A film well remembered from my youth, the first full feature from writer / director Bill Forsyth who later achieved greater success with films like "Gregory's Girl", "Comfort And Joy" and especially "Local Hero" before he "went Hollywood" and paradoxically lost his way.
Here, on a miniscule budget and working with young fledgling actors, he delivers a refreshing and often very funny comedy, set in and around a Glasgow I remember very well from the late 1970's, rainy, run-down and awaiting regeneration while its own young generation struggled to find jobs and earn money in Jim Callaghan's "Crisis What Crisis" Britain. I wouldn't say it was absolutely essential to be Scots or in particular Glasgow-born to get the situations and humour but it probably helps, particularly with the everyday Glasgow accents uttered by every character here.
The plot is a simple one, unemployed teenager Ronnie, after a failed attempt at suicide with cornflakes and milk, concocts a foolproof plan to make money for him and his small coterie of like-minded on-the-dolers. It simply involves relieving a local warehouse of a supply of kitchen sinks which sell for big money on the open market. This plan involves procuring a getaway van which turns out to belong to the local bakery but which comes with its near comatose driver who's been knocked out by a concoction of drugs put in his tea and also diverting the security man with two of the boys dragging up and leading the randy guard away, if not quite astray.
Shot in recognisable locations of the city at the time, the film is an absolute delight. The gags are quick and genuinely funny, my absolute favourite being the "Definitely no chocolate doughnuts" police A. P. B. Which goes out when the gang accidentally steals another bakery van. There are sight gags, running gags, gentle gender-bending gags and lots of local scenery besides for a nostalgist like me to recall.
One or two of the young actors unsurprisingly come across as a little nervous and therefore unnatural in front of the camera but in the main, they all perform ably. I personally believe that Forsyth never topped what he achieved here. My main carp would probably be the cheap and somewhat incongruous cocktail jazz soundtrack which often fills up the background and sounds as if it was flown in from U. S. sitcoms of the day like "Soap" or "Taxi" but otherwise Forsyth shows it's possible to create comedy gold in a film without throwing the kitchen sink at it.
Here, on a miniscule budget and working with young fledgling actors, he delivers a refreshing and often very funny comedy, set in and around a Glasgow I remember very well from the late 1970's, rainy, run-down and awaiting regeneration while its own young generation struggled to find jobs and earn money in Jim Callaghan's "Crisis What Crisis" Britain. I wouldn't say it was absolutely essential to be Scots or in particular Glasgow-born to get the situations and humour but it probably helps, particularly with the everyday Glasgow accents uttered by every character here.
The plot is a simple one, unemployed teenager Ronnie, after a failed attempt at suicide with cornflakes and milk, concocts a foolproof plan to make money for him and his small coterie of like-minded on-the-dolers. It simply involves relieving a local warehouse of a supply of kitchen sinks which sell for big money on the open market. This plan involves procuring a getaway van which turns out to belong to the local bakery but which comes with its near comatose driver who's been knocked out by a concoction of drugs put in his tea and also diverting the security man with two of the boys dragging up and leading the randy guard away, if not quite astray.
Shot in recognisable locations of the city at the time, the film is an absolute delight. The gags are quick and genuinely funny, my absolute favourite being the "Definitely no chocolate doughnuts" police A. P. B. Which goes out when the gang accidentally steals another bakery van. There are sight gags, running gags, gentle gender-bending gags and lots of local scenery besides for a nostalgist like me to recall.
One or two of the young actors unsurprisingly come across as a little nervous and therefore unnatural in front of the camera but in the main, they all perform ably. I personally believe that Forsyth never topped what he achieved here. My main carp would probably be the cheap and somewhat incongruous cocktail jazz soundtrack which often fills up the background and sounds as if it was flown in from U. S. sitcoms of the day like "Soap" or "Taxi" but otherwise Forsyth shows it's possible to create comedy gold in a film without throwing the kitchen sink at it.