Keep It Clean (1956) watch online HD

Ronnie Shiner was a big star in the 1950s particularly for ABPC>Anyone watching this film must wonder why.Every line is shouted out with lots of mugging as if he is trying to reach the people sitting at the rear of a theatre.Mind you everyone else is at it so maybe the director is to blame.The cast is actually quite decent including a very young Joan Simms pre Carry On.However even they cannot save this witless farce from inducing terminal boredom in the viewer..I defy anyone watching this film to last more than 30 minutes without loosing interest.Difficult for me to believe that i was a great fan of his and always used to go and see his films in the fifties and sixties.Thankfully i did not waste my 4/- when this load of rubbish was shown in the cinema and you should not waste your time now.

Director: DAVID PALTENGHI. Screenplay: Carl Nystrom, R.F. Delderfield. Story: R.F. Delderfield. Photography: Wilkie Cooper. Film editor: John Pomeroy. Art director: John Stoll. Music composed by Edmund Crispin. Title song: Gwen Davis. Camera operator: Bernard Lewis. Production managers: Jack Martin, Jack Hicks. Assistant director: Gus Agosti. Set continuity: Vega Stewart, Angela Allen. Sound editor: Alfred Cox. Sound recording: W. Lindop. Producers: Maxwell Setton, James R. Sloan.

A Setton-Sloan Production. Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A., but available to television through UCC Films. U.K. release through Eros: 21 May 1956. Australian release through British Empire Films: 3 October 1957 (sic). 6,773 feet. 75 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Soap promoter humors a wealthy widow by joining her clean-up-the-theatre campaign.

COMMENT: A noisy and somewhat witless farce. Still the pace is brisk and production values are quite lavish by the usually rather penny-pinching standards of the British "B". And it is nothing if not enthusiastically played. James Hayter has a delightfully characteristic role as the advertising boss (with a very attractive secretary too). There are lots of chorus girls and Tonia Bern sings a couple of breezy numbers.

Aside from its brisk pacing, the direction is routine and somewhat flat. Other credits are likewise undistinguished. All told, it adds up to just a tolerable support - for undiscriminating audiences.

I took up the challenge of the previous reviewer, and not only watched it more than 30 minsutes, but viewed the complete film 3 times so far, with the enjoyment increasing with each viewing. One man's meat is another man's poison. It's an unusual story, and while it may not top the list of Ronald Shiner's best films, it's not his worst by any means. There's a rare chance to see Jean Cadell, who was the grandmother of Simon Cadell, and Selina Cadell, who is a familiar face in the Doc Martin TV series.

For some reason, the film was not a hit with the cinema goers in the UK, and Ronald Shiner started to lose his popularity to new boy Norman Wisdom.

The film didn't reach Australia until 1958, and the press there was more enthusiastic, the 'Western Herald' of June 27th wrote: 'Ronald Shiner's many fans are in for a field day when new Eros presentation 'Keep it Clean', comes to the Wonderland Theatre next Monday. This dynamic, seasoned fun maker is at his hilarity peak as Bert Lane, a high pressure publicity - agent up to his neck in advertising campaigns for detergents, bikinis and confectionery. When a friend invents 'The Demon' cleaning device , Shiner is on to it like lightning. Money must be found to market the cleaner, so Shiner decides to get it from a Mrs Grundy-like female whose prevailing fashion is a crusade against stage nudity'.

One wonders what the original version was like, as the British Board of Film Censors ordered almost 9 minutes to be cut, so that it would qualify for a U certificate.