Three Men in a Boat
They are three friends with common interests, a shared love of young women and of boating, and a dislike of responsibility, bank clerk George pursued by Rose, Effie and Charlotte when he already has plans in Margate with Maisie, leading him to seek an escape even as “J” simultaneously feels the need for a few days away from his demanding wife Ethelbertha, while Harris is eager to avoid the eagle eye of Mrs Willis who expects him to propose to her daughter Clara forthwith.
A river holiday on “Old Father Thames” exactly what is needed, a break from the demands of life as they return to the simpler pleasures of punting and camping, they set out, three men in a boat accompanied by their dog Montmorency, moving upriver and leaving chaos in their wake through every interaction as they pursue the friendship of sisters Bluebell and Primrose Porterhouse and their friend Sophie Clutterbuck whom they first met while ashore at Hampton Court.
Regarded as a sensation when it was first published in 1889, Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) was originally intended as more of a guidebook than a stream of comic interludes, semi-autobiographical in that Jerome himself would boat with his close friends George Wingrave and Carl Hentschel, represented by J, George and Harris and played by Bedknobs and Broomsticks’ David Tomlinson, Room at the Top’s Laurence Harvey and Innocents in Paris’ Jimmy Edwards in director Ken Annakin’s filmed version.
At best considered a loose adaptation of the book, Three Men in a Boat was very successful upon release in late 1956 and is listed as the twelfth most popular film at the British box office for the following year, but unlike the enduring source material it has dated awkwardly, Jerome’s musings and observations replaced by a heavy-handed slapstick more suited to the medium of film where visual action overpowers inner monologue, Harvey in particular uncomfortable in a role for which he is poorly suited to although he never holds back in his performance.
The men fussing and faffing and lacking any notion of what is going on about them, a danger to themselves and to others through their irresponsible and boorish behaviour, sheltered from every responsibility and oblivious to every disaster they cause from leading a party into a hedge maze and abandoning them, bickering interminably as they attempt to construct a tent in a storm and colliding with other users of the river, casual and organised racers, it is as though the very essence of Boris Johnson were given its true and insufferable form.
The end result far from endearing or charming even as the super-saturated colour attempts to create an idyllic England that never was while soft-spoken and long suffering Jill Ireland, Lisa Gastoni and Shirley Eaton suffer the indignity of pursuit by unbearable man-children as was the lot of ladies of the time, on StudioCanal’s new restoration even President of the Jerome K Jerome Society Jeremy Nichols suggests that the BBC’s 1975 adaptation by Tom Stoppard is more faithful and enjoyable.
