Lucky Jim
“A Rollicking Lampoon of University High- and Low-Life!”
Jim Dixon feels anything but lucky. At the university he has to do the bidding of absent-minded and boring Professor Welch to have any hope of keeping his job. Worse, he has managed to get entangled with unexciting but neurotic Margaret Peel, a friend of the Professor's. All-in-all, the pub is the only friendly place to be. His misery is completed at a dreadful weekend gathering of the Welch clan by the arrival of son Bertrand. Not so much that Betrand is loud-mouthed and boorish - which he is - but that he has as companion Christine Callaghan, the sort of marvellous and unattainable woman Jim can only dream about.
Details
Release Date: 9/17/1957
Runtime: 95 minutes
Languages: English
Director: John Boulting
00Production
Companies: British Lion Films, Charter Film Productions, Boulting Brothers
Countries: United Kingdom
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Reviews
CinemaSerf
I think this is what they call a "loose" adaptation - this time of Kingsley Amis' eponymous novel - that follows the largely mis-adventures of young schoolmaster Ian Carmichael ("Jim Dixon") as he tries to teach his pupils, keep his job, arrange a vice-chancellor's ceremony and get the girl! The comedy is quickly paced, if a bit too obvious for my liking, and a great ensemble of British stalwarts including Hugh Griffith as his boss ("Prof. Welch) who bears a startling resemblance to the school gargoyle; Sharon Acker as the object of his clumsy affections ("Christine"), Margaret Connell, Reginald Beckwith and a scene-stealing performance from Terry-Thomas as the gently obnoxious "Bertrand" keep this heading, albeit somewhat bumpily, in the right direction until a bit of an excruciating ending. It's unlikely fans of the book with appreciate Patrick Campbell's adaptation here, but it's still a watchable semi-farce with some good efforts to enjoy.
