Reviews (2)

A satire that will move you to Christianity
This movie has got to be one of my all time favorites, Ellen Greene has a superb singing voice that totally rocks the house. And even though it is a satire, it moves me toward the Christian walk more than a Sunday School Preacher ever will. A movie of good things that can really happen, praise, faith, and human mistakes. This movie brought tears to my eyes when Sister Ruth (Ellen Greene), first got the spirit in her. This movie contains drugs, sex, and rock and roll. All the elements that preachers preach against. But it seems to get the message across that we are all sinners, and have to find our beliefs in our own way that will make sense to us. Richard Thomas and James Whitmore also make this a great movie. Just a little corny in the ending, but music and theme just makes you feel good inside.

glory glory
iF THIS IS THE SAME VIDEO I SEEN IN THE 1980s ITS A GOOD VIDEO AND MAKES ONE REALLY THINK........IM LOOKING TO BUY IT BUT SEE THAT ITS UNAVAILABLE AT THIS TIME....WHY? ANYWAY EXCELLENT VIDEO ON CHRISTIANTY ... Read more

Description

A young coffee salesman rises to the top, only to fall and rise again. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

watch this movie
I can't really describe how I feel about this movie. I would love to just make you watch it. I am writing this because I felt a need to write a review for the soundtrack, now on cd. I found myself constantly talking about how much I love this movie. The music is incorporated into the film directly. So much so that McDowell(Travis) and Price(Price) actually exchange words at one point(and in the middle of one of Price's songs). Price's personality is felt everywhere. At a middle point, Price's band rescues Travis from a mad doctor(see Brittania Hospital)and appear proper in the film. The film itself was based partly on the character from "If.." and partly on McDowell's own experience as a coffee salesman. It is the middle part of Travis's trilogy. In my review of the soundtrack, you will see how I feel that Price's soundtrack adds to the tone and personality of the film. As serendipitous as Travis's adventures are, you can see layers of humanity peel away. To say something definite about it would just ruin the plot and theme. There are alot of scenes that are mockingly anti-authoritarian. And some creepy "things to be" scenes. Also, there are cold political reality scenes that still resonate. All that said, it is really Travis' story. Just watch it. The talents are huge and the movie is bleak. You will never see another movie like this again.

Inspirational! Cynical! Wonderful!
My all-round favorite film. Favorite because of its scope, Brit humor and enduring power to pick me up when I am down. Malcom McDowell's expressions throughout are bildungsroman in action. Music is amazing, and heralded a life-long love affair (sadly from a distance) with Alan Price, a sort of music hall Randy Newman. Band/party sequences are fabulous! Movie endures beyond intellectual collegiate urge to deconstruct symbolism. I like it even better than Shirley Temple's The Little Princess, another fave. Better than Robert Altman. 'Course, I'm one of the few who like Ishtar (at least parts)....But then I also adored Bullworth.

lucky to say the least
I recently watched O Lucky Man again with a friend who was watching it for the first time, and I became accutely aware of the feelings I had when I first watched it. It was an exhilarating and inspirational experience. I envied my friend for a moment and then I got back to the picture...and I realized how much better this movie gets after repeated viewings. Wow!

But as so many have said here in these reviews, a DVD release (Criterion are YOU listening??) packed with extras is sooooo overdue. I've only ever seen this film on vhs and I'm salivating at the thought of seeing it on DVD...

It'll be like watching it for the first time...

O Lucky Viewers
Everytime I see pictures of the flemish painter Heironymous Bosch and then see Lindsey Anderson in this movie I think, gee he looks just like Bosch; kinda makes movies like Bosch paints as well. His loosely connected Mick Travis trilogy: if.., O' Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital often look like the typical Bosch tryptich, in which the left panel shows man's expulsion from a distorted forboding man's view of "heaven"; in if..'s case a British authoritarian boarding school, while the right side of Bosch's tryptichs show the twisted tortuous hell that man merits from his sins on earth; in Britannia Hospital's case, an insane asylum diguised as a government run hospital where death is certain from the most disgustingly violent experiments and sponsered by bureaucratic sadists. In the middle of these moralty paintings is the incendiary display of sins man commits. And it is here that we often find the most engaging bits of Bosch's work where so much happens in an instant as viewing a painting, which, actually takes years to see it all. O' Lucky Man is very much designed in this fashion even if it wasn't intentional. We get elements from this movie that may never be fully realized again in film; a dismal prospect indeed. Innovations actually abound with this revolutionary film. We have it's soundrack and score composer not only effectively weigh commentary on the movie's long suffering but affably earnest protagonist Travis (played with astonishing exuberence and charm by Malcolm McDowell), but that the singer (Alan Price, formerly of the Animals) even interacts with him in the film. As innovative and amusing as that technique was, the soundrack can still stand on it's own as one of the greatest and most relevant to a film plot ever written. Tell anyone who goes on a job interview or for that matter, hates their job to listen to the world weary idiosyncratic bliss in the song Poor People, a song that sticks forever in the souls of those who loved this movie like honey melting on hot toast crumpets. All in all, a very touching ode to smiling down disaster.
Many may twitch at the seemingly overindulgent symbolism going on and the lengthy running time and disjointed feel of this epic. They may also get confused by the hilarious running gag of the actors playing repeated roles. I found it fun beyond a roll in the hay to catch when each player shows up again and again several times over then bust out in laughter when Travis actually recognizes the lusciously charming Helen Mirren groupie character Patricia who showed up in episodes before his stint in jail, then looking at her talent agency clerk character with puzzling bewilderment a few moments later as if he had no clue. As Mick, Malcolm McDowell can come off as enthusiastic and gullible then believably struggle with frustration, cynicism, and finally dogged determination to be "good" then giving up only to be thwacked back into his trademark grin. The writing is all over his vastly expressive face and makes this one of his most unforgettable portrayals, completly abscent is the casual sadism that has garnered him praise but unfortunate typecasting down the road. This is a must see movie for fans of his villian work who want to see his range; simply brilliant work.
It is also a film that is astonishingly relevant to how capitalist societies still function. We're often amazed at how we havn't changed much from our need to divest in our homeland to rape another for the needs of the selfish. Granted the film is long and bitingly sardonic and perhaps that idealism causes a slower decay then Anderson might have imagined. Still, many of the films relevant lines about dying like dogs, radio commentary on Zen and revolution being the opium of intellectuals ring strong in the hearts of anyone who questions their existence and worth in the world. This seems to be the one true everyman type of film as surreal as it may be. There is just something so satisfying in just hearing the characters walking, which sounds strikingly like marching. And it happens almost everytime before our poor boy Travis gets a beating. It is a movie that has to be seen and heard repeatedly. Defintely buy this film. For anyone who cares, if you managed to tape the uncut British version of the film when it ran on some obscure cable stations back in the early 90s, you may have gold in your hands; the deleted 'My Home Town' suicide sequence is there. Yes, like a Boscsh picture, there is so much to see in this gem and we are all the luckier for having it in our lives.

YEAH
I give this movie 5 stars because they just don't make 'em like this anymore. Also, when I read comments where folks bash the 70's, I simply wonder,I mean WONDER-what are they comparing the 1970's to??? Today? WHAT? You have got to be kidding? O Lucky Man is a journeyman movie built with the rambling sober style so popular at the time. The soundtrack I found irritating BUT it's still classic and really the movie wouldn't be the same without it. Some of the images and scenes in this movie are simply in the very top of movie ideas, the very top. See this movie. And as far as dated, it is dated compared to Survivor, The Apprentice, Friends, The Reality Show, ad nauseum and all the rest of the Nothing Zone we call today's digital media culture offerings. Blah! Give me the ole rusty 70's any day of the week! ... Read more

Reviews (11)

A "Whale" Of A Movie
What a wonderful movie. I wish they would make it in a DVD. Five
talented veterans of the silver (and I do mean "silver") screen
all together in a beautiful story of golden ages and golden memories. Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Ann Sothern, Vincent Price
and Harry Carey Jr. are a joy to watch. I've watched this film
so many times I think I know all the lines, but I never tire of it. Five stars aren't enough to rate such stellar performances.

A MOVIE EVENT!
A gorgeous movie to watch and own. What more can you say about a movie with Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Ann Sothern and Vicent Price in it? A film that brings talent, beautiful scenery and a great story line together to make an "epic picture" and puts it into a 91 minute treasure.

LEGENDS TO THE END
Watching this film after several years was something of a bitterwsweet experience - it looks wonderful on DVD - it's beautifully photographed and has a subtle, haunting musical score. But its reason for being is as the final showcase for the acting of two screen legends to whom everyone in Hollywood today owes their careers - Lillian Gish, who invented screen acting during the silent era, and Bette Davis, who reinvented it after sound came in. "Life fools you," Davis says in the film, and she could have been referring to herself - it's hard to believe this is the Bette Davis of JEZEBEL and DARK VICTORY, of THE LITTLE FOXES, NOW VOYAGER, and ALL ABOUT EVE, even of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Age, illness and, yes, life - had taken their toll on her. But, she has her moments here - oddly enough, her best are without dialog, such as when she brushes a lock of her dead husbands hair across her cheek, while Gish has the lovely "passion and truth" monologue. Ah well - they don't make 'em like these gals anymore!

top movie
You need to be an adult to enjoy this movie. Betti Davis is just great. The film it self is just beautiful and Lilian Gish is fantastic. The ocean is very pretty and their home is great. I have only owned it a little over a month and I have watched it already three times. I truly love Betti Davis and even though she is really old in this movie she still is great.

Buy it, you will enjoy it.

One of my favorite films
When I watched this as a young man of 20 I fell in love with it. It is not an action film. It is a beautiful story of deep characters as they find themselves having become old. It is a story of reclaiming yourself, even at the end of your days.

It is one of the last films of Bette Davis and Vincent Price. They gave magnificent performances that I still treasure. I have waited a long time for this to come on DVD!! One of my favorite quotes is from Bette Davis. She was told by her sister that "Memories fade with time." Bette, portraying her blind sister, proudly proclaims in her best Bette Davisness - "That has not been my experience!" ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Breaking free from the banal...
"If..." is a movie which stays with you.We start out meeting our friends in a strict boarding school for boys where life is tedious and dull.The two lead boys, one of which being a handsome young Malcolm MacDowell, long for more. They long for drama and excitement and set about to find that on a beautiful afternoon...Enter a girl, a motorcycle, and some guns, and you've got a delightful film worthy of any wise person's attention. A bit slow moving at first, "If..." proves its adventurous spirit by the time its grand finale has been reached.

McDowell and Anderson: An Unbeatable Team
When I was in high school, we had a tradition where we'd go out and rent bad movies. Gradually, this changed to renting weird movies and eventually segued into renting GREAT movies. One of our favorite actors was Malcolm McDowell, the smirking imp we'd seen in "A Clockwork Orange" and later in "O Lucky Man!", another collaboration with the great British director Lindsay Anderson ("This Sporting Life", "In Celebration", "Britannia Hospital", and, incredibly, "The Whales of August"!) I grew particularly fond of his blend of sarcasm and vulnerability (vainly believing I possessed same; I may have been right) and as a result became quite desperate to see this rare movie, which was actually supposed to be BETTER than "O Lucky Man!" I didn't get to do so until a few weeks ago, fully nine years since I graduated high school. I was not disappointed.

As it stands, "If..." isn't only a great Malcolm McDowell film, it's also a great movie about the 60s in both Western society and more specifically Britain in its post-imperial hangover (one of the last British imperial dramas before the Falklands, the conflict in and evacuation of Aden--present-day Yemen--reached completion in 1967, probably while "If..." was filming). The title itself apparently comes from the famous Kipling poem which embodied the highest ideals of imperial Britain. College House, the school attended by Mick Travis--McDowell--and his two friends, is dominated by prefects, or "whips," seniors who control the student body in the name of the weak-willed headmasters and teachers, who represent the 60s radical view of liberal democracy. The coercive actions--cold showers, beatings--administered by the whips to Travis and his fellow rebels prefigure the punishment that would be delivered by the Chicago police, Parisian CRS, and Red Army to student demonstrators and the Czech people in May and August 1968 (in both capitalist and communist regimes the punishments are justified in the name of "society" or "the people").

Travis and his friends, the sarcastic Knightley (David Wood) and the pensive Wallace (Richard Warwick), negotiate their travails with wit and cunning and pick up allies along the way, a waitress from a local coffeeshop (Christine Noonan) and younger student Bobby Phillips (Rupert Webster). These two apparently become lovers of Travis and Wallace, respectively. Interestingly, while Anderson follows the pattern of other 60s "rebel" movies by marginalizing women, the relationship between Wallace and Phillips is sensitively and touchingly handled. This was a rare thing for the macho boys of the New Left, whose radicalism stopped at the closet door and who generally seemed to perceive homosexuality as an aberration of the ruling classes. The film eventually ends with a surreal, bloody battle on school grounds that, while it will probably make post-Columbine viewers understandably squirm, seems, in the movie's moral universe, the only possibly end to the institutionalized oppression Travis and his pals face.

Just as in "O Lucky Man!" there are hilariously surreal touches to the movie, lessening the shock of its end and underscoring the absurdity of life at College House. Fans of Anderson and McDowell won't be disappointed, and any who are interested in the intersections between film and history are definitely recommended to rent or buy this bewitching movie.

Meaningful.
I had to wait quite some time before I could actually lay my hands on If.... But then the waiting proved to be fully justifiable. This was time well spent, without doubt.

Naturally, after seeing Clockwork Orange for the Xth time, I began searching for more of Malcolm McDowell. Surely this man must have appeared in more excellent movies? Yes. I watched Caligula :-) and I also picked up Cat People, which was entertaining. Blue Thunder, too.

Now after If... (how many dots should I put here?) I must go see O Lucky Man! I'm talking nonsense here, but anything I might say about If... may sound boring. School? Black and white scenes? Surreal? Guns? Guns? Did I say that?

Nay, If you came this far and have now learned about If..., I know you'll keep it in the back of your head; but I assure you, after you have seen it you'll not be able to cast it aside. Acting is superb, the themes deep and carefully explored, and the ending is just 'explosive'.

In my top 10 list, where it'll show its (formidable) teeth to any rivals.

Disturbing and Dangerous
This movie with Malcolm McDowell is a strange and bizarre piece of work, and prior to the modern day obsession with serial killers, this one is ahead of its time. I saw this film many years ago, and it still stays in my mind as a "trip." Of course being made oin l968, it is thematic for the times. It's got the music of the 60's and the styles and the language, but the character is out there, and the ending...you've got to see it to believe it. And this is many years before the Columbine massacre. All in all, though, I'd classify this movie in the dangerous realm, but interestingly provocative. Recommended!! (Not for the kiddies, though!)

Fighting a Mass State in miniature
"Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding." --Proverbs IV:2

The opening quote from Lindsay Anderson's if... is what three sixth formers (one year away from being seniors) named Travis, Knightley, and Wallace strive for, in a revolutionary way. (Note: there are seven forms {grades to us Yanks} in a British school below university level).

This is also the story of Jute, the first former who's nervous in his debut at College House. It's a strange new world, but it's stifling, rigid, full of discipline, conformity, obedience, and an adherence to religion and national pride. Figures--since they lost an empire, now they turn on their own people for their mass state. Mr. Kemp, a professor, tells the first formers: "We are your new family and you must expect the rough and tumble that goes with any family life. We're all here to help each other. Help the House and you'll be helped by the House." Professors, the student whips, and the bishop are the authority figures to be reckoned with. Jute is pressured into learning the names of the seniors and pronouncing school terminology correctly--e.g. local girls are called local tarts. But this is a well-known slice of British culture, the British boarding school. The communal study areas, dining halls, rugby matches, mandatory church attendance, war games,... it's all there. Scenes in b&w at times underline the lifelessness and austerity of the school, but also serve as a moving photograph that mirrors that photos Travis collects in his dorm room.

Speaking of which, the ongoing turmoil is a backdrop in the form of LIFE magazine-style photos of Vietnam, civil strife in African countries, soldiers, predatory animals, portraits of Che Guevara and Mao Tse-tung strewn in Travis and co.'s room. Travis utters his revolutionary credo while reading from a book: "The whole world will end soon--black brittle bodies peeling to ash." "There's no such thing as a wrong war." "Violence and revolution are the purest acts." "War is the last possible creative act."

There are hazings, instructors who are bored, instructors who fondle students, but there's also a headmaster who tries to be understanding, as he does to Travis and company. He tells them that to proclaim individuality is sense of existentialism and that it's the hair rebels that step in the breach. But do society and the establishment really value the rebel, without whom there is no progress?

Various scenes spell out the positive and more refreshing emotions. Release is found in the fencing between the three rebels. The sight of blood is reality. Also, the smell of freedom is expressed when the girl whom Travis and Knightley meet at the coffee shop stands atop their stolen motorcycle, arms outstretched as if in flight, a smile of ecstasy on her face, with choir song "Sanctus" from the Missa Luba playing.

One b&w scene that made an anti-war statement was that of the nude Matron alone in the school while the boys and instructors are out on war games. She walks inside the dorm rooms, handling one of the boys' clothes. It's that maternal instinct of longing for children as well as the simplicity and beauty of her nudity in contrast to the ugliness of war. But it also denotes the contrast of the peaceful interior to the violence going on outside.

Malcolm McDowell (Travis) is wonderful in his starring debut as the leader of the "crusaders." A host of well-known British actors include Graham Crowden as the history professor, (Waiting For God series), Arthur Lowe as Mr. Kemp (Bless Me Father series), and Peter Jeffrey as the headmaster who tries to understand the three rebels.

The final scene generates a lot of debate and controversy but it's an apt denouement of what has been portrayed up to that point. An artfully executed film not to be missed. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

A "Whale" Of A Movie
What a wonderful movie. I wish they would make it in a DVD. Five
talented veterans of the silver (and I do mean "silver") screen
all together in a beautiful story of golden ages and golden memories. Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Ann Sothern, Vincent Price
and Harry Carey Jr. are a joy to watch. I've watched this film
so many times I think I know all the lines, but I never tire of it. Five stars aren't enough to rate such stellar performances.

A MOVIE EVENT!
A gorgeous movie to watch and own. What more can you say about a movie with Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Ann Sothern and Vicent Price in it? A film that brings talent, beautiful scenery and a great story line together to make an "epic picture" and puts it into a 91 minute treasure.

LEGENDS TO THE END
Watching this film after several years was something of a bitterwsweet experience - it looks wonderful on DVD - it's beautifully photographed and has a subtle, haunting musical score. But its reason for being is as the final showcase for the acting of two screen legends to whom everyone in Hollywood today owes their careers - Lillian Gish, who invented screen acting during the silent era, and Bette Davis, who reinvented it after sound came in. "Life fools you," Davis says in the film, and she could have been referring to herself - it's hard to believe this is the Bette Davis of JEZEBEL and DARK VICTORY, of THE LITTLE FOXES, NOW VOYAGER, and ALL ABOUT EVE, even of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Age, illness and, yes, life - had taken their toll on her. But, she has her moments here - oddly enough, her best are without dialog, such as when she brushes a lock of her dead husbands hair across her cheek, while Gish has the lovely "passion and truth" monologue. Ah well - they don't make 'em like these gals anymore!

top movie
You need to be an adult to enjoy this movie. Betti Davis is just great. The film it self is just beautiful and Lilian Gish is fantastic. The ocean is very pretty and their home is great. I have only owned it a little over a month and I have watched it already three times. I truly love Betti Davis and even though she is really old in this movie she still is great.

Buy it, you will enjoy it.

One of my favorite films
When I watched this as a young man of 20 I fell in love with it. It is not an action film. It is a beautiful story of deep characters as they find themselves having become old. It is a story of reclaiming yourself, even at the end of your days.

It is one of the last films of Bette Davis and Vincent Price. They gave magnificent performances that I still treasure. I have waited a long time for this to come on DVD!! One of my favorite quotes is from Bette Davis. She was told by her sister that "Memories fade with time." Bette, portraying her blind sister, proudly proclaims in her best Bette Davisness - "That has not been my experience!" ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Stand alone, I'm not sure
I'm sorry. I can't be satisfied after "O Lucky Man!". It is bias, I know, but I just can't be satisfied. It probably is a great film in it's own right, but I don't think a perfect ending. When I watched it, I was overcome by a sense of finality. Originally, I wanted to see the late Leonard Rossiter(The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin) in a starring role. I found out that it was a third part of a trilogy I was only dimly aware of. I think that it is now hard to watch as anything but an end of a trilogy("If...", "O Lucky Man!", and "Britannia Hospital"). It is a strange film. And it has beautiful moments. Like the girl offering a flower to the riot squad policeman. It is a very loose end to the trilogy, but a stark statement of itself. Like the others, a definite statement about the future is open. That makes it more enjoyable. Crowden is very creepy and so so positive as Prof. Miller. There are some interesting cameos as well. Watch what happens to Mark Hamill(Luke Skywalker). Anderson ended this trilogy of movies on a realistic, but bleak note. What becomes of Travis is just a side note. The card with the original poster is great. I have made people watch this by itself, but I still suggest watching all of it together.

Anderson takes on British hospitals.
It's no ordinary day for Britannia Hospital. Today is the 500th anniversary of its founding and after a gala luncheon, HRH herself is planning a royal visit to officially open the new wing. Yet beneath the facade of its glorious name, the place isn't a nice place to be, as seen in the opening. A terminal pulmonary case is brought in on stretcher. The three ER personnel on duty go off on their tea break, and the man dies on the stretcher.

Complications arise from a differing number of fronts. The cooking staff under Ben Keating have gone on strike, protesting the unequal treatment between ordinary patients and the privileged private patients. The latter can get eggs benedict and champagne, deviled kidney and passionfruit, and in the case of the President of Kenya, Ngami, accused of Idi Amin-like human rights abuses, trout grilled and garnished with mango slices. Keating says, "This isn't the Nairobi Hilton. This is a British hospital. It's the same for everyone or nothing at all."

The hospital is expecting 150 people injured by a bomb attack, presumably IRA (it's unmentioned), and even the ER personnel are making salary demands. It's a wonder Vincent Potter, the hospital's chief administrator, doesn't crack up. He has a heck of a time juggling crisis after crisis, even from the two royal peers, one being Sir Anthony Mount, a midget, the other Lady Ramsden (played by a man(!))

Also, outside the hospital gates, a group of demonstrators, waving placards are protesting the privileged private patients but there are also some Africans who are howling for Ngami's blood. Then there's Mick Travers, played for the third time by Malcolm McDowell. An investigative journalist this time around, he infiltrates the hospital to find out about Dr. Millar's unorthodox surgical experiments.

Dr. Millar, an eccentric character specializing in high-tech transplant surgery, talks about a secret project, at one point saying, "Have you ever wondered how God felt on the sixth day of creation?" and "Today, the human experiment. Tomorrow, Genesis!"
And just what is that black pyramid of his? His speech at the movie's end is very timely and well worth the wait.

These subplots are like icebergs slowly floating towards each other until... CRASH!

Many famous faces appear here. Joan Plowright as Ms. Grimshaw, Fulton MacKay as Chief Superintendent Johns, Peter Jeffrey as Sir Geoffrey Brownhurst, and Leonard Rossiter as Vincent Potter. Robin Askwith, after cutting his teeth on Pete Walker films, really gets a great supporting role as the coarse, working-class Ben Keating. And Mark Hamill has a small role as Mick's helper Red, who spends most of the time being stoned.

Britannia Hospital is the third in Lindsay Anderson's Mick Travers trilogy, the first two being if... and O Lucky Man. Hospital care has really gone down the tubes, as seen here, and it's the cause of rich versus poor, and how those on top try to keep those on the bottom in line by saying "...working men and women will always put unity before anarchy, royalty before self, and common sense before disruptive strife." Well, those words can only go so far.

Brilliant!!!
Britannia Hospital, an allegory for what was transpiring in England at the time, was released in 1982, and is the final part of Lindsay Anderson' brilliant trilogy of films that follow the adventures of Mick Travers as he travels through a strange and sometimes surreal Britain. From his days at boarding school in If.... (1968) to his journey from coffee salesman to film star in O'Lucky Man (1972), Travers' adventures finally come to an end in Britannia Hospital. Mick is now an investigative reporter, and is investigating the bizzarre activities of Professor Miller, played by the always interesting Graham Crowden, whom he had had a run in with in O'Lucky Man. Checkout the Pig Man scene. This is well before Seinfeld.

The events in Britannia Hospital take place over tyhe course of a day. The hospital administration, headed by the perpetually agitated Mr Potter, performed with great aplomb by Leonard Rossiter, prepares for the arrival of a royal visitor (a Queen Mum type figure) to open its new ultra modern Miller wing. His job is not made easy due to the fact that the majority of the staff are out on strike. the union, lead by Ben Keating, is causing waves. And that Professor Miller is conducting bizzarre scientific experiments. Checkout the scene where Miller eats a piece of human brain, after cutting it in half and liquefying it in a blender. A nutricious drink, no less.

Amongst all this mayhem, there is a full scale riot later on, Travers tries to get the goods on Miller. With the assistance of Nurse Persil, played by Marsha Hunt, stiffy inducing in her tight uniform, and Red and Sammy, played by Mark (Star Wars) Hamill and Frank Grimes respectively, both of whom end up getting stoned out of their brains on a cocktail of drugs, Mick infiltrates the Miller wing and soon finds himself witnessing, and unwittinglly participating in, one of Miller's outragous experiments.

Meanwhile, chaos ensures as Britannia Hospital runs out of control and all of Potters plans are sent awry. He is even forced to resort to commit murder.

As is usual with an Anderson film the acting, by a top notch cast, most of whom had been in the previous two, is uniformly good. It is professionally shot by Mike Fash, although his work doesn't have the same feel to it that Miroslav Ondricek brought to the proceeding istalments, and is well produced.

All three films have recurring characters from each. Some of the charaters from If...., that didn't turn up in O'Lucky Man, returned for Britannia Hospital. The film was lambasted by the English critics on release, with one actually comparing it to a carry on film??? Yet, this wasn't wholly unexpected, as the other two weren't exactly welcomed with open arms, more so O'Lucky Man than If....

All three films are skillfully written by david Sherwin, with O'Lucky Man being based on an idea by Malcolm McDowell., who plays Mick travers in all of them.

From its opening scene where an elderly patient is left to die on a gurney to its final revalatory scene of Miller unvailing his greatest scientific achievement, the film is choc full of surprises. One character is played by a dwarf and another by a man in drag. Yet one of the more pleasant surprises is the performance of Robin Askwith as Ben Keating, the school bully from If...., Askwith' film debut. Keating has organised a strike by the kitchen staff in retaliation for Potter ordering sixty-five ambassador class lunches from Furtnum's. Askwith handles his role with skill, making Keating quite a likable character. It just goes to show what a good director and good dialogue can achieve. It is certainly a far cry from his sex film days. And it is good to see what he is capable of, given the chance. Unfortunately, it was all a bit too late, and after appearing in two seasons of the telly series the Bottle Boys, he slipped into obscurity, doing panto and clubs, only to reappear sixteen years later in Eastenders.

Britannia Hospital also proved to be one of the last decent films Malcolm McDowell was to appear in. The British film industry was in dire trouble by this time. Arab oil money had dried up and the Americans were pulling out. Also, the notorious film Caligula, which McDowell had filmed back in 1977, had recently been released to universal outrage, combined together, this put the kybosh on his career in England. However, he didn't fair any better in the states, where he had moved to after making Time After Time (1979). And his career since then has been an almost endless stream of B-grade drivel.

Over the years Britannia Hospital, as with the other two, has been reivaluated and is now considered another classic from the Anderson stable. I could have told them this when I first saw it back in '82.

Trivia:

*McDowell didn't take a fee for the film as a favour to Anderson, due to the fact the budget was so low.

*Alan Bates plays a patient who is murdered by Miller, so he can use his head in his latest experiment.

This was Arthur Lowe's last fim. He died not long after the film came out.

So put a day aside, grab If...., O'Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital and take an epic journey into the humorously dark and surreal world of Lindsay Anderson. There will never be another.

Disappointing sequel to "If..." and "O Lucky man"
A reporter (McDowell)investigates the chaos of a strike-bound hospital, only to find himself falling victim to the ghastly experiments of a demented surgeon (Crowden). After the measured excesses of "if.." and "O Lucky Man" this film makes a course for the cheapest laugh, failing to entertain along the way. The sense of parody in the first two films was always off-beat, and the better for it, but "Brittania Hospital" misses the target altogether. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

HENRY 2 WAS NO MATCH TO THE ORGINAL
FIRST OF ALL THE MAIN CHARACTER IN HERNY 2 IS A FAT a$$, WHO WANT THAT AS A MAIN CHARCTER! ROOKER (SPELLED COMPLETELY WRONG) IS THE ONLY TRUE HENRY LEE LUCUS! A MUCH BETTER ACTER, AND SOME WHAT BUILT! SEE IT IF U WANT, IT WASN'T A HORRIBLE SEQUAL, BUT HERNY 1 IS 100 TIMES BETTER! SEE THE FIRST ONE FIRST!

A decent sequel to a true classic
The best thing about HENRY 2 is that it keeps the same monotone pace as the original. Though slow, Henry 2 features some truly horrifying moments, and fans of "Seinfeld" will be thrilled to see "Brody" the bootlegger as the title character! A must see for fans of the original. ... Read more

Description

This simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious play, from Booker Prize-winning author David Storey, follows the interaction of five patients over the course of a single afternoon in the garden of what we can fairly assume is an English mental hospital. A classic pairing of two of the world's greatest English-speaking actors. Directed by Lindsay Anderson. Music by Alan Price. "...the most slickly produced drama yet seen on television." --The New York Times. With Sir John Gielgud,Sir Ralph Richardson, Dandy Nichols, Mona Washbourne, and Warren Clarke. ... Read more