Movie Review - The Case Of The Muckinese Battle Horn

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1956 - spoiler alerts One of the few Goon shows to transfer from radio to the movies, this 30 minute comedy gem is still laugh out loud hysterical 60 years on. Peter Sellers Is Inspector Quilt, A Scotland Yard detective who probably inspired Sellers's later role as Clouseau. He is assigned to find a stolen Muckinese (Mucky knees?) battle horn taken from a museum. He is aided and abetted or obstructed by many eccentric bizarre crazy characters. Various zany gags follow thick and fast. The Femme Fatale is the ultimate red herring, only present at all because she is the producer's girlfriend. The police photographer arrives at crime scenes, takes photos of the police and leaves. When the police tell the main suspect that all the King's men can't save him the Three Musketeers turn up to do just that. A street corner busker plays the stolen horn but the cops walk by him without noticing, etc. Two Goon show characters appear in the film, Henry & Minnie Bannister. Other characters are voiced very like their radio show counter-parts. While Sellers & Spike Milligan take part, Harry Seacombe, then becoming a singer and movie actor of some demand, was too expensive so his roles were taken by a debuting actor / comedian called Dick Emery (who would be very popular for his own sketch shows in the 1970's. Utterly brilliant timeless comedy. A clip from the film on Youtube Arthur Chappell