The Naked Truth (1958)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Awesome Movie

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Black comedies don't get much funnier than "The naked truth". The plot is both witty and inventive and there are memorable characters and lines. I've got a weak spot for the hapless Ethel, a citizen of the most blameless moral character, who gets dragooned into crime in order to defend her mother's honor, or what's left of it. (Watch out for the scene where Mumsy describes her Youthful Indiscretion : "I fell into a wrong crowd, times were easy and so was... Never mind.")The performances range from good to excellent. Peter Sellers, for instance, shines as a cunning bastard who divides his waking hours between hosting maudlin, patronizing TV-shows for the elderly on the one hand and exploiting the innocent as a slum landlord on the other hand. (One of the shows, by the way, includes a very special treat for opera lovers : a rendition of "Ombra mai fu" on a cheap whistle flute.)A very British work of the polished and urbane school. Much recommended.

Released in America as 'Your Past Is Showing,' this amusing black comedy concerns a group of English celebrities and nobility who are being blackmailed by Nigel Dennis, an unscrupulous tabloid reporter. Four of these people, a Lord (Terry-Thomas,) a television host (Sellers,) an author (Mount,) and a model (Eaton) decide to fight back and kill their blackmailer. The catch is, none of them are aware anyone else is targeting Dennis. What follows is a series of humorous attempts to off Nigel Dennis.Peter Sellers gets to dress up in various disguises and do impressions. Watching him is watching a true genius at work. But the movie is stolen by Peggy Mount, who plays the daffy author. She and her hilariously skittish daughter, played by Joan Sims, concoct a plan to poison Dennis, lock him in a trunk and dump him in the river. But things go wrong on several levels, and the way these two cope is hilarious.As all the characters come together for the final act, things escalate and become even funnier. So if you enjoy British comedy, a fan of Peter Sellers, or just in the mood for a laugh, then don't hesitate to watch this film.

Go on we all like to read a bit of gossip about people in the media spotlight. But what if someone has uncovered something decidedly unflattering that the person concerned does not want to be revealed. Welcome to the delightful black comedic premise of late 50s 88 min comedy film "The Naked Truth". With his typical iconic roguish person it's another excellent performance from that British cad Terry Thomas as Lord Mayley. His pivotal scene exemplifying the premise occurs during his conversation with Nigel Dennis (played with well educated, unscrupulous brilliance by Dennis Price) when he looks over a copy of the scandalous publication, initially salivating at the prospect of what he might read. His demeanour soon changes when he finds that surreptitiously he is the main object of intrigue. For me, good though he is, he is easily overshadowed by the acting genius of Peter Sellers whom excels as television audience favourite 'Wee Sonny McGregor' a fake Scots entertainer with an ability to create a wealth of characters. Amongst the ones we see are the elderly canal boat inspector and a quite ridiculous over the top Irishman, no wonder he gets punched by a Dublin pub customer for taking the micky! Also worthy of praise is Peggy Mount as the anxious, desperate authoress Flora Ransom and her extremely nervous daughter Ethel played by Joan Sims. Delighted to finally nab a DVD copy of this bright and breezy comedy (which benefits from a jaunty moving incidental music score) earlier this week and was pleasantly surprised that you also get an approx 2 min trailer which perfectly captures the manic mood of a movie whose premise is as relevant today as it was on its original release. Definitely one of the best black and white British film comedies and is well worth adding to your collection!

This film solidified Peter Sellers' stardom as a comic actor of the first rank. He had appeared in other films prior to it, but THE LADYKILLERS was the only one prior to this that showed him to any advantage, as an inept "teddy boy" type. Here he is "Wee Sonny MacGregor" a popular young entertainer on television, whose variety show has mostly elderly viewers who think of Sonny as the son or grandson they always dreamed about. Unfortunately for Sonny, one Nigel Dennis (Dennis Price) publishes "THE NAKED TRUTH", a tell all scandal sheet like "Confidential" or (despite their disclaimers) "The Enquirer". Mr Dennis has a nice, somewhat legal, offer. If you will help defray the expenses of his magazine, he will refrain from publishing details of what you don't want known. In his best, intelligent scoundrel style, Price reveals to dear "Wee Sonny" that he knows about the large amounts of rent money "Wee Sonny" has been making with some rotting tenements in London. The audience for "Wee Sonny" would not feel very comfortable with his image knowing about this.Price has similar pieces of information regarding Peggy Blount, playing an "Agatha Christie" novelist - apparently one of her plots may not have been so original. Also Terry-Thomas, as Lord Mayley, is not as respectable as he lets on - he seems to have had several affairs his wife does not know of (although Georgina Cookson - Lady Mayley - has her occasional suspicions). Soon all three are considering the last resort for dealing with blackmail - doing in the blackmailer. Their problems are more than dealing with a brainy adversary. Blount tries to commit a murder (after all she's an expert in killing as a creative writer), only to come a cropper (all I'll say is Price ups his demands for payment as a result). Terry-Thomas seems to keep stumbling into the schemes of Blount and Sellers, to his own discomfort.Best is Sellers though - he is certain he can commit the perfect murder because he is a "master of disguise". His assistant Kenneth Griffith keeps warning him that he has a tendency to overact, but "Wee Sonny" dismisses this. He tries to spy out Price playing an elderly dock expert, and only annoys the latter and makes Terry-Thomas suspicious. He flusters a gun shop owner by appearing as an Edwardian style country squire ordering enough ammunition for a regiment, not for a hunt. My favorite moment is when he tries to impress possible IRA members by speaking to them (as a fellow member) in perfect Welsh.How they finally get rid of Price and his demands is as funny as one can expect, given the rest of the film. It is a comedy that will pay handsome dividends of laughter.