Clockwise

Plot synopsis:
Brian Stimpson (Cleese), headmaster of Thomas Tompion Comprehensive School, has been elected to chair the annual Headmasters' Conference. Extremely disorganised as a young man, Stimpson is now obsessively organised and punctual, and his school runs "like clockwork". He is the first headmaster of a comprehensive school to chair the Headmasters' Conference, that honour usually being reserved for heads of the more elitist private schools.
Despite repetitive rehearsal of his speech and preparations for the journey to the conference, his ordered world unwinds as a series of misadventures plague him en route. He misses the train and loses the text of his speech. Stimpson searches for his wife at the hospital, but misses her. Along with a sixth form student called Laura he drives to the Conference himself. Stimpson's wife sees him at a petrol station, with Laura, and is angered that a student is able to attend the Conference but she is not. Stimpson's wife (who is looking after three senior women with strange personalities) drives after Stimpson and both parties forget to pay for the petrol. The police are called and, responding to calls from Laura's parents as well, attempt to find Stimpson and arrest him for kidnapping. Stimpson's wife, Laura's parents, the police and Mr. Jolly, a teacher at Thomas Tompion who is seeing Laura, all desperately head to the conference.
En route, Stimpson and Laura try to call the Conference by a telephone box. A local mistakes them for vandals when the phones don't work and calls the police. The local sends her daughter to speak to them, who turns out to be a childhood friend and former girlfriend of Brian Stimpson. Stimpson coerces her into driving them to the Conference.
The group drive into a field and get stuck in the mud whilst Stimpson's wife and the others arrive at the Conference, much to the annoyance of the headmasters. Brian goes to find help, but ends up having a bath at a nearby monastery. His ex girlfriend drives away in the car but is arrested for assaulting a police officer. Laura and Stimpson attempt to hitchhike. They are picked up by a wealthy car salesman, who they persuade to come for a walk in the woods. He and Stimpson swap clothes for 'fun' but Stimpson and Laura soon run away and steal his car.
Stimpson finally arrives at the conference in the ripped suit of the car salesman and gives an improvised, abrasive speech to the shocked headmasters. During his speech various characters including the old women, Mr. Jolly and Laura's parents walk into the hall. Finally, he directs all of the headmasters to stand and sing the hymn "To Be a Pilgrim", as he often would to his own pupils. He is then accosted by his disappointed wife, Laura's worried parents and several other parties he had hurt over the course of his journey. The film ends as he is led away by several policemen.

Tags: cult, comedy, satire

Review:
A much underrated comedy detailing the collapse of a stern, disciplinarian headmaster during a chaotic journey to deliver a speech at a convention of snobbish educationists.Cleese begins in a very restrained way and is watchable and funny as he gradually descends into anarchic despondency.
The most surprising things about this minor classic from the mid 80's are that it was director Christopher Morahan's first film since 1969, and Cleese's character is based on a real-life headmaster!
John Cleese based the character on the head of his daughter's school, and I can tell you the real life head is just as delightfully nutty as Stimpson.Time obsessed Mr Stimpton, head of an ordinary British state school finds himself chairman of the Headmasters Conference and has to get to Norwich to address their meeting.
Everything goes wrong on the way, despite Stimpson's meticulous planning, and due to his obsessive nature he gets more and more frayed at the edges as things go wrong.There are some great observations on human nature in a film which moves quick enough to keep you laughing but not so quick that you miss anything.
Intelligent, (maybe too clever and too British for the Americans at the time of release) extremely funny and a film one can watch over and over without it becoming stale.
If you like John Cleese's brand of comedy, it's on good display here.In its way, the movie is a simple comedy of errors.
And a very few which manage to pull it off, and remain funny to virtually everyone, over a period of several years.This John Cleese vehicle from the mid 1980s manages to fit into the latter category - it is simply such a very well crafted traditional comedy, that it is impossible not to be touched.Here we see Cleese very much in Basil Fawlty mode, as an aspiring head-teacher for whom things just don't run smooth when it really matters.The other classic elements of British Farce are there - major misunderstandings, people getting undresses, well-intentioned old ladies who say the wrong things at the wrong times, and of course Geoffrey Palmer as a straight man.And just a touch of poignant surrealism in the way the final minute leading into the credits is played out, to offset the traditional production values.It's straightforward, and unchallenging, and probably the best film about lateness ever made.
Aside from the great john Cleese, this film benefits from a great number of other positives, including a finely worked script; that manages to stay realistic and down to Earth despite the highly unlikely nature of much of the plot, and the highly farcical nature of many of the events; which bode extremely well with the lead star, as Cleese finds himself in his element in the role of the strict headmaster.
The comedy styling is one of "it can't get any worse!", and it continually does; as constantly punctual headteacher, Brian Stimpson, finds himself in a world of trouble after missing the train to Norwich, where he is set to make a speech to a meeting of the best headmasters in the country.
After acquiring the services of one of his sixth form pupils, he gets back on track to Norwich; but not without a number of problems.The comedy comes by way of both gags, and the plot itself, which always manages to garner a laugh or two due to its superbly silly nature.
Seeing John Cleese deliver an assembly towards the start will no doubt remind anyone that was schooled in England of that time, and Clockwise does a very good job of presenting it's plot and setting.
Brian Stimpson (John Cleese) is a headmaster on his way to a meeting, but one thing goes wrong after another.
In "Clockwise" John Cleese plays a character who has much in common with Basil Fawlty from the television series "Fawlty Towers".
On the way they kidnap a former girlfriend of Stimpson's whom they meet by accident, drive the car into a field and get stuck, find themselves in a monastery and, in their desperation to get to Norwich on time, end up holding up a passing motorist in order to steal his clothes, his money and his car.The film's central joke is that a man who is so obsessed with punctuality should find himself running very late in his attempts to get to the most important meeting of his life.
Although Stimpson is the sort of man that most people would automatically dislike if we were to meet him in real life, Cleese manages to arouse a certain sympathy for his character, whose sense of panic arises from a sense that he is the victim of circumstances, that the entire universe is united in a vast conspiracy to prevent him from fulfilling what should have been a relatively simple task.
There can be few of us who have not had, at some time or other, a similar feeling.Although the film is sometimes described as a farce, that word should not be taken as implying that it is a purely mechanical comedy; character also plays an important part.
Fortunately, Cleese is not only a very good technical comedian- his timing in this film is superb- but also a very good character actor.
Cleese also receives good support from the rest of the cast, particularly from Alison Steadman as his long-suffering wife Gwenda and Sharon Maiden as the wild and headstrong Laura, for whom driving her headmaster cross-country is a much more interesting way of spending her day than a few hours of boring lessons.The film is not quite in the same class as Palin's two great post-Python comedies, "The Missionary" and "A Private Function".
There are just too many hapless onlookers' reactions shown to generate laughs, that is a mark of a less-than-inspired comedy, but Cleese gives a fine, Fawlty-esque performance, that will impress all.
I read  comment from John Cleese where he said that the only countries where this film was successful were Sweden and England.
John Cleese plays an outstanding role as the extremely time conscious headmaster.
If you're a fan of John Cleese and good old-fashioned British comedy then there's a good chance you will like Clockwise.
Probably the largest reason for me liking this film was John Cleese, who once again shows what a gifted comedic actor he is.
It also doubles as a showcase for John Cleese, whom you will see here in an, as I think, far more complex and likable role than as Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers.In the DVD extra you can see Cleese wondering why this movie didn't fly in the USA, when several years later other "typically British" movies such as The Full Monty were roaring successes there.
Clockwise has got to be the most underrated film in movie history i watched it last night and i was laughing so hard till red in the face.
John Cleese is Mr stimpson who has to leave for norwich to a teachers school conference but ends up geting on the wrong train and from there it gets bad to worse but i don't want to tell the whole film in case no one watched this film.
Clockwise is sure a classic and i thought its better then A Fish Called Wanda giving this film 10/10.
I've never really been a big fan of John Cleese as I haven't seen much of the stuff he's done in the past, but I liked him in this movie.
Basically, headmaster Brian Stimpson (Cleese) has to get to Norwich for a very important and historical teachers' conference and, because of one silly mistake of getting on the wrong train because he misheared an instruction, he's left up the creek without a paddle!
I only wish the average Brit could know how very much so many Americans love their movies, whether it's a John Cleese comedy or Dirk Bogarde in "The Servant."  I have been making a point of seeing British (and other foreign) films since I first discovered them in my early teens with "Doctor in the House," which I was introduced to on a group date, followed by "Doctor at Sea" and "Carry on Nurse" and on and on and on.
Somewhere between the success of Fawlty Towers and A Fish Called Wanda, came Clockwise - a film about a Basil Fawlty-esque headmaster who is obsessed with time-keeping, yet finds himself increasing late for an important meeting in Norwich.Seeing as it was released between the two masterpieces, it's fitting that it sits between the two in terms of enjoyment.
Clockwise has a distinctly British feel to it, therefore, only people of a certain age will truly get it (my young daughter watched it and simply said 'Why don't they just use their mobile phones?' - ahh, to grow up in the 21st Century!).If you're a fan of Fawlty Towers and possibly the much under-rated Fierce Creatures, then you should definitely give this a go.
CLOCKWISE is an all-but-forgotten movie, a low budget and extremely British-feeling farce in which John Cleese, a man who's a stickler for being on time, struggles to get to an appointment.
Set over the course of a single day, it has an extremely simplistic narrative, and yet it's still one of my favourite comedies ever.Whether you like this film or not really depends on your sense of humour, as this is very British-feeling throughout (unlike A FISH CALLED WANDA, which ably mixed American and British tastes).
Personally, I think he's a comic genius, and his character here - a riff on Basil from FAWLTY TOWERS - is sheer brilliance.To say too much more would be to spoil things, suffice to say that the story is so well crafted that there's nary a slow moment and the laughs come thick and fast, mixing good old-fashioned slapstick comedy with character humour and repeated tropes which build up to a mantra come the climax.
I really enjoy this good British Film, by Thorn E.M.I. John Cleese is a very good actor and a funny man.
In this Classic of a movie we see Cleese very much in Basil Fawlty mode, as an aspiring head-teacher for whom things just don't run smooth when it really matters.
Clockwise is an absolutely underrated British Comedy Classic in which John Cleese, a man who's a stickler for being on time, struggles to get to an appointment.
Personally I think John Cleese is a comic genius, and his character here - a riff on Basil from Fawlty Towers is sheer brilliance.
I had altogether forgotten just how much John Cleese was a man ahead of his time.I haven't watched this film for many years and I actually thought it came to our screens much earlier than its recorded 1986 release date.It was some ten years after the showing of the series 'Fawlty Towers', which made John Cleese such a household name and which to some extent rather stereotyped him for any future television or film characters.The Cleese frenetic pace and energy was in abundance throughout 'Clockwise' and whilst some of the dialogue and situations were very much scripted, I feel certain that John added much of his own brand of wry wit and humour along the way.Almost every situation John found himself in, was of his own making, whilst at the same time I had to feel sorry for him, when circumstances conspired against him, at almost every turn.The ending in particular was very 'off the wall', even for a Cleese production and one can only imagine what might have happened once the dust had settled.
If there had ever been any doubt in anyone's mind that John Cleese was capable of sustaining an entire comedy movie without aid from the other members of Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Clockwise" should have convinced them.
As someone who was born in the early-80s, much of the decade remains a blur to me, but the mix of a Grange Hill-style school and a typically active Cleese performance for me, makes this a classic British comedy and helps to illustrate the world I grew up in.
The plot - which sees Cleese race against time to get to Norwich - is very on edge in a British kind of way.
There might have been a couple who could make it work, but John Cleese is the man that the character, Brian Stimpson, was written for.Only Cleese could pull off the crazy miscues as a proper, stiff-lipped and somewhat pompous common school headmaster.
"Clockwise" is a very forgettable movie with only one plus and that one plus is comical genius John Cleese.
As a Cleese fan you are of course way better of watching "Fawlty Towers" or the movie "A Fish Called Wanda".You are better of watching another comical movie, still the movie is a watchable one for on a rainy afternoon.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
Meanwhile on the road how eventful can a simple drive of less than 200 miles be?With John Cleese playing the sort of character he is well known for you pretty much know what you're going to get here in this precursor to Planes, Trains & Automobiles.
Brian Stimpson (John Cleese)is an uptight headmaster who likes everything and everyone to run like clockwork.
He is due to attend a conference in Norwich, but unfortunately this seemingly straight forward trip proves to be anything but this and Stimpson finds himself facing setback after setback.Whilst watching Clockwise, I couldn't help but feel that I was basically watching a feature-length episode of Fawlty Towers.
There's nothing wrong with any of this per se, but if you draw comparisons with Fawlty Towers (which it's almost impossible not to do if you've watched that series) then this film comes off as not being as well written or as funny.
Steadman has become reliable in later years, but I didn't think she was great in this film (although in fairness she wasn't given much to work with).Clockwise is a film that I would recommend watching, but it isn't a laugh riot and is only sporadically funny.
I know some people in the US that say to me "You must not really appreciate British Comedy if you don't like this movie".
I would rather watch John Cleese as Basil Fawlty or in A Fish Called Wanda.
Sadly this comedy misfires, although still makes for a quite watchable film, where we really get a kick of seeing Cleese's day get worse, all for being a stickler for time, where there are a few underlying messages under it's premise.
John Cleese plays Brian Stimpson, an efficient headmaster at an English school who, while on his way to a conference where he is to deliver a speech, misses his train, which launches him into an escalating series of misadventures as he desperately tries to reach the conference, no matter what...John Cleese is quite funny as the clock watching schoolmaster, and features a good cast of familiar British actors, but film is not all that funny really, being a one-joke premise stretched out to feature-length.
Also, unlike Cleese's more famous character(Basil Fawlty from "Fawlty Towers") Stimpson isn't really that bad, and doesn't deserve these calamities, which seem mean-spirited..
Unlike A fish Called Wanda, a true classic with real characters, Clockwise has empty people who are never developed throughout the story.
The bulk of the movie falls on the shoulders of John Cleese, who does a good job, but has nothing to work with.
The escalating absurdity of his efforts to arrive on time may lack the momentum and manic edge of classic screwball comedy, but the film ambles politely along, working up a fair amount of laughter as it leads the unfortunate Cleese into one increasingly desperate predicament after another.
John Cleese is the perfect choice for Brian Stimpson because said character is essentially Basil Fawlty and the setup wouldn't be out of place in that series, though it lacks the tightness that Cleese might have brought to a Towers script.
(This particular sequence, with the Morris 1100 driving over the fields, has an almost lyrical quality to it, especially to someone who spent most of his childhood holidays in a similar car).Stimpson then spends some time in a monastery, where the characters, like the senile ladies, are outside of time in the conventional sense - almost stuck in the middle ages - again the innocent happiness of those outside time is shown by the monk cheering on Cleese in his chase after the car.Finally Stimpson makes his last ditch attempt to reach the conference in a car stolen from someone who again, does not own it himself, and in a stolen suit which does not fit him which, in a hilarious counterpoint to his own crumbling identity, falls to pieces while he is wearing it.The only thing the film lacks is perhaps a little more background on what changed Stimpson from being a hopeless timekeeper to an obsessive one, and what happened to him after he was caught..
In the case of this film however, I was bored almost to the point of turning off the movie.Clockwise features entire scenes where characters do essentially nothing, or engage in so-called 'antics' that are virtually free of tension, suspense or humour.
Basically uptight school headmaster of Thomas Tompion Comprehensive School, Brian Stimpson (John Cleese), seems to follow a very strict schedule and always checks everything is running like clockwork.
Cleese manages to capture nearly the same incompetence as Basil Fawlty for his character, it is not your typical road movie comedy, it might not hilarious, but it is pretty funny stuff, so it's worth trying, at least once.
I had a great time watching the preposterous situations and Cleese's painful attempts to make things work out.Just the same SPOILERS the whole point of a road-trip film is to have one of two things happen.
But my problem with 'Clockwise' is, while it isn't a bad movie, it doesn't give possibly our greatest physical comedian, John Cleese, good enough material to make us laugh hard enough.