User reviews

Tommy Cooper and Eric Sykes are a couple of workmen putting down a floor. Alas, Sykes burn a plank in a stove for heat, so they get into his Morris Minor to drive to the lumberyard, buy a new plank, drive back, and finish the job.

It's not that easy.

It's a sign of the new style of comedy, a comedy of frustration, in which nothing is done as a gag, but the spreading chaos caused by the two and that piece of wood. You watch it wondering what's going to happen next, what else can they do to turn London into a madhouse without half trying... and the problems keep on coming, with seemingly every second banana in show business caught in the act. It's certainly not a laugh-out-loud comedy, but it will raise a sardonic smile that won't go away over its 50 minutes.

This short is very reminiscent of the antics of many of the early silent film stars. Eric Sykes remade this piece in 1979, this time with Arthur Lowe (of Dad's Army and Mr. Men fame)in the role of the larger worker. Whichever version you choose to see, both Lowe and Cooper are very funny to watch, so you really can't go wrong no matter which you view.

Things like the car doors that must be closed at the same time to prevent the other popping open, and narrowly avoiding hitting people when they swing the plank around are straight from the realm of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd or even Laurel and Hardy. So if you like classic physical comedy and sight gags, in the vein of the classics, then find a version of The Plank and enjoy with a friend.

A short, slapstick British comedy from the late '60s. Be warned that there's also a remake from 1979 with Arthur Lowe in the Tommy Cooper role. The main inspiration behind THE PLANK seems to be the silent comedies of yesterday and the early talkies that followed, particularly the Laurel & Hardy film where they starred as a couple of workmen.

THE PLANK is fun, albeit slightly overstated. It doesn't have the feel of a timeless classic to it, and for the most part it goes through the motions with all kinds of predictable humour. Saying that, there are quite a few decent gags, particularly those involving the plank being tied to the top of a car and all the accidents and incidents that ensue.

The film is well worth watching for fans of classic British comedy, because the cast is a veritable who's who of famous names. Tommy Cooper, as one of the two central workmen, is by far the best value, essaying a kind of naturalistic humour that never seems force. Beside him, as straight man, Eric Sykes seems almost staid.

Look out for Roy Castle in an ill-fitting wig, short cameos for Jim Dale and Hattie Jacques, plus plenty of other notables from the time.

This film is actually quite good. Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper are brilliant. But I would say this film is not one I would buy but one that is good to watch on TV.

A myriad of stars usually mean a film is rubbish but this film proves wrong. The stars all have funny little cameo roles that keep you going "ooh I know him" and having to go here to look for them!

Had found this one of the most hilarious things I had ever seen when originally viewed in the late-1960s/early-1970s and I had wondered for years why it was not shown more regularly on British TV. Finally got to see it again when it was tucked away at 11.00 pm - midnight on pre-Christmas viewing schedule. Having now re-watched it, I now know why it enjoys so few showings as it just does not cut it any more. Tommy Cooper is still hilarious (as he always was) just through his physical presence and personality and Jim Dale's appearances and the effects of these are also amusing. Otherwise, though, there is very little going for it. Most of the gags are so predictable you can see them coming miles away and the added tinned laughter others have commented on is just ghastly. The main problem, I found, though was that the TIMING was just atrocious to modern eyes. Sykes was very obviously trying to recreate ( could one say milk?) the heritage of classic stars such as Chaplin, Lloyd and, above all, Laurel & Hardy but does not come within five miles of their talent, especially the latter pair. I think any modern audience (of any age) will find more hilarity and deep belly laughs in virtually any Laurel &Hardy short than in this offering, which now really does belong in the museum of British comedy on film and is only really suitable for viewings by scholars of the genre and others like me (hence the rating) looking back on a much more innocent age and stage of their lives.

The Plank is a slap stick short featuring Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper.

Sykes wrote and directed this nearly silent short film and managed to get an all star cast. Keep your eyes peeled for Stratford Johns, Roy Castle, Jim Dale, Jimmy Tarbuck, Hattie Jacques, Graham Stark, Jimmy Edwards, John Junkin and other familiar faces of the 1960s and 1970s.

Sykes and Cooper are two workmen, when one of them uses the last floorboard for heating and they go out to buy a replacement.

They return to the house with the plank on top of a van, but the journey is fraught with unexpected difficulties. The short film is a series of slapstick routines involving the plank and featured guest stars.

However some of the scenes do not quiet work and go on for too long such as driving around and trying to get out of the timber yard.

Also the scenes with the female hitchhiker in the truck now looks distasteful.

This is a hilarious piece of nonsense from a cast of very talented actors/comedians. Eric Sykes is one of the greatest comedy actors/writers that Britain has produced and this film should not be slated because it seems dated by todays standards (it was made over 40 years ago). The plot is simple, the story is simple, but the simplicity of it is its charm. It is a film purely designed to entertain and to make one laugh, it has no message or underlying agenda, other than to bring a smile to people of all ages and nationality. The cast are all masters of their craft, the pick of the 60's comedians, and all 'proper' comedians, they did not have to resort to shock tactics and foul language to get the audiences attention, unlike todays comics. It seems to have stood the test of time, for few people have never heard of it and it has often been referred to a a 'British Classic' .... and deservedly so.

Many of us will have seen loads of films where the acting is wooden - but here, it is meant to be! Eric Sykes assembles a reasonable cast of stalwart British comics to regale us us with the adventures of the humble plank! Together with Tommy Cooper, the pair of workmen take us on a guided tour of what this plank (or it's identical twin) gets up to in it's wide and varied life... There is virtually no dialogue - much of it relying on the quirky Brian Fahey score and the odd mumble that set the standards for many an inaudible television drama being made even now. It does recycle the joke once too often, but it still has a charm about it. The singing opening titles; closing windows to keep out the cold - not that they have any glass in them, and the simplicity of things getting stuck, walloped and wedged is fun for a while, but that simplicity struggles to sustain the humour after the first 15-20 minutes or so. Still, it is an interesting and engaging example of what made us Brits laugh in the late 1960s.

I just happened to tape "The Plank" when it was last shown on British terrestrial television (BBC2 5/12/95) and I've held onto this treasure ever since! My family and I love it to bits.We are however die-hard British 50s/60s/and 70/s-silent film fans, e.g. Futtock's End/A Home of Your Own/Rhubarb Rhubarb etc.etc. One of the main appeals of it is that you don't have to listen to it-it's very easy to watch if you've got young kids doing their own thing in the room with you.(they'll look up every now and then and laugh at certain bits). There is now available a DVD of "The Plank" Uncut which comes out at 51 Min's allegedly; this must go some way to outlining it's obvious popularity. I definitely do not prefer the 70's T.V. remake of this as it is so obviously a dumbed down/going through the motions version.The original is the dog's ........! There is however an interesting angle about the re-make and that is several of the original locations have been re-visited so I habitually acknowledge them all each time I view the re-make(Is that sad or good?) Just had to write an uplifting review as the first review doesn't do this justice and is a tad unfair to me.

One of many screen iterations by Eric Sykes featuring his beloved plank, this 60s technicolour slapstick TV gem is not only a nostalgic snapshot of the past but serves as a who's-who of 60's British comedy people - every single face in it is a character actor or writer. There's a pleasing simplicity to the concept that makes it feel like one long live-action cartoon, two hapless builders must transport a plank across London. There's little dialogue, and most scenes work as loose surreal vignettes. It's not doing anything truly remarkable but it does still have some solid laughs in it and has a short enough length not to outstay its welcome.

I really wanted to like this British comedy short from the mid-60's. Although just before my time, Tommy Cooper and to a lesser degree Eric Sykes could reasonably make me laugh on their TV variety or sit-com shows plus I came to this piece after watching a rather fawning TV biography of the recently deceased Sykes containing eulogies of praise from the surprising likes of Eddie Izzard, Michael Palin and others. Sykes wrote and directed this off-beat, near-silent short move about two dozy workmen's encounter with a plank of wood and peopled it with friends and colleagues of the time, including the inevitable Hattie Jacques and Jimmy Edwards, but also in small parts if you closely enough the likes of Bill Oddie, Jim Dale and Jimmy Tarbuck. But the humour really is quite dated. Sykes makes reasonable use of running gags but the sketch-like sequences often run on too long and much of the material is somewhat predictable and stilted, even resorting lazily to sexism as a young female hitch-hiker gets manhandled for her trouble.

In its favour, the hitch-hiker section notwithstanding, the humour is clean, gentle and inoffensive. I didn't really think Cooper and Sykes gelled together in their roles as two chippies off the old block and while I acknowledge the debt paid to Sykes comedy heroes of the Silent Era, most obviously Laurel and Hardy, there the comparison ends, indeed I was reminded more of Crackerjack's Peter Glaze and Don MacLean (now they were my era!), hapless double-act more than the immortal Stan and Ollie.

The film's a nice little document of old-school comedy of a bygone age but sad to say it hasn't aged well and in truth is more a museum piece nowadays than genuine entertainment.

Sadly, and quite rudely, leask81 seems to have got it all wrong. The Plank was made in 1967 by some of the finest British comedians of the day - 'poms' or not. His comment was posted in February 2006 so, quite naturally, it would seem out-dated. In fact, any viewing later than 1976 would ... have you tried watching Paul Hogan's early stuff?

The sheer enjoyment out of watching the story of this errant plank of wood and its two clumsy handymen is not only a gem of British comedy, but is also a bar over which not many comedy performers since then have managed to clear.

A highly enjoyable 'short' and one for the collector.

The Plank by Eric Sykes is one of my favourite Comedy Shorts so I was very glad when I found that a DVD version was available - that is until I actually bought one with the intention of replacing my ageing copy of The Plank on VHS tape.

Unfortunately I found the DVD was not the version I had gotten used to and despite having Eric Sykes and Jimmy Edwards repeating their TV roles, this DVD seems to be aimed at a cinema audience with an IQ of zero since the film Tittles are accompanied by a stupid laughter sound track which is both overbearing and unnecessary but seems to have been added in case people didn't know they were about to watch a comedy.

The DVD is clearly based on the the same script as the TV version available on VHS Cassette but there are many small changes which somehow conspire to cause most of the jokes, which are very funny with the VHS cast, to fall flat and as mentioned before, the sound track irritates rather than complements.

I find the VHS version to be extremely funny and if you like British Humour and enjoy trying to name all the people involved, you will find the VHS tape is packed with well known faces from TV, Film and Sport.

For me the highlight is Charlie Drake failing to deliver a cake but it's also fun to see Diana Dors sending herself up - as she used to in later life when she lost her slender shape - in fact I just cannot watch this film without getting a very broad grin on my face.

It was very disappointing to find this DVD was NOT of the TV production and in my opinion it is an unsympathetic production. Though similar in content to the Charlie Drake version it just doesn't manage to rise to the same level of comedy and the sounds over tittles on the DVD makes me cringe and want to turn it off without even watching it.

I genuinely urge anyone who has only known this DVD to try and see the VHS version before concluding that The Plank is not a very funny film indeed

I've just recently found a copy of "The Plank" I didn't know I had, I watched it and discovered that, yes, as one reviewer as wrote, it was good for it's time. The gags are slightly hammered home a little, but it does have it's place as a british short, describing: What times were like back then, in reality and as a movie industry. Eric Sykes is a clever comic actor whose timing is quite nice to watch, but here Tommy Cooper is more or less wasted. The colour and look of the film, give the impression that it was done by a die-hard Jacques Tati fan. Overall, innocent, good for it's time and (without patronizing) worth a look if your elderly relatives want a giggle if you can't find your Mr Bean Tapes.

I like the bit with the plank and the bit with the bicycle.

No, this isn't a new starring vehicle for Keanu Reeves; it's a chirpy, cheesy British homage to the slapstick era.

Though quite admirable for it's time, thirty-three years later The Plank has dated somewhat. This is the sort of comedy where you hear breaking window sound effects (though don't get to see the cracked window) and comedy music, cute cats and yapping dogs take a part. Tommy Cooper was a very amusing man who knew how to time a joke, so it's perhaps a waste of his ability to cast him in a nearly silent role.

One pleasant thing about the film is that it is, apart from one or two light examples of sexism, entirely innocent, and can be watched by all ages. (Though look out for the newspaper advertisement for The News of the World, not covered up, which reads: "Pop Stars and Drugs"). Perhaps another example of this dated style is that the three black cast members all play dustbinmen.

This was probably highly amusing stuff at the time, but looked back upon it doesn't really stand up. Seeing men jumping with rage till their false teeth fall out, or a man being pulled along by a car isn't that funny anymore. In fact, I remembered this film being a hell of a lot funnier than it patently is, and had my memory jogged by the IMDb: it turns out this is the first time I've actually seen the film, and I was thinking of Sykes' work for television in the late seventies/early eighties, which included Rhubarb, Rhubarb and a TV remake of this film starring Harry H.Corbett and Charlie Drake. Maybe that's why I was so disappointed as the '79 version obviously brought this tired format up to date, and, by all accounts, halved the overlong run-time.

Ultimately The Plank can only be watched in it's own era. If you wanted the greatest silent comedy then you'd look to the more professional standards of the 20s and 30s (sound dubbing is quite poor here). And if you wanted to laugh at Eric Sykes holding a plank, then you'd watch the remake with it's laughter track half-way convincing you it's funny. For the '67 version there's the feeling that all of its heavily signposted gags don't have the pay-off they deserve, or that the pace isn't quite right. This was a time when The Beatles, The Stones and Dylan were redefining music. In the meantime, Jimmy Edwards was getting excited at young girls in miniskirts. But nevertheless, as a historical document, it's okay, one for a rainy afternoon when there's nothing else on. 5/10.

THIS IS SUPER HILARIOUS!!! YOU'LL LAUGH YOUR LUNGS OUT AT THIS CRAZY WACKY FILM!!!

OK it's not sophisticated, and the visual gags can be seen coming a mile off, but if you put your brain neutral you can let the whole family see it and enjoy watching a surprisingly large cast of British comedy greats having fun. Stratford Johns is also well cast as a stoic desk sergeant as opposed to his serious police roles in TV's Softly Softly, etc

Other reviewers have mentioned the female hitchhiker but another unfortunate sign of the times may be the dustcart crew who are all black actors.

It's also of interest for the period street scenes, even if some of the lighting is a bit overdone.

I'm not sure why they bothered remaking it in 1979 since the original picture quality is good and it possibly only needs a bit of editing to maintain the pace.

Nevertheless it's an enjoyable comedy without being taxing.

In 1967 when the film world produced The Graduate, To Sir with Love , Cool hand Luke, The Dirty Dozen, Point Blank and the Jungle Book , England produces The Plank. Every joke you can do with a piece of wood and more. I use the word joke loosely.

Now I am a child of the 1960s and a fan of physical comedy but this was probably conceived in the pub and written on the back of a fag packet whilst Sykes and Cooper simultaneously seem to have written a wish list of any B list out of work British actors to guest in their creation, on a beer mat.

Don't get me wrong I like Cooper and Sykes and the film is less than an hour in duration but I'll give you 15 minutes before you'd prefer to hit yourself in the face with a plank than watch further.

Life is short do something else with your time!

Fair to say not my cup of tea .