Clockwise (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clockwise

Directed by	Christopher Morahan
Produced by	Michael Codron
Written by	Michael Frayn
Starring	John Cleese Penelope Wilton Stephen Moore
Music by	George Fenton
Cinematography	John Coquillon
Editing by	Peter Boyle
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	11 July 1986
Running time	96 min.
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Clockwise is a 1986 British comedy film starring John Cleese. It was directed by Christopher Morahan, written by Michael Frayn and produced by Michael Codron. The film was co-produced by Moment Films and Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. The music in the film was composed by George Fenton.

[edit] Overview

The film centres on Brian Stimpson (played by Cleese), the successful but obsessive headmaster of Thomas Tompion comprehensive school. Having been habitually late and disorganised as a young man, he has grown up to become famously punctual, and his school runs 'like clockwork'. On the way to a headmasters' conference at which he is a speaker many misfortunes befall him and his ordered world begins to unwind in a way reminiscent of Greek tragedy. A Morris 1100 car, similar to the Austin 1300 beaten with a stick by Cleese in Fawlty Towers episode 'Gourmet Night', plays a key role in the plot of this film.

Michael Frayn's screenplay has a different opening, involving illuminated digits on a clock radio, Cleese waking up when the alarm goes off and Cleese seen naked and wet in the shower ("a sight few of us expected to see in our lifetime").

John Cleese in Clockwise

For his performance in the film, Cleese won the 1987 Peter Sellers Award For Comedy at the Evening Standard British Film Awards.

The school used in the beginning of the film (where Cleese was Headmaster) was Menzies High School, in West Bromwich (West Midlands). King Edward's School, a private boys' day school and the east entrance to the University of Birmingham, both in Edgbaston, Birmingham, were also used as filming locations, as were Hull railway station and Grimsby's Scartho Road Hospital (now called Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital). The entrance to the on-screen hospital (in which the car Cleese and others are seen driving out of) is actually the entrance to the Scartho Road Cemetery in Grimsby. The character of Mr Stimpson, played by Cleese, was based on a real headmaster at his daughter's school.