writers_reign On stage this was reasonably funny but then on stage it wasn't lumbered with Dickie Attenborough trying desperately to turn in an inept performance, or Hywel Bennett and Roy Holder and a pathetic excuse for a music score. Hardly anyone comes out of this with any credit; you know a film is in trouble when you're constantly aware of how referential it is - the hiding the proceeds of a robbery in a coffin was done much more convincingly in Ocean's Eleven back in 1960, the nurse who offs her patient and then marries the widower is something of a cliché but if you want to see how the big boys do it take a swivel at Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity where Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson brings it off to a fare-thee-well. This would make great banjo picks.

pol-sigerson I am rarely tempted to add my own thoughts on any film on IMDb, but when the review for the black farce that is LOOT is compared less than favourably to WEEKEND AT BERNIES in all seriousness then even I feel I have to hitch up the keyboard and redress the situation.These are two films that are from totally different worlds.W.A.B's is an American teen romp, the kind that keep the tit and ass count down to get as many 15 year olds in to the multiplex, whilst LOOT is the second to last play written by Joe Orton the darling of the mid sixties theatre scene in London.Now I have never particularly liked LOOT as a play or as a film, preferring Entertaining Mr Sloane, Berly Reid's performance being worth the price of admission alone, but to compare it to W.A.B.'s is like comparing Hamlet to GHOST because of the presence of a spook in them. But it is easily a far superior film, yes it is a little creaky and the farce is shoe horned in but then that was Orton's style. LOOT is an example of the sad fag end of the sixties as they misfired to a close.I half expect to see Withnail and I come lurching over the horizon like spectres.Weekend At Bernies indeed.see also "Entertaining Mr.Sloane" and the bio pic "Prick Up Your Ears".

nickjg I wonder if it would be possible to re-edit this comic gem to eliminate the dreadful backing song(s). Its a play in which the absurdity of conventional attitudes is lampooned and the stirling performances by Milo O'Shea and Attenborough carry it off in the larger style required for big screen. It may mystify those hooked on two modern types of comedy film: those which mock the people who don't conform and those which don't ever rise beyond crude vaudeville. Loot sympathises with those who defy and subvert social codes. It has more in common with the intelligent humour of Harold and Maude or The Producers than with the raucous Eddie Murphy / Chevvy Chase shout-fests. Of course, its difficult. The hard of thinking may have to replay some of the one liners to appreciate the ironies - the targets are attitudes rather than personal blemishes. This is not the world of Joan Rivers either - there is no bitchy 'humour' Orton, while deliberately offending against 'good taste' never sets his sights on anything quite so grubby. The cast are all likable but absurd. Even in Orton's more bitchy plays like 'What the Butler Saw' he doesn't aim at vindictiveness - its the institution he undermines. Loot is satire, not sarcasm. The well paced direction and the crisp, non-self-indulgent acting make this a forgotten treat which should be revived, as it has been for such diverse actors as Leonard Rossiter and Kenneth Williams on stage within living memory.

Gorgeous-5 Er......that's because it is a play. A play PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY. Did I mention it is a well known play in England? It's a rather good play.