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Come visit the
worst-run hotel in the whole of western Europe (well, except for
that place in Eastbourne...)
In a field with many top contenders, 'Fawlty Towers' remains my
favorite of all 'Britcoms' - situation comedies originating on
British television. Fawlty Towers has a cult following decades after
the originals aired; it is sometimes hard to believe that there are
but 12 episodes, six hours total. The regular cast is led by John
Cleese, veteran of the famous Monty Python comedy troupe, as the
irrepressible Basil Fawlty, titular head of the hotel with dreams of
class and glory; Prunella Scales is his long-suffering and
hardworking wife, Sybil, who recognizes that while Basil may think
'the sky's the limit!', in fact, '22 rooms is the limit'. Connie
Booth (Cleese's real-life wife) played the level-headed and
sensible, overworked maid Polly, and in a role matched only by
Fawlty's own bizarre manner, Andrew Sachs plays the loveable and
ever-incompetent Spanish waiter, Manuel (he's from Barcelona...).
Ballard Berkeley makes Ballard Berkeley makes a regular appearance
as the Major, a retired long-term resident at the hotel. Brian Hall
joined the cast for the second season as the not-quite-gourmet chef,
Terry.
From the very first episode (first aired in 1975) featured a
social-climbing Fawlty as perhaps the most rude and insufferable
hotel manager in existence, in the resort town of Torquay, on the
Channel coast of Britain. Sybil tries to maintain a reasonable level
of service, but Fawlty's snobbishness permits him to be gracious
(indeed, excessively fawning) toward those he considers 'worthy',
which in this episode turns out to be Lord Melbury, who ends up not
being Lord Melbury, but rather a confidence trickster, and Fawlty's
revenge scares away the real 'posh' guests, whom Fawlty sends off
with the hilarious shout, 'Snobs!'
In each of the episodes, there is a crisis - one gets the sense that
the life of Fawlty is non-stop crisis, with his wife and Polly
forever picking up the pieces, Manuel always complicating things,
and the others wandering around in a state of disbelief (or, in the
case of the Major, perpetual daze). The twelve episodes highlight
all the things that could wrong at hotel in classic comedic fashion
- the institution of a Gourmet Night falls flat when the
not-quite-recovering alcoholic chef starts drinking the night of the
main event; a guest dies in the middle of the night, and Fawlty
tries to slip him out unnoticed; remodelers install and remove the
wrong doors; the health inspector unexpected shows up and gets
served a bit of rat with his cheese.
However, nothing quite matches the kinds of situations Basil can get
himself into. When trying to plan a surprise anniversary dinner for
his wife, she leaves the hotel thinking that Basil has forgotten
again, and Basil dresses Polly up as a sick-bed-bound Sybil to fool
the guests. When Polly's friends check in for a wedding over the
weekend, Basil suspects the group of free sexual expression
(highlighting his own repression); this theme is carried over to a
glorious extreme in the episode about the visiting Psychiatrist.
'How does he make his living?' Basil protests. 'He makes his money
by sticking his nose into others' private parts, er, details...'
This is also the episode where Sybil finally confronts Basil about
his double-sided hotel manner toward guests: 'You're either crawling
all over them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them like
some Benzedrine puff adder,' she declares. He replies in perfect
form, 'Just trying to enjoy myself, dear.'
As the psychiatrist will comment near the end, there's enough
material for an entire psychiatrist conference. Indeed there is, as
this is slapstick humor with a difference. Intelligent and witty
while utterly chaotic and beyond the pale, one is treated to the
moose-head incident and the in growing toenail as well as Fawlty's
unique form of automobile motivation (how many of us have ever been
tempted to whack away at a stalled car with a stick!) and a nice
performance of Brahms (his 'third racket', to be precise). One must
not overlook the little details, either, including the ever-changing
sign in front (the actual hotel used for the exteriors unfortunately
burned down many years after the show), and the fact that the
interior and exterior layouts of the building cannot correspond.
It is almost inconceivable that the two series, each of six
episodes, were four years apart (1975 and 1979), as they flow rather
seamlessly together. Popular on television networks worldwide, it
can be seen variously on BBC America and local public television
channels, often during the fund drives, when the most popular pieces
are shown.
The DVD has various extras, including interviews with Cleese, Scales
and Sachs (Booth was not available); there are director's
commentaries as well as a tour of the now-abandoned hotel used for
the exterior (a rather bizarre piece, that). The extras are sadly
substandard, but the series itself is excellent, and worth having in
the digital format.
Reviewer: FrKurt Messick from Bloomington, IN USA
Remember to watch the opening credits of each show to spot the
creative misspellings on the hotel sign (my favorite: "Fatty Owls"). |
