Run for Your Wife (2012 film)
Run for Your Wife is a UK-made 2012 film, based on the theatre farce Run for Your Wife, written by Ray Cooney, who produced and along with John Luton, also directed the film. The executive producer is Vicki Michelle.[1] Upon release the film was savaged by critics and has been referred to as one of the worst films of all time, after it grossed just £602 in its opening weekend at the British box office to its £900,000 budget.[2][3] It was released on 14 February 2013.
Plot
The story of London cab driver John Smith, with two wives, two lives and a very precise schedule for juggling them both. With one wife at home in Stockwell and another at home in Finsbury.
Trouble brews when Smith intervenes in a mugging. After being hit on the head, he ends up in hospital. This upsets his schedule and causes both wives to report him missing. Smith becomes hopelessly entangled in his attempts with his doltish ne'er-do-well neighbour downstairs in Stockwell, to explain himself to his wives and two suspicious police officers.[4]
Production
Over 80 celebrities agreed to make cameo appearances having all agreed to donate their fees to a theatrical charity.[5]
Reception
Run for Your Wife met with such overwhelmingly negative reviews upon release that the reviews themselves were widely reported in the UK media.[6] The film was variously described as "a catastrophe", "as funny as leprosy" and "30 years past its sell-by-date", with The Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw saying that it "makes The Dick Emery Show look edgy and contemporary".[7] The Independent's Anthony Quinn wrote, "The stage play ran for nine years – it [the film] will be lucky to run for nine days. Perhaps never in the field of light entertainment have so many actors sacrificed so much dignity in the cause of so few jokes... From the look of it, Cooney hasn't been in a cinema for about 30 years".[8] The cameo-heavy cast was commented upon by several reviewers, with the Metro commenting that "no one emerges unscathed among the cameo-packed cast that reads largely like a roll-call for Brit TV legends you'd previously suspected deceased".[9] The Daily Record described the film as "an exasperating farce containing not one single, solitary laugh. Comprised of people losing their trousers and falling over, the film looks like a pilot for a (mercifully) never-commissioned 70s sitcom".[10] An article in the Independent described Run for Your Wife (along with the similarly badly received Movie 43) as contenders for the title of the "worst film in history".[11] The Berkhamsted & Tring Gazette reported "critics have being queuing up to batter recent release Run for Your Wife, with general agreement that it ranks among the worst British comedies of all time".[12] The South African newspaper Daily News stated that "Run for Your Wife could be the worst film in history",[13] the Studio Briefing website reported that "Some writers are making the case that the British comedy Run for Your Wife, written by and starring comedian Ray Cooney, may be “the worst film ever"”,[14] and The Daily Mirror reported (a few months after its release) that Run For Your Wife "was branded the worst British film ever."[15]
Run for Your Wife currently has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[16]
Cast
- Danny Dyer – John Smith
- Denise van Outen – Michelle Smith
- Sarah Harding – Stephanie Smith
- Neil Morrissey – Gary Gardner
- Ben Cartwright – D. S. Troughton
- Nicholas Le Prevost – D. S. Porterhouse
- Kellie Shirley – Susie Browning
- Christopher Biggins – Bobby Franklin
- Lionel Blair – Cyril
- Jeffrey Holland – Dick Holland
- Derek Griffiths – Stockwell Police Officer
- Louise Michelle – Frances
- Nick Wilton – Taxi Driver
- Christopher Sweeney – Police Officer
Cameo roles (alphabetical)
- Russ Abbot – Hospital patient
- Robin Askwith – Bus driver
- Lynda Baron – Nurse
- Richard Briers – Newspaper seller
- Tony Britton – Man on bus
- Jess Conrad – Piano player
- Tom Conti – Actor
- Wendy Craig – Nanny
- Bernard Cribbins – Hospital patient
- Barry Cryer – Busker
- Ian Cullen – Wrinkled Man
- Pamela Cundell – War Widow
- Geoffrey Davies – Man in theatre queue
- Judi Dench – Bag lady
- Derek Fowlds – Man in hat
- William Gaunt – Man on bus
- Liza Goddard – Exercising woman
- Rolf Harris – Busker
- Nicky Henson – Hospital patient
- Louise Jameson – Doctors Receptionist
- Maureen Lipman – Exercising woman
- Vicki Michelle – Tourist
- Brian Murphy – Allotment man
- Derren Nesbitt – Man on bus
- Geoffrey Palmer – Man on toilet
- Bill Pertwee – Man on bus
- Su Pollard – Shopkeeper
- Cliff Richard – Busker
- Andrew Sachs – Clumsy waiter
- Prunella Scales – Woman at pub
- Jenny Seagrove – Taxi passenger
- Donald Sinden – Man on bus
- Sylvia Syms – Hip operation woman
- Frank Thornton – Man getting off bus
- Wanda Ventham – Lady on Bus
- Marcia Warren – Woman on seat
- Dennis Waterman – Minding Person
- Giles Watling – Man in pub
- Moray Watson – Man on bus
- Timothy West – Man in pub
- June Whitfield – Exercising woman
- Simon Williams – Café customer
- Mark Wingett – Man outside café
See also
References
- ↑ "Run For Your Wife". Run For Your Wife. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
- ↑ Danny Dyer's Run For Your Wife takes just £602 at the box office Radio Times, 20 February 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
- ↑ "Danny Dyer's 'Run For Your Wife' flops with £747 at the box office". Digital Spy. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
- ↑ Run for Your Wife, Full Cast and Crew, IMDB
- ↑ Ray Winstone, Cliff Richard waive cameo fee for Danny Dyer film Digital Spy, 2 August 2011.
- ↑ 'Run for Your Wife' – Is this the worst movie ever filmed? Yahoo Movies – UK & Ireland, 16 February 2013.
- ↑ Run for Your Wife – review The Guardian, 14 February 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
- ↑ Film review: Run for Your Wife The Independent (London), 14 February 2013.
- ↑ Run for Your Wife – 'As funny as leprosy' The Independent (London), 15 February 2013.
- ↑ Movie Review: Run for your wife Daily Record, 15 February 2013.
- ↑ Run For Your Wife: Is this movie the biggest turkey ever filmed? The Independent. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
- ↑ "Run for Your Wife", Berkhamsted & Tring Gazette, 11 March 2013.
- ↑ "Movie may be the biggest Turkey ever", Daily News,South Africa, February 21, 2013.
- ↑ THE WORST FILM IN HISTORY? Studio Briefing, February 21, 2013.Retrieved March 7, 2015.
- ↑ Danny Dyer's film company went bust with debt to taxpayer of £25,000 Daily Mirror, 6 October 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
- ↑ Run for Your Wife. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 28 January 2015.