Down Among the Z Men (1952)
1h 11m | PG-13
The Goon Show hits the big screen. Professor Pure Heart absent-mindedly loses the top secret formula in Harry Jones' Grocery Shop. "Bats of the Yard", as Harry calls himself, finds it and attempts to return it to the Professor.
Director: Maclean Rogers
Studio: E.J. Fancey Productions
Genre: Comedy
Video: 720p
Cast
Peter Sellers
as Major Bloodnok
Spike Milligan
as Pvt. Eccles
Harry Secombe
as Harry Jones
Michael Bentine
as Prof. Osrick Pureheart
Robert Cawdron
as Sergeant Bullshine
Graham Stark
as Spider
Reviews
I was never a great fan of any of the "Goons" so approached this with quite a bit of trepidation. Sadly, it is all rather silly and presented in such a stilted fashion as to appear to have been rehearsed to within an inch of it's life - totally devoid of anything that looked convincingly genuine or spontaneous. There is a storyline involving a rather flaky professor who leaves a top secret formula in a grocer's shop. When he attempts to return it, he is mistaken for one of the "Z" (British army reservists) men, dragooned into the army and soon exposed to criminals who are also after this scientific boon. Curiously enough, there are one or two quite redeeming musical performances dotted throughout this featuring Carole Carr and Harry Secombe; but the performances of his fellow goons - Messrs. Bentine, Sellars and Milligan - really have suffered badly from the ravages of time, so much as to make this pretty unwatchable to all but real "Goonies".