Three Men in a Boat (1975) Online

Yet another classic piece of TV drama that isn't available anywhere in any format - no VHS, no DVD. Shame!

The casting, the costumes, the writing, the direction - all perfect. Features all the most memorable bits of the book, all perfectly adapted to the screen. I only wish it had been longer.

Please, someone release this on DVD.

Tim Curry was the reason I wanted to see this, and he's hilarious in it, particularly in one scene where he reads a book about diseases and is convinced he has them all. The piece has a very droll quality and a light touch (courtesy of Frears' excellent direction). Well worth seeking out.

There was a time that the name Jerome Klapka Jerome (his middle name was in honor of a Hungarian war hero) was one of the best known writers in Great Britain. Not only for this novel, and it's comic sequel THREE MEN ON THE BUMMEL, but for his successful West End plays. The most notable one that has survived (though rarely revived today) was THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK, about a "Christ-like" roomer in a boarding house, who is able to force his fellow boarders (by gentle means) to see their own flaws and correct them. That play was turned into a film in the late 1930s that starred Conrad Veidt as the title figure. Not everyone thought highly of Jerome K. Jerome's plays. Max Beerbohm felt that they were too mechanical and unreal for lasting theater. Perhaps he was right, but in his heyday the public supported Jerome.

Today it is THREE MEN IN A BOAT (1888) that is considered (and rightly) Jerome's masterpiece. It is more than a comic novel. It is a wonderful window on an element of Victorian fun that still exists today - the gentle boat trips down the Thames into the countryside and among the small islands in the hinterlands. For some reason no British writer of stature ever mentioned punting and boating like this. Jerome did, and more credit to him.

Three friends, Jerome (Tim Curry - fresh from the Rocky Horror Picture Show), Harris (Michael Palin - fresh from Monty Python), and George (Stephen Moody) have decided to go away together on a three week vacation. They decide to take a boating holiday down the Thames past Hampton Court, Oxford, etc. With them is their only companion, Montmorency (Jerome's pet dog). They get plenty of food from Fortnum and Mason (which leads to a highpoint of hilarity later on), and board a rented house boat for their trip.

From this relatively mild beginning comes the series of crazy incidents that have entertained the readers (or viewers) since that day.

For example, they reach Hampton Court Palace, and find it's famous maze. One of them insists that he knows how to get through the maze and has such a self created sense of ability that everyone in the maze believes in him, follows him, and actually ends entrapped in the maze with the idiot.

Another one deals with the food supply. Our heroes are having a leisurely lunch on an island, and find a can of pineapple has been packed. As Jerome/Curry says, "The only thing that is better than a pineapple is a canned pineapple!" Not quite. They have forgotten to pack the can-opener. We see our heroes try knives, rocks, flinging the can from heights, and never opening the can at all.

The program was only an hour long, so much is not included from the novel. But what remains, such as Jerome discovering how many fatal illnesses he has when he reads a medical textbook, are quite funny. The show was quite good, although it had a bit of an epilogue that described the fates of Harris and George, which was a bit of a downer. It was a a fine production, and one hopes it will be shown again some time.

This is a likable piece of fluff where the title really does say it all. In general, it was simply a pleasant film to watch, with few (if any) slow spots, and the occasional scene that was hilarious. It features some good talent, and at barely an hour, it is most certainly worth your time.

This delightful and charming movie is wonderfully faithful to the book by Jerome K. Jerome, and is just as funny. I discovered it back in 1978, looking for other roles that Tim Curry had played, and this has become one of my favorite movies of all time. Gently humorous and full of beautiful scenery, the story of three young gentlemen going on a holiday down the Thames can't help but make one laugh.

Finally, this excellent adaptation is available on DVD in the UK (Region 2 DVD), but can be played on region-free DVD players in the US, or one a computer's DVD player if it's set temporarily to Region 2, or made region-free. I've seen it available at several UK retailers online.

I've been waiting since 1978 for a professional release of this delightful little film. :-) jfk

For a short TV movie, this has some impressive talent, with direction and writing from, respectively, Stephen Frears and Tom Stoppard, and a surprisingly low key performance from Tim Curry and good ones from Michael Palin and someone I've never heard of.

The book is apparently very popular in England, with a mix of humor, sentimentality and self mocking the English seem particular fond of, and the movie is clearly done by people who feel that fondness towards the source.

Like the book, there are parts that are quite amusing, and like the books, there are parts that are more travelogue. The balance is a little more toward the travelogue here, surprisingly, although these parts drag less in the movie than in the book.

It's a quiet, sly sort of humor and a charming, small, elegantly done movie. It's not as good as the book, but it's very enjoyable.

This has promising ingredients: adaptation by brilliant intellectual British word-smith Stoppard, undoubted star Tim Curry, Monty Python funny-man and a perfect period look.

The book itself is a both a comedy and gentle satire about the lives of the comfortably off middle-class Edwardian Southern English written around the same time as Wind in the Willows and conjuring up that same aura of innocent pleasures on the river. It was a satire rooted in a specific golden period shortly before WW1 ended innocence for ever.

Three friends, middle-class and comfortably off, who lead comfortable lives yet somehow come to convince themselves that they are ill, overworked and in desperate need of a relaxing holiday. Fatefully they choose a particularly complicated holiday in a camping skiff on The Thames. The preparation for this they, in their different ways, pursue with the same tail-wagging enthusiasm and general lack of forethought as their pet dog companion Montmorency. What results is a mixture of mischance leading inevitability to both comic disaster and moments of rare good fortune. It was for its readers a believable but comic version of the real minor misfortunes which could befall three male companions on such a camping holiday. In tone it resembles another Edwardian comic classic book "Diary of a Nobody" by George and Weedon Grosmith.

This production, though it shows consistent evidence of Stoppart's cleverness, just doesn't gel, is rather monotonous in tone and only entertains when it reproduces scenes from the book. This lack of clarity of concept is reflected in the disastrous casting. A mugging Michael Palin is uncomfortably placed between two talented and subtle actors. Tim Curry's character is clever - too clever - and morbidly droll indeed it is rather as if Stoppard himself had joined the trio - and having a comic-deadening effect on the proceedings.

The three characters in the book were neither idiots nor particularly smart. They were simply a bit spoilt, a bit naive and rather bored by work and their lives. The story is about how with an excess of enthusiasm - and deficit of thought - adults can make themselves appear ridiculous; ridiculous comic things can occur - in short, everything necessary to make a fondly long-remembered holiday.

And this was very much the character of the 1955 film version with the late and great David Tomlinson, Lawrence Harvey and Jimmy Edwards. Broad, never witty but entertaining I'd recommend the film version not this one. For work of comic genius the classic French film comedy "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" is both hilarious and human.

Works of comic genius are first and foremost comic - the genius is subtle and hidden. David Tomlinson invariably played a bit of a buffoon but hidden behind this was a self-effacing genius. Here as in his plays Stoppard makes his cleverness the talking point, he wears his art on his sleeve. But like the three men in the boat, the audience had instead set out in search of simple relaxation and fun.

I don't think it is quite as good as the 1956 David Tomblinson film, but what we have here is a charming adaptation of a classic book, that is worthy of a little more praise. True, some(emphasis on the some)of the camera-work is a little flat, but considering that it was made in the 70s, and made for TV, it can be forgiven, and it is rather short. The adaptation does look beautiful, with lovely English scenery and sumptuous costumes. The script is lovely, very lyrical and poetic with phrases such as "Dainty dress of spring", and is very true to the book, which is better admittedly. There is also some humour, especially with the chemistry between the two men and the scene in the Hampton Court Maze. Another mention is when Jerome is reading a book on diseases and convinces himself he has them all. I particularly liked Jerome's exclamation "Why does Harris look like a martyr goose?" It was really nice to see the wonderful Tim Curry in an early role, and I thought he was great as Jerome, and this is an example of a film where Curry shouldn't be dismissed as over the top person as he is made out to be. He is given top notch support by Michael Palin as Harris and Stephen Moore as George. All in all, a relaxing and perfectly watchable adaptation, with a 9/10 from me. Bethany Cox.

This was , I have to admit, a little disappointment. As a huge fan of the book, and looking at the cast, I definitely was expecting something better. What we have here is a nice illustration of the book, with some good intentions, but little more.

The first problem is: It's too slow. How they managed to cram the book into one hour and still make it slow-footed is beyond me, but they did.

The second problem is even bigger - they hired good comedy actors - and made them do nothing. Most of the movie is narrated in voice-over - taken from the book, but come on, that's no way to tell this story on screen! There's a lot of talent (and potential) wasted here.

There are a few scenes where the movie finds its pace (the tinned pineapple for example), but mostly it's just a narration (however funny) with fitting illustrations. 6/10 from me, and that's because I really love the text.

I just got this from [email protected] for 8.75 pounds (a bit under $18 incl shipping. Quality is okay, not amazing, but it's an old (1975) TV program. Stars Tim Curry. Screenplay by Tom Stoppard Based on Jerome K Jerome book Three Men In A Boat Shipping took about three weeks Well worth getting for Jerome fans Very funny. Decent production values. Is this ten lines yet? No. Okay: I just got this from [email protected] for 8.75 pounds (a bit under $18 incl shipping. Quality is okay, not amazing, but it's an old (1975) TV program. Stars Tim Curry. Screenplay by Tom Stoppard Based on Jerome K Jerome book Three Men In A Boat Shipping took about three weeks Well worth getting for Jerome fans Very funny. Decent production values.