The Naked Truth (1957 film)
Encyclopedia
The Naked Truth is a 1957
British film
comedy starring Peter Sellers
, Terry-Thomas
and Dennis Price
. Peggy Mount
, Shirley Eaton
and Joan Sims
also appear. It was produced and directed by Mario Zampi
and written by Michael Pertwee
.
er who threatens to publish embarrassing secrets in his magazine The Naked Truth. After attempting to blackmail a famous scientist (who commits suicide), and an MP (who suffers a heart attack in parliament, and probably succumbs), his latest targets are Lord Henry Mayley (Terry-Thomas), television host Sonny MacGregor (Peter Sellers), writer Flora Ransom (Peggy Mount), and model Melissa Right (Shirley Eaton).
Several of them decide independently that murder would be a better solution than paying. However, it is Mayley who by sheer bad luck nearly ends up the victim of both MacGregor's and Ransom's schemes. The four eventually join forces and try again. That attempt also fails, but Dennis is then arrested for an earlier crime.
When Dennis threatens to reveal all at his trial, Mayley comes up with a scheme to break him out of prison and send him to South America, with the help of hundreds of Dennis's other victims. They phone in numerous fake calls for help, distracting the London police, while Mayley, MacGregor, and MacGregor's reluctant assistant Porter (Kenneth Griffith), disguised as policemen, wisk Dennis away.
Knocking Dennis unconscious periodically, they finally end up in the fully enclosed cabin of a blimp
on the way to a rendezvous with an outbound ship. To their dismay, when he comes to, Dennis refuses to go along with their plan, as he in fact never wanted to reveal any of their secrets in front of court. He was, in fact, winning the trial anyway. He reveals the evidence were his copies of "The Naked Truth", who were destroyed by the plotters earlier, unintentionally freeing Dennis of all charges.
Unaware of where he is, and happy to have outsmarted his opponents again, he then steps out for some air and plummets to the ocean below. However, when MacGregor celebrates by shooting his pistol, it punctures the blimp, which comically shoots away into the distance.
1957 in film
The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...
British film
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
comedy starring Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
, Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...
and Dennis Price
Dennis Price
Dennis Price was an English actor, remembered for his suave screen roles, particularly Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and for his portrayal of the omniscient valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G...
. Peggy Mount
Peggy Mount
Margaret Rose "Peggy" Mount OBE, was an English actress of stage and screen. She was perhaps best known for playing battleaxe characters, though her real personality was said to have been far removed from such roles. She was also well-known for her distinctive voice.- Early life :Mount was born in...
, Shirley Eaton
Shirley Eaton
Shirley Eaton is an English actress.Eaton appeared regularly in British films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and achieved notability for her performance as Bond Girl Jill Masterson in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger...
and Joan Sims
Joan Sims
Joan Sims was an English actress best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films, and latterly for playing Madge Hardcastle in As Time Goes By.-Early life:...
also appear. It was produced and directed by Mario Zampi
Mario Zampi
Mario Zampi was a film producer and director. A co-founder of Two Cities Films, he is most closely associated with British comedies of the 1950s....
and written by Michael Pertwee
Michael Pertwee
Michael Pertwee was a British playwright and screenwriter. Among his credits were episodes of The Saint, Danger Man, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, B-And-B, Ladies Who Do, and many other films and TV series....
.
Plot
Nigel Dennis (Dennis Price) is a blackmailBlackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
er who threatens to publish embarrassing secrets in his magazine The Naked Truth. After attempting to blackmail a famous scientist (who commits suicide), and an MP (who suffers a heart attack in parliament, and probably succumbs), his latest targets are Lord Henry Mayley (Terry-Thomas), television host Sonny MacGregor (Peter Sellers), writer Flora Ransom (Peggy Mount), and model Melissa Right (Shirley Eaton).
Several of them decide independently that murder would be a better solution than paying. However, it is Mayley who by sheer bad luck nearly ends up the victim of both MacGregor's and Ransom's schemes. The four eventually join forces and try again. That attempt also fails, but Dennis is then arrested for an earlier crime.
When Dennis threatens to reveal all at his trial, Mayley comes up with a scheme to break him out of prison and send him to South America, with the help of hundreds of Dennis's other victims. They phone in numerous fake calls for help, distracting the London police, while Mayley, MacGregor, and MacGregor's reluctant assistant Porter (Kenneth Griffith), disguised as policemen, wisk Dennis away.
Knocking Dennis unconscious periodically, they finally end up in the fully enclosed cabin of a blimp
Blimp
A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is a floating airship without an internal supporting framework or keel. A non-rigid airship differs from a semi-rigid airship and a rigid airship in that it does not have any rigid structure, neither a complete framework nor a partial keel, to help the airbag...
on the way to a rendezvous with an outbound ship. To their dismay, when he comes to, Dennis refuses to go along with their plan, as he in fact never wanted to reveal any of their secrets in front of court. He was, in fact, winning the trial anyway. He reveals the evidence were his copies of "The Naked Truth", who were destroyed by the plotters earlier, unintentionally freeing Dennis of all charges.
Unaware of where he is, and happy to have outsmarted his opponents again, he then steps out for some air and plummets to the ocean below. However, when MacGregor celebrates by shooting his pistol, it punctures the blimp, which comically shoots away into the distance.
Cast
- Terry-ThomasTerry-ThomasThomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...
as Lord Henry Mayley - Peter SellersPeter SellersRichard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
as Sonny MacGregor - Peggy MountPeggy MountMargaret Rose "Peggy" Mount OBE, was an English actress of stage and screen. She was perhaps best known for playing battleaxe characters, though her real personality was said to have been far removed from such roles. She was also well-known for her distinctive voice.- Early life :Mount was born in...
as Flora Ransom - Shirley EatonShirley EatonShirley Eaton is an English actress.Eaton appeared regularly in British films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and achieved notability for her performance as Bond Girl Jill Masterson in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger...
as Melissa Right - Dennis PriceDennis PriceDennis Price was an English actor, remembered for his suave screen roles, particularly Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and for his portrayal of the omniscient valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G...
as Nigel Dennis - Georgina CooksonGeorgina CooksonAntoinette Georgina Cookson was a British film, stage and television actress. She died in Sydney, aged 92, on 1 October 2011.-Family:...
as Lady Lucy Mayley, Henry's wife - Joan SimsJoan SimsJoan Sims was an English actress best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films, and latterly for playing Madge Hardcastle in As Time Goes By.-Early life:...
as Ethel Ransom, Flora's daughter and reluctant accomplice - Miles MallesonMiles MallesonWilliam Miles Malleson was an English actor and dramatist, particularly known for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in The Brides of Dracula as the...
as Reverend Cedric Bastable, Flora's fiancé - Kenneth GriffithKenneth GriffithKenneth Griffith was a Welsh actor and documentary filmmaker.-Early life:He was born Kenneth Reginald Griffiths in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Six months after his birth his parents split up and left Tenby, leaving Kenneth with his paternal grandparents, Emily and Ernest, who immediately adopted...
as Porter - Moultrie KelsallMoultrie KelsallMoultrie Rowe Kelsall was a Scottish film and television character actor, who began his career in the industry as a radio station director and television producer...
as Mactavish - Bill Edwards as Bill Murphy, Melissa's rich Texan boyfriend
- Wally PatchWally PatchWally Patch was a British character actor, who had supporting roles in many films. He was born Walter Sidney Vinnicombe in Willesden, London on 26 September 1888...
as Fred - paunchy old man - Henry HewittHenry Hewitt-Selected filmography:* School for Scandal * Stamboul * Madame Guillotine * The Written Law * Betrayal * Admirals All * Rembrandt * The High Command * Old Iron...
as Gunsmith - John StuartJohn Stuart (actor)John Stuart, born John Alfred Louden Croall , was a Scottish actor, and a very popular leading man in British silent films in the 1920s. He appeared in two films directed by Alfred Hitchcock....
as Police Inspector - David LodgeDavid Lodge (actor)David William Frederick Lodge was a British character actor.Before turning to acting he worked as a circus clown...
as Constable Johnson - Joan Hurley as Authoress
- Peter Noble as Television Announcer
- Victor Rietti as Doctor
- Ronald AdamRonald Adam (actor)Ronald Adam OBE , born Ronald George Hinings Adams, was a British RAF officer, an actor on stage and screen and a successful theatre manager.-Early life:...
as Chemist (uncredited) - George BensonGeorge Benson (actor)George Christopher Benson was a Welsh and English actor of both theatre and screen, whose career spanned from the 1930s to the late 1970s...
as Photographer (uncredited) - Michael BrennanMichael Brennan (actor)Michael Brennan was an English film and television actor.Born in London, Brennan was married to actress Mary Hignett. He appeared in such films as Nicholas Nickleby, Thunderball, The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders, Tom Jones, and The 39 Steps...
as 2nd Irishman (uncredited) - Mario FabriziMario FabriziMario Fabrizi was an English comedian and actor of Italian descent active in Britain in the 1950s and early 1960s....
as Man in Autograph Crowd (uncredited) - Wilfrid LawsonWilfrid Lawson (actor)Wilfrid Lawson was a British character actor of stage and screen.-Life and career:...
as Walter, Television Show Contestant (uncredited) - Edie Martin as Lady in Autograph Crowd (uncredited)
- Gibb McLaughlinGibb McLaughlinGibb McLaughlin was an English film actor. He appeared in 118 films between 1921 and 1959. He was born in Sunderland, England and died in London, England.-Selected filmography:* The Road to London...
as Old Man in Television Show Audience (uncredited) - Marjorie RhodesMarjorie RhodesMarjorie Rhodes was a British actress.One of her best-known roles was as Lucy Fitton, the mother of Bill Naughton's northern comedy All in Good Time. She played the role on Broadway, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award in 1965...
as Lady on Phone (uncredited) - Michael RipperMichael RipperMichael Ripper was an English character actor born in Portsmouth.He began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 1950s was virtually unknown; he was seldom credited. He played one of the two murderers in Richard III. Ripper became a mainstay in Hammer Film Productions...
as J.E. Freeman - Greengrocer (uncredited) - Austin TrevorAustin TrevorAustin Trevor was a Belfast born actor who had a long career in British films and television.He was the first actor to play Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot on screen in three British films during the early 1930s: Alibi , Black Coffee and Lord Edgware Dies...
as Minister with Heart Attack (uncredited) - Jerold WellsJerold WellsJerold Wells was an English actor. He appeared primarily in British comedies. Some of his best-known roles were in Time Bandits, where he played Benson, a mentally disturbed follower to Evil, and in Jabberwocky, where he played a footless man known as Wat Dabney.He starred in films including '...
as 1st Irishman (uncredited)