description because it's difficult to describe without giving things away. It's about what goes on as they're putting the play together and how backstage and onstage interact.  Daughter, having just been in a production of Hamlet last month, particularly got a kick out of it.

The first act goes more slowly because it's setting up the rest of the film.  The second act is where it really takes off.  At one point during the first act, one of us wondered if we'd watch it all the way through.  If you wonder that, try to at least get to the second act scene with three (four) of them and the bottle, and make sure you watch the expressions on Selsdon's (Denholm Elliot's)*** face.

I'll definitely watch it again someday - particularly to see if I can catch everything that's happening in the second act.

* "Noises off" is a stage term referring to noises originating offstage.

**  Fans of the stage play, however, don't generally seem to like the film.

** This was Denholm Elliot's last film.  You may remember him as Dr. Marcus Brody from Raiders of the Lost Ark.