BEDAZZLED (1967) *** A fine film in its own right, but even more impressive when considered in the context of the revolution it begot: you can feel John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson saying "yes, yes right, great, but wouldn't it be even funnier if..." Dudley Moore and Peter Cook had no difficulty being funny on their own thank you. Their irrepressible irreverent religious and social commentaries (the pop star segment!) are enough, but best of all are the class conscious political declarations of disrespect. Slapstick comedy with eternal implications, don't try this at home and don't believe that it comes in a kit or class. Just when you're satisfied that it's a fine film, if perhaps more a succession of invariably fine and silly skits, they launch into comedic hyperspace as Moore morphs into a Sister of the Order of Leaping Berelians, and a monastery replete with surrealist editing and trampolines. It should also be noted that a cottage industry evolved of young men interested in empirical, or derivative, evidence of whether Raquel Welch was typecast here as Lust. Um, no she wasn't and the world is flat, too.
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