The Comic Strip, Part 18 - The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Lemmy from Motörhead

"Eat the Rich" - Feature Film 1987

There is one thing that immediately separates this one from all of the other Comic Strips I've run into so far. IT IS NOT IN THE BOX!

Go to epguides.com and look at the episode list. There it is. Wikipedia lists it too. ARRRGH! How can I watch them all if they are not all in the box that is labeled "Complete Set," hmmmm?

You drop $7.00 at Amazon.com, that's how.

And that's what I did.

Check out that ugly cover. I spent $7.00 to purchase something that looks like that. Apart from the fact that the faces on the cover all somewhat resemble actors that appear in the film, the cover has nothing to do with the film.

And what is the deal with the film? Is it a Comic Strip Presents film or not? It is a Richardson/Richens script, directed by Richardson, and not only are the core Comic Strip performers all on hand, but they are credited like this:


Ah hah.

These folks are on hand for glorified cameos. Along with a sizeable number of, well everybody. Paul McCartney wanders through for a line. Bill Wyman is credited as "Toilet Victim." There is a ton of people that went right past me without even registering who they were - although I have to admit that even though I know who, for example, Koo Stark and Sandie Shaw are, I wouldn't put money on my getting them picked out of a line-up. The real interest for the (and I am afraid that I am now a) Comic Strip aficionado is that all of the folks who have starring roles in this film are the ones who have been hiding in the background in all of the television episodes: designated thugs Nosher Powell and Ron Tarr, imposing soap actor Ronald Allen, former fifties pinup starlet Sandra Dorne and taking the lead -- you guessed it -- Lanah Pellay!


This movie plays like the scripts for Repo Man and some hack Frederick Forsythe imitation were shuffled together and then directed by John Waters. About 15 minutes in, the British Home Secretary, Nosher Powell (not just played by Nosher Powell, the script has Nosher Powell, the individual, actually becoming the Home secretary. For those going "Huh," I offer the wikipedia entry on Nosher Powell here.) foils a terrorist attack by swinging through a plate glass window and kicking the snot out of everyone. He finishes off by intimidating the Palestinian terrorist played by Shane MacGowan from The Pogues so much that they make peace with Israel. At least I think that's what happens. Neither Powell nor MacGowan are much for enunciation.

And then once the first third is over the whole thing sort of slows down. It is a piece of casting brilliance to have someone like Lanah Pellay as Alex, the down on his luck waiter who has no choice but to speak out and ends up leading a small ragtag band of insurgents to try to fight against a corrupt system. This is not because it turns out that Pellay is actually charismatic enough to carry a picture, it is because the character is so fucking dull that if he weren't played by someone who is so over the top, the whole movie could go by without the audience even noticing him.

I feel bad being harsh on this movie, because I think that it is a good one. There have been a number of films that I've been bored with the first time through and then grown to like with repeat viewings, and after a while, I've come to recognize them when I am having the bad first time through. This feels like one of those.

One of the things that I enjoy about doing this is that each one makes me broaden my horizons just a bit more. This one made me want to go out and find a Motörhead album. They did the soundtrack. I liked it. There. I admitted it. Happy now?