Who Done It?

1956
5.7| 1h25m| en
Details

This movie debut for saucy British TV comic Benny Hill has Benny leaving his job as a sweeper after winning some money. He becomes a private detective and investigates a plot to assassinate British scientists.

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Reviews

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Prismark10 An Ealing spy caper to showcase the talents of Benny Hill who has a dual role. He plays Hugo Dill who gets the chance to be a private detective after he wins some money and a bloodhound in a mystery magazine competition.Pretty soon Hugo gets caught up in a plot involving a weather changing machine being smuggled out of Britain and him being put up as a ringer for one of the foreign scientists that will set him up to be a fall guy.He also inadvertently gets help from showgirl Frankie (Belinda Lee) who provides beauty and brawn as she is naturally strong and beats up the henchmen.As a showcase for Hill, it allows him don various disguises and play up the bumbling fool who causes pandemonium and elicit exasperation from the local police inspector.This is not one of the best Ealing comedies, it is rarely shown on television. There are some funny scenes such as Frankie knocking out the audience when she bangs a drum. Hill does his best to take advantage of a rare starring role in movies with a persona far removed from his saucy ITV sketch comedies of the 1970s and 1980s.It was nice to spot several familiar actors such as Irene Handl, Charles Hawtrey and Harold Goodwin but overall this felt like a thin plot that was padded with slapstick.
bkoganbing Benny Hill's big screen debut came in this modest production from Ealing Studios which seems to draw inspiration from Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau and Bob Hope from The Paleface. It's not a remake of Abbott and Costello's Who Done It from the early forties although both films involve Benny in his film and Bud and Lou in their's as newly minted private detectives.But Benny makes Costello look like Sherlock Holmes. He gets hired to impersonate an Eastern European scientist visiting the United Kingdom, but the idea is to bump Benny off so the scientist can return to his country with a new weather machine which puts climate totally at man's control. Has Al Gore heard about this?But all kinds of problems arise including the bad guys bumping off the real scientist whom they mistake for Benny. Nothing sophisticated in this film, it's one catastrophe after another for Ben, starting with him wrecking an Ice Capades Show and a chase reminiscent of that other Ealing classic, The Lavender Hill Mob.Where The Paleface comes in is that Benny has an Amazonian girl friend aiding and abetting him and pulling him out of many scrapes the way Jane Russell did for Bob Hope. In Who Done It the Amazon is Belinda Lee who was definitely built along Jane Russell's measurements. For some reason Ms. Lee had a blond wig on for this film, I suppose so folks would view her as a British Marilyn Monroe.Special mention must go to Garry Marsh playing the Scotland Yard inspector in the same manner patented later on by Herbert Lom as Inspector Dreyfus of the French Surete. His reaction shots are priceless.Benny Hill's greatest success was on the small screen first in the United Kingdom and then in America when his shows were syndicated here. Nevertheless Who Done It is definitely a good example of his zany comedy style.
azcowboysingr Benny Hill as a bumbling Private Eye? Oh yes, and his first film really shows us the beginnings of his massive comedic talents. While it is obviously a low budget production, the slapstick gags & rapid-fire quips will keep any Benny Hill fan in stitches. This film is also a great addition to any collection of his many fans as it reveals the "Funniest Man Alive" before he became so famous on TV. I bought a used DVD of this movie because it was all I could find available, but that's the nice thing about DVD's...they don't wear out like VHS tapes do. Not a film for people who prefer sophisticated, under-played humor, but if you like the 3 Stooges, Abbot & Costello, or Martin & Lewis, you're going to love "Who Done It?".
mdm-11 Benny Hill fans will enjoy this free-for-all nonsense about International espionage and a "secret weapon" developed by stereotypical Eastern-Block scientist. Benny, our likable hero, is a "Inspector Clouseau" type amateur detective, ready to tackle his first assignment: impersonate the famous professor, as part of the secret plan for the bad guys to rule the world.The story is "formula" and thin as a satin thread, but an extra large helping of "Benny Hill" slap stick, complete with lots of pretty girls and the obligatory Benny-in-drag scenes, make this predictable vehicle hobble along. The final car chase on (are you ready for this?) a race track is totally stupid, but what did you expect? Given the 1950s mentality and the limited budgets available to produce a silly comedy, the objective was met. Today something similar would hope to recoupe it's investments in direct-to-video sales.