Monty Python’s Very First Feature Film
On to the big screen bounds 90 minutes of sketches based on those from the first two series of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The sketches were intended for an American audience and so were re-filmed without an audience especially for the film.
The film, made on a low budget of £80,000, was the idea of entrepreneur Victor Lownes, head of Playboy UK, who convinced the group that a feature film would be the ideal way to introduce them to the US market.
Production on the film did not go smoothly as Lownes, who was acting as Executive Producer, tried to exert considerably more control over the group than they had been used to at the BBC. There was one particular sketch featuring a character – ‘Ken Shabby’ – Lownes objected to so strongly that the sketch was removed. This left both Terry Jones and Michael Palin to complain much later that the vast majority of the film was “nothing more than jokes behind desks.”
Whilst “And Now for Something Completely Different” was the group’s first outing on the big screen, it would be 1975 before we saw on original screenplay, with the release of The Holy Grail.
The film did fairly good business at the UK box office, but failed to hit the spot in the US where it was primarily aimed.
Summary
The film composed of some well-known sketches from the first two series of the Flying Circus, including: the “Dead Parrot” sketch, “The Lumberjack Song”, “Upperclass Twits”, “Hell’s Grannies”, the “Nudge Nudge” sketch and others
Clips
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Cast
John Cleese
Graham Chapman
Michael Palin
Terry Gilliam
Eric Idle
Details
Written By: Monty Python
Distributed By: Columbia Pictures
Original Release Date: 22nd August 1971