Review of Two Way Stretch

Introduction

I`ve always known Peter Sellers as the man behind Inspector Clouseau, surely one of the funniest comedy characters of all time. But the Pink Panther movies displayed only one facet of his talent, and before his premature death, he left a body of work that reflected that. Having two of the four films from the Peter Sellers Collection to review, I thought that I`d get a better idea of what he was capable of as an actor. This then is Two Way Stretch, disc three in that aforementioned collection.

Dodger Lane and his gang, Jelly Knight (geddit?) and Lennie Price are taking it easy in prison, waiting for their imminent parole. They have an easy life, putting their feet up and enjoying the finer things in life, courtesy of a complacent Prison Officer and a reform minded Warden. One day, in the guise of a man of the cloth, conman Soapy Stevens pays them a visit with a plan for an ambitious jewel heist worth 2 million. All the gang has to do is sneak out of prison underneath the unwary guards, steal the jewels, and sneak back in, giving them a perfect alibi. Dodger Lane is sceptical about Soapy`s intentions but agrees to the plan. All seems to be in order, but when the Prison Officer retires, his replacement turns out to be strict disciplinarian, Chief P.O Crout, a harsh and vindictive man, who vows to crack down on layabouts Lane and co, and watches them with an eagle eye. Suddenly breaking out for the heist seems impossible.

Video

The picture is presented in a 4:3 monochrome transfer. I think the picture has been transferred as is, from the original print with no attempt made at restoration whatsoever. The film is dirty, showing signs of damage, whether it is scratches or stains, missing frames or lines. What`s worse is the image quality. The picture seems overexposed, with brighter scenes seeming too intense and the brightness over-saturated and smearing out. I`d expect this quality of print to date from the forties rather than 1960.

Audio

Two Way Stretch boasts an English 2.0 mono track, which is marginally better than the picture quality. The dialogue is clear fortunately, but there is a constant hiss, and the higher frequency sounds are often distorted. The music is initially jaunty and provides a jack the lad character to the film, but becomes rapidly tedious through repetition.

Features

This is pitiful, to be frank. The menu, such as it is, is a static picture over which the theme plays. You can either play the film or choose a chapter, but that is it. There are no subtitles at all, and there is not even a trailer. For a film that is part of the Peter Sellers Collection, there is nothing at all about the man himself. You would expect interview footage, documentaries, commentaries, or a biography at least. It`s a crying shame that such an opportunity was wasted.

Conclusion

If it weren`t for the fact that this film was made in 1960, I would have thought it a poor imitation of Porridge. Much of the situations in the prison are reminiscent of the television series, but the characters are more caricature than anything else. The smart talking and savvy Dodger Lane, played by Peter Sellers is the Fletcher of this particular prison and Bernard Cribbins` Lennie Price is the Godber. David Lodge plays Jelly Knight and is Dodger`s yes man. Wilfrid Hyde White plays his usual amiable old man as Soapy Stevens. As you would expect, it`s an us versus them scenario in the prison, and the complacent governor played by Maurice Denham is hampered rather than helped by tough `screw` Prison Officer Crout played wonderfully by Lionel Jeffries. He`s a cross between Porridge`s Mackay and the Sergeant Major from It Ain`t Half Hot Mum. He`s deliciously sadistic and the perfect foil for Dodger Lane`s plans.

Two Way Stretch doesn`t quite pull it off. The film is pretty much dead for the first half hour while it tries to develop the characters. We get an extended look at the easy life that the prisoners have in Huntleigh Prison, and see just how smart Dodger Lane really is. This soon became tedious and I found my attention wandering, waiting for the story to start. This is not a good thing in a film that is only 84 minutes long. However things soon perk up when new Prison Officer Crout arrives and watching the confrontation and one-upmanship between Crout and Lane is very entertaining and provide most of the laughs in the movie. Sadly this is all lost, when Lane and his gang escape and the film moves to the heist. By then the caricatured performances and dull comedy were really starting to grate and the end felt like an anticlimax that couldn`t come too soon. This film would have been better had they jettisoned the robbery storyline, better developed the characters and focused on the animosity between Crout and Lane. But I guess then that I would have been watching Porridge.