Blame It on the Bellboy [Blu-ray]

Director: Mark Herman Mark Herman

Overview

Brevity may be the soul of wit, but that doesn't make the 79-minute Blame It on the Bellboy any funnier. Orton (Dudley Moore) is an ambitious real estate agent. Horton (Richard Griffiths) is a middle-aged married man looking for extracurricular activity via a dating service. And Lawton (Bryan Brown) is a professional hit man. Orton, Horton and Lawton all check into adjoining rooms at a posh Venetian hotel. Bellboy Bronson Pinchot, whose grasp of the English language is virtually nonexistent, delivers the wrong messages to the three men. That's why Orton is trying to sell a valuable piece of property to a roomful of mafiosi, Horton is "paired up" with an unwitting female real estate broker, and Lawton is preparing to rub out a hapless dating-service subscriber......Written by director Mark Herman, this old-style doorslamming farce might have passed muster as a dinner-theater attraction, but on film it comes across as strained and tiresome.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/04/2018
UPC:	0738329230524
Original Release:	1992
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	1:18:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Bronson Pinchot	Bellboy
Dudley Moore	Melvyn Orton
Bryan Brown	Mike Lawton
Richard Griffiths	Maurice Horton
Andreas Katsulas	Scarpa
Patsy Kensit	Caroline Wright
Alison Steadman	Rosemary Horton
Penelope Wilton	Patricia Fulford
Jim Carter	Rossi
Alex Norton	Alfio
John Grillo	Hotel Manager
Andrew Bailey	Shady Character
Ronnie Stevens	Man on Plane
Enzo Turrin	Senior Policeman
Andy Bradford	Italian Victim
Lindsay Anderson	Mr. Marshall
Irene Lamb	Actor
Trevor Jones	Composer

Technical Credits

Mark Herman

Mark Herman	Director,Screenwriter
Steve Abbott	Producer
Jennie Howarth	Producer,Producer
Ian Wingrove	Special Effects
Peter Glossop	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Viewers dreading 79 minutes of Bronson Pinchot's zany antics in a bellhop uniform can breathe easier. Although marketed as Pinchot's movie, Blame it on the Bellboy hasn't much to do with him or his silly accent humor; rather, it's a capable British mistaken-identity farce that's closer in spirit to A Fish Called Wanda than Perfect Strangers. No one should get carried away with unwarranted accolades, but the film does have the element of surprise in its favor, having been so quickly dismissed that its few real pleasures creep up on a viewer. First-time writer-director Mark Herman, who would later cut his comedy with realism in Brassed Off! and Little Voice, shows some fitness for broader material here. His B-grade cast responds to the task at hand, particularly Dudley Moore and Bryan Brown getting some fond smiles if not out-and-out guffaws. Even Pinchot is more understated than one would predict, though he clearly he wanted to draw a connection between this character and the one played by Jerry Lewis in The Bellboy (1960). One of those movies that exists on the margins of memory, vaguely thought of as embarrassing and wrongheaded, Blame it on the Bellboy has enough moments to earn a grudging recommendation that comes almost in spite of itself.

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