Review for Keep it Up Downstairs

Good God! What on earth happened to the British film industry during the early to mid-1970’s? By that time every jobbing TV and film actor was busy demeaning themselves in some variation of low-budget comedy soft-porn. Even stalwarts like Arthur Askey, Leslie Philips, Irene Handl, Arthur Lowe, and John Le Mesurier were happy to plummet these previously uncharted depths to earn a pay check.



This question doesn’t come from a prudish standpoint. To the contrary I like a good sex comedy as much as the next man but there was something beyond puerile about the ‘Confessions’ films and their ilk. Which is why they’re so damned fascinating to watch.
Their lineage is straight from Carry On which in turn was from Max Miller, George Formby and the music hall. But whilst carry On’s relied on smutty suggestion and double meanings, what followed no longer could. So what we get here with ‘Keep it Up Downstairs’ is a film that is caught between titillating with nudity and literal sex whilst trying to retain something of the bawdy music hall suggestion. Which just doesn’t work. Of course, it’s all horribly low-budget too which doesn’t help.


Having said that, the film is no better and no worse than many others of its ilk. (If it’s a genre and period that interests you I wholeheartedly recommend the excellent book ‘Keeping the British End Up’ by Simon Sheridan). 


What’s most curious about these films is who worked on and in them. Here we have Michael Nyman (he of ‘The Piano’ fame) writing and conducting the score (his first) as well as a cast which is a veritable who’s who of TV personalities of the time. Diana Dors, Willie Rushton, Jack Wild (past his child actor best) and others all clumsily connected via this saucy pantomime of a film.


Intended as a pastiche (no s**t Sherlock) of ‘Upstairs Downstairs’, the official forerunner of Downton Abbey, the film was a swift follow-up to cash in on the surprising success of ‘Can you Keep it Up for a Week’ which was set in contemporary Britain. In true Carry On cash-in style, Pyramid Films felt it was a franchise that may have legs and decided to try the parody approach of the TV show. 
It starts as it means to go on – with some pretty poor smutty gags. It’s set in ‘Cockshute Towers’ a large country house (actually Knebworth) where all the inhabitants, upstairs and downstairs, are sex obsessed. Well most. Jack Wild gets to play the part of a great innocent who, despite the unsubtle advances of Lady Cockshute (adult film star Mary Millington), never seems to catch on and remains obsessed with his laboratory work where he seems to inadvertently be developing the first condom. As you do.



There is a wafer thin story line where it becomes apparent that the estate is bankrupt and it’s agreed that everyone should pull together to raise the cash to keep things afloat. There’s plenty of saucy humour and innuendo as well as bare bottoms and boobies in abundance. (A fleeting moment of full frontal nudity seems to have escaped the censors eye though not this eagle-eyed reviewer’s!) There are also frequent moments of barely disguised sexual activity so not one for the kids. This X-rated film really is an 18.


Though it failed to raise many laughs for me I do confess to some mild amusement during a sequence when a couple are making love under a table during a family conference and mis-placed caresses are mistakenly taken as signals of affection. (Very much like ‘Carry on Jungle’ when the snake goes under the table).
However, for the most part it’s as dull as dishwater and several of the cast fail to deliver much beyond their contracted presence (Notably Jack Wild, Diana Dors and Willie Rushton).


Keep It Up Downstairs has been released in the UK by Network as part of their ‘The British Film’ initiative and is presented in both 1.66:1 (anamorphically enhanced) and original un-cropped full-frame. As is common with prints that have done the rounds, the titles are a bit speckly but it soon settles down and is a good transfer of a nicely shot film.



The extras are pretty standard stuff with an original trailer and some production stills though if you access the disc on your PC there is a rather nice original 4-page press book, a page of which I have generously added above for your delectation.


You’ll know if this type of film is your bag. If it is, for whatever reason, then you’ll be as pleased as I am that we live in times when even a marginal film like this gets a proper release. Thanks and respect due to the fine folk at Network – again.