MikePadgett.com

Blame it on the Bellboy

— If there's any proper comedy in this film, I must be Venetian blind.”

• Director: Mark Herman
• United Kingdom, 1992
• 

The inoffensive – often romantic – British comedy is the plat du jour of Mark Herman. His oeuvre is small potatoes compared to the smorgasbord of Working Title produced, Richard Curtis penned transatlantic exports, but Herman’s movies are memorable because they’re typically more earthbound, hearty and wholesome.

I seem to remember this particular dish being tastier. My memory must have failed me, else I was drunk or drugged when last I saw it. Blame it on the Bellboy looked promising, serving up the kooky Bronson Pinchot, the gravel rash cool of Bryan Brown, Richard Griffiths in a rare ugly role and Dudley Moore behaving like, well, Dudley Moore.

But the fabulous location – the floating city of Venice – is bafflingly irrelevant, the acting makes you seasick and the comedy is so light that if floats off on its own, leaving you thoroughly unsatisfied. Watch this and go hungry.