Steptoe and Son (film)

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Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son (film) poster.jpg
Film poster by Arnaldo Putzu
Directed byCliff Owen
Written byRay Galton
Alan Simpson
Produced byAida Young
StarringWilfrid Brambell
Harry H. Corbett
Carolyn Seymour
CinematographyJohn Wilcox
Edited byBernard Gribble
Music byRoy Budd
Jack Fishman
Ron Grainer
Production
company
Distributed byMGM-EMI Film Distributors
Release date
  • 7 January 1972 (1972-01-07)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£100,000[1][2] or £178,000[3]
Box office£500,000[4]

Steptoe and Son is a 1972 British comedy drama film and a spin-off from the popular British television comedy series of the same name about father-and-son rag-and-bone dealers. It starred Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett as the eponymous characters, Albert and Harold Steptoe respectively, and features Carolyn Seymour. A sequel, Steptoe and Son Ride Again, was released the following year.[5]

Plot

During a stag do at a local football club, Harold meets one of the acts, a stripper called Zita. After a whirlwind romance, the couple are married, although the actual wedding ceremony is delayed when Albert, acting as best man, loses the ring somewhere in the yard. They eventually find it in a pile of horse manure, and since they have no time to clean up, the smell of the manure on their clothes has noses twitching in church.

Harold and Zita fly to Spain for their honeymoon, but Albert refuses to be left behind. His constant presence begins to drive a wedge between Harold and Zita. When they are finally alone and begin to consummate their marriage, they are interrupted by Albert's cries of distress from the adjoining room, and discover that he has contracted food poisoning from some of the local cuisine.

The only available flight back home at short notice has only two seats, and Harold feels obliged to fly home with Albert, leaving Zita in Spain to follow as soon as possible. Back home, Albert quickly recovers, while Harold frets over Zita not writing. When he finally receives delayed postcards and a letter from her, she tells him she has decided their marriage cannot work and has taken up with a British holiday rep at the hotel where they were staying. Harold is heartbroken, and, despite his earlier scheming to get rid of Zita, Albert is sympathetic.

Some months later, Harold tracks down Zita and finds that she is pregnant, and when he assumes he is the father she does not disabuse him. Harold offers to take care of them both and persuades Zita to go with him, but on returning home Albert makes it clear that he does not like her and she flees. A short while later, the two men find a baby in the horse's stable. Harold assumes that the child is Zita's, and, with Albert's help, takes on its rearing. They argue over what name to give the baby, with Albert insisting he have his name, and Harold eventually compromises by naming him Albert Jeremy at the christening but always refers to him as Jeremy.

Returning from work one day, Harold finds the baby has been taken from his pram while Albert was asleep. An unsigned note left in the pram convinces Harold it is from Zita wanting the child back. Searching for her, Harold comes across her stripping in a local rugby club where she is grabbed by some men in the audience. Attempting to save her, Harold is beaten up and is only rescued when Zita and her musician save him by taking him into her dressing room. Harold hears a baby's cries but, when he pulls back a curtain, he finds a mixed-race baby. It turns out that Zita and her musician, who is black, are a couple. Harold then realises that 'Jeremy' was not Zita's baby and was not his child.

Cast

Production

The film had investment from the Robert Stigwood Organisation.[6]

Reception

The film was a success at the box office and made a profit of five times its cost.[1][2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b Alexander Walker, National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties, Harrap, 1985 p 114
  2. ^ a b NAT KING COHEN: To the cinema-going public he is the name at the start of the credits, But to the industry he is a dominant force in production, dustribution, and exhibition Murari, Tim. The Guardian (1959-2003) 17 November 1973: 9.
  3. ^ Oakes, Philip (20 August 1972). "Digging for TV Treasure". The Sunday Times. No. 7784. p. 38.
  4. ^ Ooh, you are awful, film men tell Tories. David Blundy. The Sunday Times (London, England), Sunday, 16 December 1973; p. 5; Issue 7853. (939 words) – this article Cohen says the budget was £200,000.
  5. ^ "Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973)".
  6. ^ City comment: Thanks to the pound Swan, Hunter; Stigwood, Robert. The Guardian 2 August 1972: 16.
  7. ^ Harper, Sue (2011). British Film Culture in the 1970s: The Boundaries of Pleasure: The Boundaries of Pleasure. Edinburgh University Press. p. 269. ISBN 9780748654260.

External links

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