Following the international success of Brigitte Bardot, a glamorous continental star became de rigueur in many British films of the late fifties and early sixties. Here it's Anna Karina, standing in the way of two fortune-hunting brothers, played by Alfred Marks and Bob Monkhouse, living in unlikely circumstances with their butler in an old mansion on top of a cliff. Marriage or murder are the options, and the brothers decide on the latter. So you can split your sides laughing as Marks laces her cakes with rat poison and fall about as Monkhouse attempts to run her over. Rarely in his distinguished career can he have worked as hard in pursuit of so few laughs. Maybe a more accomplished director than Robert Asher could have wrung some more humour out of the various other assassination attempts that go awry, but such tired business as the revolving fireplace that plays no part in the plot, and Peter Butterworth's short-sighted doctor, look desperate. Far too little is seen of Hattie Jacques, whose eccentric journalist provides the few real moments of fun. Now out on DVD, and described as 'stylish' on the blurb, which was not the first word to occur to me.
Add a Review
-
wilvram23 May 2015
-
bnwfilmbuff1 February 2020Pleasant movie about a couple of impoverished brothers living in a mansion that get stiffed in their grandmother's will. Anna shows up as the heiress and they bounce back and forth as whether to marry or kill her to get at the money. None of the comedy works. Outcome is predictable. Karina is gorgeous.
-
gnok200215 July 2014I am adding reviews of all films I've seen that lack one at time of writing, here is the brief note I made at the time.... 'Good British comedy about a couple of poor brothers who's stately home has been left to a foreign cousin, what's the solution murder or marriage? Good.' It appears a fairly obscure title, mine is the 16th vote, though the director and many cast members will be familiar to anyone who knows British comedy of the 50's & 60's. I have no memory now of the film, but I did see it some 31 years ago in May 83, on BBC1, UK TV, check it out if you get a chance. I need to pad, the director Robert Asher is best remembered for his work on a number of Norman Wisdom films.
-
The comedy farce 'She'll Have To Go' about a pair of brothers who - when their indulgent lifestyle is threatened - plan murder, starts off quite brightly.
The dialogue between the brothers and their butler is fairly sharp and lively with some good chuckles to be had. Alas, director Asher doesn't seem to have confidence in the material as he inserts various 'wacky' visual tricks that are jarring and irritating.
In anycase the film gets weaker the longer it goes on. Notwithstanding Hattie Jaques' amusing performance, her journalist character could have easily been excised from the film without anything being lost. And the final 20 minutes or so are particularly tedious and dreary.
The film does gain an extra level of interest though with Anna Karina's presence and not just because she does well in her role. To see someone who is on the verge of becoming an icon of the cutting-edge French New Wave appear in an old-hat British stage farce mixed with a dollop of 'Carry On' style bawdy humour is curiously fascinating. -
The brother team of Bob Monkhouse and Alfred Marks try too hard to milk laughs out of a murder plot that ends up being closer to an overlong Three Stooges short than an eccentric British comedy. Disowned from the family estate and on the verge of losing their home, they decide to arrange an accident for the distant relative who inherited the estate so they can claim it. The recipient shows up in the form of the beautiful Anna Karina whom they decide to each pursue for marriage but keep falling off logs, to quote the oft-repeated to cliche they use here. Continuous attempts to cause an accident blows up in their face just like Wiley E. Coyote's attempt to capture the roadrunner.
The presence of the funny Hattie Jacques is both a blessing and an unnecessary curse because she really has no purpose in the plot other than to provide laughs which she does, one of the few to do simply because of her line delivery and still manner, like a portly version of Joyce Grenfall. The production design is actually very good with great sets and interesting setups for the visual humor which for the most part falls flat. Karina is charming and even gets to sing a French song, but the male duo seemed far too overconfident in thinking that they are funny when they are just aggravating most of the time. A better variation of the same plot is the 1957 black comedy "How to Murder a Rich Uncle". -
boblipton18 January 2022Brothers Bob Monkhouse and Alfred Marks have been written out of the will. Everything has been left to their second cousin, a convent-reared girl. They consider marriage, but neither of them seem very interested in the subject. Instead they decide to murder the woman. When it turns out to be Anna Karina, however, they become heterosexuals, when not botching their various murder attempts.
It's a very funny black comedy of the lowest variety, with plenty of sight gags, camera trickery, and out-and-out pratfalls. Hattie Jacques is on hand as a journalist, and Peter Butterworth is very funny as a doctor who has forgotten everything he knew about medicine, including the difference between a head and a foot. Miss Karina is present to wear an amazing strapless evening gown, to be very sweet, and to serve as the impervious target of the two inept would-be murderers. -
Leofwine_draca5 June 2018MAID FOR MURDER is a largely unfunny comedy that manages to waste the talents of a fine cast, all of whom do their best to breathe life and humour into their insipid lines and scenes. Bob Monkhouse and Alfred Marks play a pair of murderous brothers scheming to either marry or murder an heiress staying with them in their rambling old home. Anna Karina is suitably exotic and glamorous in the role, but only in some of the darker scenes does this work; the bits with the poison are funny but the rest just feels laboured and occasionally dated in its representation of the attitudes of men towards women. Some lively guest actors show up, including Hattie Jacques, Clive Dunn, Peter Butterworth, and Graham Stark, but their presence isn't enough to lift this from the doldrums.
-
This very broad comedy features several guffaws and one or two solid laughs. The premise is old hat: Douglas and Francis (Alfred Marks and Bob Monkhouse), two idler brothers of the stereotypical British upper-class variety, suddenly find themselves cut off without a penny in their late grandmother's will, in favour of a Corsican cousin, Toni, they have never met and whose existence they were previously barely aware of. Immediately dismissing the notion of actually working for a living, the brothers decide that their only viable options are reacquiring control of the estate by either marrying or murdering their cousin on her impending visit to the hereditary family manor on the English coast.
Initially deciding that murder is the more palatable of the two options, they find themselves vacillating somewhat, when Toni arrives in the person of the beautiful and seductive Anna Karina. From there events proceed in a predictable fashion as Douglas and Francis, without a whit of subtlety between them, alternate between trying to murder and romance Toni, as circumstances keep shifting beneath their feet, leading up to the totally foreseeable finale.
Tossed into the mix is a typical assortment of eccentric British comedy supporting characters: Hattie Jacques as a blustery journalist, Graham Stark as her silent, dour photographer, Peter Butterworh as a myopic, deranged country doctor and Clive Dunn as a confused and klutzy shopkeeper.
All the performers deliver exactly what is required of them, doing their best to work with the tried and true, but ultimately tired material. However, it really isn't the lack of originality that is the main failing of the production. Indeed, to a certain extent, the familiarity is both expected and comforting - the audience knows what kind of movie this is going to be from the moment the opening credits roll and can settle back at ease with it. What really lets the whole production down is Robert Asher's ham-fisted direction. Asher seems to have had no faith in the inherent humour of the material or the skills of his performers and his resulting attempts to force laughs with silly, insipid and embarrassing visual gags and groan-inducing "whacky" sound effects, not only display a lack of directorial inspiration, but a deficiency of good taste.
Certainly not a great movie, but one that is quite indicative of the era of film making that spawned it, SHE'S GOT TO GO is recommended more for fans of British comedies of the type represented by the CARRY ON series (of which Bob Monkhouse was an alumnus and Hattie Jacques and Peter Butterworh were regulars) than those of the Ealing Studios variety. -
malcolmgsw8 July 2022Now I could never stand Bob Monkhouse. However I found Alfred Marks screamingly funny, especially on his chat show appearances So here we have one plus and one minus making a definite minus.
This was one of a number of films made at the time where the main plot point was murdering a relative for some good reason.
Based on a play one has to assume that audiences found it funny. If they did this film adaptation does not recreate anyof the fun times had in the theatre. -
A fairly dull film that betrays its origin on the stage. The cast tries hard but their styles of comedy and acting don't come together and frankly clash. Alfred Marks and Bob Monkhouse don't convince as brothers although Monkhouse does show flashes of The smooth comedian he would later become. Hattie Jacques is always a welcome presence but her part here is superfluous to the plot and the fact that her character repeatedly pops up for the slimmest of reasons becomes annoying. Just when you think Miss Richards (Jacques) has a part to play by dashing off to save the heroine the film comes to an end without her. The ending it also must be said is, to put it politely, derived straight from Blithe Spirit. Anna Karina, who is given an "introducing" credit thank heavens left British cinema after this and went to France and bigger and better things.
-
ShadeGrenade19 March 2024Bob Monkhouse and Alfred Marks play a couple of brothers who, enraged on finding out their Italian cousin 'Toni' ( the stunning Anna Karina ) has inherited their late aunt's fortune, set out either to marry or murder her. Marriage is out of the question; she does not fancy either of them, so they decide on murder. There then follows a string of unsuccessful murder attempts. Directed by Robert Asher, whose other credits include several Noman Wisdom movies and Morecambe and Wise's first picture 'The Intelligence Men', this benefits from the offbeat casting of Monkhouse ( cast against type as a snivelling coward ) and Marks, and is assisted by the presence of Hattie Jacques, Clive Dunn, Graham Stark, and Peter Butterworth. Asher fills the film with some strange visual touches, including a revolving fireplace, billiard balls that fly about like rockets, and an out of control boulder. There's even an animated flying saucer!
50's heart-throb Dennis Lotis plays 'Gilbert', the brothers' butler, and it doesn't take a genius to work out that the story will end with Toni running off with him to Corsica. Predictable yes, corny yes, but its a lot of fun and infinitely more watchable than any of today's movies such as 'Barbie' and 'Floppenheimer'. -
plan995 April 2024A bit like a Carry On film but with less innuendo and not quite as funny. Plenty of amusing set pieces and this film would have satisfied cinema goers at the time but less so now.
Good enough to watch if you get the chance. Anna is illegally beautiful and has a natural beauty and charm that has largely disappeared due to women in the entertainment business these days insistent upon having surgery to all look the same, and not in a good way.
A small cast but with great performances all round. Very sexist of course which would have the feminists up in arms now but it was essential to the plot of the film of course. -
drednm1 March 2018Promising start has two idle brothers (Bob Monkhouse, Alfred Marks) living in genteel poverty in their hideous old manor house in Lambering, UK. They have no money but they do have a butler (Dennis Lotis). When a relative dies, they expect to inherit a fortune but discover the money has been left to a distant and unknown cousin in Corsica. They devise several plots to murder her, assuming she'll be an old hag. When Anna Karina shows up as cousin Toni, their thoughts turn to marriage instead. But she has other ideas.
Sort of a take on the classic comedy THE LADYKILLERS, the brothers go through a series of inept murder attempts of which the beauteous cousin seems unaware. Only fitfully funny, especially since Karina and her character are not funny at all. Things liven up a bit when a loony reporter (Hattie Jacques) pops in to get a story for her magazine, but she's not in enough scenes.
Bright supporting bits from Graham Stark as the dour photographer, Peter Butterworth as the myopic doctor, Clive Dunn as the chemist, and Pat Coombs as the lady at the railway station. That might be Dennis Lotis singing the horrid theme song. Story is based on a play.