The local (Northwest) branch of the Santa Rosa Public library does not have a huge DVD selection. I could and often reserve DVDs from the other branches. But other times I just look through what they got and pick up something that seems interesting. That is how I encountered the second season of “Ripping Yarns.” It was a series that ran in the late seventies for 3 seasons. Each season contained 3, half hour long, unrelated stories. They were written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monthy Python fame. I am a reasonably devoted fan of the Pythons, but never heard of this series, so naturally I borrowed it from the library.
The first segment, “Whinfrey’s Last Case,” was set in 1913, when the British government learned that the Germans plan to jumpstart World War II by a whole year. Desperate to stop this, they called for Whinfrey to prevent this rather unfortunate event. Whinfrey (played by Palin) is the local on-call hero, who usually solves nonchalantly the mess his government makes. But this time he was planning to go for vacation to a small village. His general’s plea does not soften his heart and goes ahead. The small fishing village he arrives seems empty. On the other hand the remote cottage he rents is more than full of staff. We eventually learn that the villagers have been replaced with Germans. Meanwhile the army follows Whinfrey on his vacation and intervenes, taking the Germans out at the right time. It is left to the viewer to decide whether Whinfrey is hero or just the wrong guy being at the right time and place to become one. He seems clueless throughout.
There are three memorable scenes: 1. when the staff of over a dozen people is introduced to Whinfrey one by one in the lobby of the tiny cottage. 2. Not much later, when he wants to flea from the cozy small bedroom upstairs he finds all the escape routs that the previous tenants, smugglers, built in to the location. 3. Finally towards the end he manages to enter the local pub, when dozens of identically bearded Germans, acting as fishing people, sit there. All three of these scenes are hilarious by virtue of repetition and the way Palin handles the awkward situations.
I liked this comedy, but I had some reservation. I am fine with surreal humor, but this was supposed to be telling a story. Therefore, in my opinion, the fact, that I did not exactly understood what was happening did not fit the style. Storytelling and confusion do not mix well for me. But, of course, it is possible that my mental capabilities are at fault. Nevertheless most of the individual scenes are brilliant(ly executed.) The underlying criticism of generals, who are removed from the field of wars, how their sense of honor is different from the footsoldiers’ was well placed but not expounded enough for my taste. At the end though their hypocrisy is revealed again.
The second segment, Golden Gordon, is about football (soccer for American readers) fanaticism in the depression era. Gordon Ottershaw (Palin) is the super-fan of a team that hasn’t won a match in six years. That has detrimental effect on his family and property, because after every match they lose he runs havoc at home, breaking the meager little set of objects they have. When he learns that the field was sold to a rich person, who plans to develop it for housing he tries several ways to stop it from happening. First he visit the rich guy (who made his money from scrap metal) in his mansion, but is unsuccessful talking him out of the plans. But then he has the brilliant idea to get call on the old timers of the once legendary team for one final game. And they all come, well, some of them are rolled in. And they win, so all is well at the end.
Again, I liked both the story and the acting. Never having been a sports fan, I had little sympathy for the main character and much more for the suffering wife, who could not get it through to her husband that she is pregnant. Apparently, being a fan blinds you to the rest of reality. That’s the message I got from this sketch. And a big question mark about priorities.
For some reason I could not play the third segment on the disc. The sound was fine, but the picture was all black. Thus I have no first hand opinion on “Roger of the Raj.”
IMDB did not have synopsis for either of these episodes so I posted a short one for both (Whinfrey, Gordon), using chunks from the text on the DVD case cover.