Synopsis: Timothy Bartlett (Norman Wisdom) is in a career and romance rut, working a dull banking job and being ignored by his busy wife Margaret (Sally Bazely). When his superior takes ill, Timothy replaces him at a seaside conference of snooty bankers, where he's more or less hijacked by the wild and sexually provocative Nikki (Sally Geeson) and her best friend Meg (Sarah Atkinson). Straying from the uptight convention boors, he frequents the disco clubs and finds that bedding Nikki is no problem. But sorting out his feelings afterwards isn't as easy ... he thinks he's in love with this casual bird.
What's Good for the Goose, now on DVD from Image Entertainment, threatens several times to become a serious film about human relationships but opts instead for cheap jokes. Norman Wisdom mugs well enough to carry the show but neither the script nor the direction generates much interest.
With the British film industry more or less falling apart, late 1960s mid-range domestic fare began to fall in quality. This thrown-together show looks like a quickie package deal between Tigon's Tony Tenser and actor Wisdom. The promising director Menahem Golan (Francis Coppola once named Golan as the Roger Corman acolyte who would really go places) later formed Cannon Films and made a brief mark on the independent film scene. Here his contribution is a limp attempt to ape Richard Lester's comedy style. Fast-motion scenes crop up whenever the action slows down, which is frequently. Bartlett's workaday existence is played at the Carry On level, minus the jokes. Hot-to-trot teens Nikki and Meg are painful male fantasies from an obsolete paisley-Mod world. They're given few character traits beyond a desire to hop into bed with whoever strikes their fancy. Even though they say they're sleeping under the pier, Meg and Nikki are always freshly scrubbed, decked out in fresh new outfits and ready to party. The plot mixes silly-ass comedy at the bankers' convention (babbling speakers, exaggerated snobbery), visual eyestrain at the nightclub (frantic zooms, phony young hipsters) and forced sneak-to-the bedroom slapstick at Bartlett's hotel.
The three talented ladies on view deserved much better. Cute Sally Geeson has a sweet personality and surely could have tackled a deeper character. Sarah Atkinson also hints at more potential. All the parts are underwritten, especially Sally Bazely's wife, who ranges from frigid to affectionate without any rhyme or reason. Clearly aimed at what the grindhouses called 'undemanding audiences,' Goose avoids character confrontation even when the story begs for it.
The interest then, is purely cultural curiosity. Bartlett beds his new girl and takes her for a nude swim, etc. His wife shows up for a tiresome third act in which he tries to get her to dress mod and stop wearing curlers to bed, etc.. She never seems to find out about his straying. Wisdom's character pauses once or twice to reflect on his predicament, but neither he nor the scriptwriters find anything to say.
Salvation's DVD of What's Good for the Goose is an acceptable but undistinguished transfer with a clear audio track for the novelty title song ("Quack Quack!") and the not-bad music of the featured band, The Pretty Things. The R-Rated release presents the film in "its 1:33 theatrical ratio" as opposed to a correct 1:66. The cover features Wisdom sporting a goonish grin in front of a sexy painted nude model, the likes of which appears nowhere in the movie.
For more information about What's Good For the Goose, visit Image Entertainment. To order What's Good for the Goose, go to TCM Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
