Steptoe and Son Ride Again

Steptoe and Son Ride Again

Steptoe and Son Ride Again

If you're a fan of the original TV series then you'll enjoy both of these films although they are both very different. That series was of course one of the first comedy-dramas seen on TV seamlessly blending slapstick with biting social commentary and sometimes tragedy. Not wanting just to be a long TV episode, the first film tries to be a little more serious, a little more drama than comedy. Some people fund that a bit unpalatable at the time so the second film goes the other way being more of a traditional comedy film. When you watch the first film you might wonder how on earth this is classed as a comedy because it is very dark. It does have its funny moments but overall it is quite emotionally draining as we're witness to Harold's life falling apart aided by his father's pretty horrible cruelty and mental torture. Besides YES releasing CLOSE TO THE EDGE, 1972 was not a happy year for the UK and this film gives us a voyeuristic insight into how depressing things were back then for the majority of people. Although it's heavy going at times and you're more likely to cry than laugh, it is enjoyable and satisfying. What makes this extra special is Carolyn Seymour as the girl who captures Harold's heart. She plays a * in a seedy club and as someone who takes her clothes off for a living she is of course very attractive but because she's such a great actress, she's also instantly likeable even though she's actually not that nice. Her character is just so real so much so that you can perhaps empathise with her most of all. As a result of the negative backlash against the first film, the next one, in my opinion went too far the other way. Although maintaining the spirit of the original show this one decides to be a comedy and indeed it is a very funny comedy. If you're a Steptoe fan then this will make you laugh but maybe because I'm a miserable old git, I prefer the first one.

This film is hilarious, as usual the steptoes deliver top notch comedy, it's hard to belive the two main characters hated each other in real life as they gel together in such a manner they could pass as father and son, I'm slightly confused by farne who reviewed this film as not good especially considering he said the dog they buy is deaf, it's not deaf it is blind so did he even watch the film or is he just trolling a british masterpeice, atleast get the review right if your going to slate a film in fact just dont bother leaving a review.

Yes, i know the ring in the manure scene is from the first movie but i couldn't resist. The first film is ok, if a bit uninspiring. It has it's moments. But the second film is peak Steptoe. I must have seen it a hundred times, but it's still great to put on and chill out to. With a lot of the series episodes disappointingly only surviving as really poor quality home recordings, plus the Christmas specials being butchered on the official dvd, Steptoe and Son Ride Again stands as one of the most enjoyabe highlights from the entire show. A real shame that there were no more movies, so many good ideas were possible. The Desperate Hours and Divided We Stand would have made excellent feature length movies. As great as they are, 30 minutes feels a bit of a waste of pure comedy gold. Only Fools & Horses and One Foot in the Grave would later (re) prove that you can easily stretch out a sitcom to an hour or more without it feeling slow. The longer format allows a comedy show to breathe, or at least it does if you do it well. Steptoe and Son Ride Again and the Porridge movie were earlier examples of how it can work a real treat. 94 minutes flies by when you're having fun!

Okay, so the second Steptoe movie isn't up to the best of the television series, and doesn't reach the same bitter-sweet place that the first movie finally does, yet there's some decent laughs to be had along the way to a riotous last twenty minutes. The Steptoe's horse has to be retired, so the pair cash in the old man's life savings and go off to buy a new horse. Things get complicated when Harold, the son, wastes the money on a blind greyhound who loses every race. This little "investment" puts them in hock to a local gangster, and they must find £160 or some serious violence will be inflicted upon them (it's amazing the amount of 70s Brit comedy that revolves around being threatened by heavies - what does that say about the then society and economy?). Hope arises from the fact that Steptoe senior has an insurance policy on his life, so the two of them fake his death. Laughs are to be had from the pair's attempts to make the blind greyhound run, and from the blind drunk doctor's signing of Dad's death certificate. Things get better when all the local rag and bone men, and their vulgar wives, turn up for the wake and proceed to have a drunken rave up. More complications, and the living old man is taken to the grave in a coffin, surrounded by a quite magnificent rag-man's funeral procession, which is a bit of a wake for a dying way of life (as one of the characters admits). But the best is yet to come: at the graveyard, the Priest utters meaningless words about the resurrection of the body but, when he sees the body being resurrected, he runs afrighted about the graveyard as if he was encountering a cockney version of the Night of the Living Dead! The film manages to show up the hypocrisy of a faith that has come to be no more than words intoned without belief behind them; genuinely Ortonesque comedy, far better than the Loot film adaptation which Galton and Simpson screwed up completely. The film ends with father and son restored to life, and linked in the ownership of a racehorse with another fading British institution: the royal family. In such ways does the film subtly suggest that an old vision of Britain will soon to run its last race. It is an afterlife that both the Steptoes and the Windsors are living now...

Jan 2022 Steptoe and Son ride again, the 2nd film is the best film and is also better than the series. This is laugh out loud funny, and they stuck to the comedy elements a lot more rather than throwing in too much in the drama department. Highly recommended, and surprisingly they continued making the series after this, i assumed the 2 films were add ons after the series had finished. 9 out of 10.

This is a colossal improvement over the first movie. It restores what STEPTOE AND SON is about - comedy in a depressing set of situations (poverty, down-on-luck, hopelessness, etc). This movie is much more faithful to the TV series and just demonstrates why the first movie should never have been made. The first movie was perhaps the worst spin-off movie ever, even worse than GEORGE AND MILDRED, and certainly one of the most painful movies I've ever sat through. The STEPTOE AND SON series was not only the pride and joy of its creators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, but also the BBC (for whom this was perhaps the best comedy at the time, rivalled only by DAD'S ARMY). The TV series has and always will have my 10 out of 10 rating without any reservation. A wise decision by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson to write the script ensures we have a movie that matches up to the TV series to at least some extent. The plot is something along the following lines - the horse becomes ill and has to be taken away, and Harold is conned by local gangster Frankie Barrow (one of the best comic villains of all time) into buying a greyhound! Harold sees a money-making opportunity to be had, but the Steptoes have their work cut out! Later Harold has to pay off his debts to Frankie Barrow and finds the only way to do this is by faking Albert's death! The mix of comedy and drama is handled well here, the touching scene where Albert and Harold say goodbye to the horse is a very good example of this. In the first movie, the comedy and drama did not mix well and the audience was left with something dreary and depressing, as well as being unfunny to the extreme. In this movie, they are left with something uplifting that sets the standard for the rest of the movie. The mixture of jokes and slapstick normally seen in British sitcom movie adaptations of this kind is also handled well here. My favourite is during a scene where the locals are invited to a sale at the Steptoes' yard. Albert falls over and shouts to someone, "that's my tea, you silly old cow" or something like that. Side-splitting hilarity. Equally funny is a scene where Albert goes into a butchers and cons the butcher into selling him a joint of meat cheap. How does he do it? He coughs all over it. The expression on the butcher's face when Albert tries to hand the infected meat back is priceless. The usual excellent performances by Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett are delivered here. The movie also boasts a hilarious cameo from Milo O'Shea, in what is perhaps this actor's best comic moment. Henry Woolf also has a good time playing the local villain Frankie Barrow, a role he later reprised in the TV series. On the downside, Diana Dors is wasted in a pointless role as a widow whose husband's clothes she wishes to sell. Overall, this is a genuinely funny movie (unlike the first). The light-hearted nature of the TV series that was stripped away by the previous movie is restored. This movie is not as good as the TV series, but it is a harmless way to pass 90 minutes of a weekend afternoon and it looks like Oscar-worthy material compared to the first movie.

My brother loaned me the DVD of Steptoe and Son Ride Again as an alternative to the boring Christmas Day television and the whole film was hilarious from start to finish and as good as the BBC series. The plot concerns the Steptoes having to buy a new horse as their cart horse has become lame due to accidentally being transported to York in a removal lorry and Harold having to take the horse and cart back to London( a hilarious scene early on). Instead of buying a new horse, Harold ends up buying a short sighted greyhound from a local gangster for £ 80 that is supposed to make the Steptoes rich. However, when the greyhound fails to win and the Steptoes owe the gangster money with the threat of violence, Albert fakes his death to claim £ 1000 in life insurance. Steptoe And Son Ride Again made me laugh from start to finish. There is a hilarious scene where Harold is seduced by Diana Dors, only to find her dead husband lying in bed, and he makes a very quick escape. The scenes at Albert's wake where people seem almost glad he is dead, Harold going to the wrong funeral, and Albert coming back from the dead as he is being buried left me in stitches. Also Milo O Shea is on top form as an alcoholic doctor who is conned into signing Albert's death certificate and the greyhound is a star in its own right, running riot in a park and taking off during a race at White City. While many sitcom spin offs from the seventies were poor, this one is a classic and is worth watching as Harry H Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell shine again as the Steptoes.