SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Edison Witt The first must-see film of the year.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "The Plank" is a British live action short film from 1979 written by, directed by and starring Eric Sykes. It runs for slightly under half an hour and does not include any spoken language, which means that even if you aren't fluent in English or are even a deaf person, you will not need any subtitles to enjoy this one. Still, it is a bit of a challenge admittedly to enjoy it because I believe it was not really too funny to watch the misadventures of the protagonists here. I guess it all comes down to how much you like pantomime overall. Maybe this one here makes a better watch as well if you love the works of the silent film greats from the early 20th century. It is probably among the more known works by Sykes, but in terms of the script I can only hope it is not one of his best because I found it ultimately really forgettable and it does not get me in the mood at all to watch any of his other stuff. Gotta give it a thumbs-down, even if it is not a complete failure. Acting is somewhat decent I guess, but not good enough to make up for everything else. And it manages to drag a bit, which is certainly nothing to be proud of at this runtime. Watch something else instead.

morrison-dylan-fan With a poll coming up on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best movies of 1979,I started looking round for titles to view. Initially looking from its running time like an episode of Sykes,I was surprised to stumble on a short (almost) Silent movie,written/directed and starring Eric Sykes! Which led to me picking up the plank.The plot:As they get set to continue their work,two construction workers discover that one of their building planks has disappeared.Looking round for it,the workers discover that it has been taken by kids,who are now using it as a sea-saw.Not wanting to interrupt their play,the workers decide to just go and buy a new one,but soon find themselves on a sea-saw of chaos.View on the film:Bringing the movie out later in a "Silent" version,the TV cuts showing the pull between Silent cinema and TV Comedy that the film is stuck in.Offering slight whispers of Alan Braden's jazzy score,the playful mood is stamped on by an unrelenting fake laugh tracks,which yelps like a pack of dogs even during the set-up of gags. Deciding to go Silent due to hearing troubles,director Eric Sykes reveals a natural flare for Silent Comedy,with smooth tracking shots making the rubbery slap- stick Comedy hit its mark. Keeping the screenplay free and easy,Sykes packs the short running time with a cast of Comedy legends walking the plank from Harry H. Corbett to Diana Dors! Despite each just being given small roles,the cast make their sightings a delight to see,with Arthur Lowe being wonderfully stuffy as the fellow workman who walks the plank.

ShadeGrenade In 1967, Eric Sykes wrote, directed, and starred in 'The Plank', a short, silent comedy film about two incompetent builders ( Eric and Tommy Cooper ) who are short of a plank of wood for the house they are currently working on. Climbing into their battered old car, they head for the timber yard. With the plank safely secured to the roof ( so they think ), they set off, but lose it before too long. The plank causes mayhem whenever it goes.Twelve years later, Eric remade the film for Thames Television. Arthur Lowe replaced Cooper ( who was reunited with Sykes in 1982's 'Its Your Move' ). Right from the word go when Eric puts his jacket on a non-existent nail on the wall, you know you're in Jacques Tati territory; a delivery man ( Charlie Drake ) is knocked onto the cream cake he is carrying; a painter ( Bernard Cribbins ) is distracted and daubs red paint onto his boss' ( Lionel Blair ) face; a sexy hitch-hiker ( Joanna Lumley ) is picked up by a lorry driver ( Harry H.Corbett ) and when the plank strikes her on the back of the head she falls onto his lap; a man drinking a pint of beer ( Henry Cooper ) loses his glass ( and temper ) when the plank knocks it into a window-cleaner's ( Reg Varney ) bucket. And so on.Eric admitted later he never wrote an actual script for 'The Plank'. It adhered to the old 'cowboy movie' principle of an idea on a sheet of paper. He said: "I don't write yards and yards of funny dialogue, because you can't film dialogue.". The producer, Dennis Kirkland, was used to silent comedy - he worked on many of Benny Hill's shows for Thames.I actually prefer this to the original. It is shorter and snappier, and Alan Braden's music is splendid. Amongst the other guests are Brian Murphy, Charles Hawtrey, Kate O'Mara, Jimmy Edwards ( reprising his role as a policeman on a bike ), racing driver James Hunt, Frankie Howerd ( as a photographer ), and Wilfrid Hyde-White.Two versions were screened on I.T.V. - one with a laugh-track, and one without. The one on D.V.D. is the latter. Eric went on to make three more silent half-hours in similar vein - the aforementioned 'Its Your Move' ( probably the best of the lot ), 'Rhubarb Rhubarb' ( another cinema remake ), and 'Mr.H. Is Late', and all are good clean fun.Funniest moment - the plank slipping under Constable Edwards' bottom and propelling his bike along the road at great speed, and into the river. Frank Spencer could not have done it better.

alice liddell The main appeal of this short is probably the cameos from a certain strata of 60s and 70s British comedy that support leads Eric Sykes and Arthur Lowe - Lionel Blair, Harry H. Corbett, Bernard Cribbins, Frankie Howerd, Reg Varney, Joanna Lumley, the guy from GEORGE AND MILDRED etc. Unfortunately, (with the exception of the great Charles Hawtrey) this is the comedy against which I've always defined my own loves - e.g. MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS, REGINALD PERRIN, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS, FAWLTY TOWERS etc. - so there isn't much enjoyment for me here. But it's rare that popular TV stars experiment with the riches of short silent comedy, so I gave it a go.The first barrier to pleasure is not the profusion of performers I have never found funny, but the aggressive laughter track stuck on, telling me how truly hilarious what I'm watching is, when it clearly, bewilderingly, isn't. The gags are so obvious, and are set up so far in advance, and are executed as precisely as you expected, that not only can you not understand why everybody's enjoying themselves; but you get the feeling that you are not watching a comedy, but a lecture in the mechanics of comedy theorems.The plot concerns two builders, Sykes and Lowe, who are laying the wood foundations of a new house, only to find one plank stolen by children to make a see-saw. They head off to the plankyard (or whatever it's called) in their clapped out old car, and the rest of the film details their chaotic, socially disruptive, attempts to bring it back to the house.There is some abstract pleasure in seeing a plot dominated not by bewildered comics, but a piece of wood, which probably dramatises some Marxist gubbins about the commodity fetish and the alienation of the worker from his labour. There is an intriguing contrast between the very British cast and their brand of saucy seaside humour, and the very abstract Anywhere-ville that frames their adventures, a new housing estate under construction and some generalsised suburbs.This, and the pleasing, bouncy music, give the film a HULOT-esque feel, but there is none of Tati's complex struggle between individual and environment (or hilarity). This rush of new building and the profusion of labourers give some sense of 70s Britain, its anonymity and dehumanisation, while the ultimate circularity of the plot calls into question the very progress (eg economic) that allows the film's content.While the leads are sympathetic in their passivity, the jokes and slapstick are so old, corny and uninventive, stolen from hundreds of better 20s comedies. Men get splattered by paint, hit by the plank, are run into a pond etc. The one genuinely funny sequence is when the great Wilfred Hyde-White tries to cross a busy road and his walking-stick is broken.