''Romance with a Double Bass'' is a 1974 British short comedy film directed by Robert Young. It was adapted by Young,

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

and

Connie Booth Connie Booth (born 2 December 1940) is an American-born actress and writer. She has appeared in several British television programmes and films, including her role as Polly Sherman on BBC Two's ''Fawlty Towers'', which she co-wrote with her t ...

(uncredited)McCall, Douglas (2014).
Monty Python: A Chronology, 1969—2012
'.

McFarland & Company McFarland & Company, Inc., is an American independent book publisher based in Jefferson, North Carolina, that specializes in academic and reference works, as well as general-interest adult nonfiction. Its president is Rhonda Herman. Its former ...

. pp. 36, 39 from a screenplay by Bill Owen that was originally based on the short story of the same name by

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

. It stars Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth in the leading roles.

Plot

Smychkov (Cleese), a

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

, shows up too early for the ball of a beautiful princess, and decides to spend his extra time

skinny dipping Nude swimming is the practice of swimming without clothing, whether in natural bodies of water or in swimming pools. A colloquial term for nude swimming is ''skinny-dipping''. In both British and American English, to swim means "to move through ...

in the nearby lake. The princess (Booth), meanwhile, has gone fishing at the lake, and later decides to go skinny dipping as well. However, things change when a thief absconds with both Smychkov's and the Princess's clothes, and while the Princess is wandering around stark

naked Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...

, she meets Smychkov. After their initially embarrassing encounter, he tries to help her return to the castle by hiding her in his bass case.

Cast

Production

The movie marked

's first collaboration with the director Robert Young (they would later work on ''

Splitting Heirs ''Splitting Heirs'' is a 1993 British black comedy film directed by Robert Young and starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cleese and Sadie Frost. It features music by Michael Kamen. It was entered in ...

'' and ''

Fierce Creatures ''Fierce Creatures'' is a 1997 British-American farcical comedy film. While not literally a sequel, ''Fierce Creatures'' is a spiritual successor to the 1988 film '' A Fish Called Wanda''. Both films star John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kli ...

''). The cast also included

Andrew Sachs Andreas Siegfried Sachs (7 April 1930 – 23 November 2016), known professionally as Andrew Sachs, was a German-born British actor and writer. He made his name on British television and found his greatest fame for his portrayal of the comical Sp ...

who would work with Cleese and Booth in ''

Fawlty Towers ''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television ...

'' the following year. ''Romance with a Double Bass'' was finished during October 1974 and took ten days to shoot. Filming took place at

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England, with scenes shot in the Double Cube Room of the

Wilton House Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution o ...

and the

Somerley Somerley is a large Georgian Grade II* listed English country house that is situated in the civil parish of Ellingham and Harbridge with Ibsley in the New Forest district in Hampshire, England. It is 2 miles (3 km) west of the New Fores ...

estate.

Release

The movie was shown in theatres in 1975 along with ''

The Eiger Sanction ''The Eiger Sanction'' is a 1972 thriller novel by Trevanian, the pen name of Rodney William Whitaker. The story is about a classical art professor and collector who doubles as a professional assassin, and who is coerced out of retirement to ave ...

'' by

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

. It was released on video in 1995.

David Sterritt David Sterritt (born September 11, 1944) is a film critic, author and scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of stud ...

Out on video
at ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'', 5 January 1995

Critical response

'' Time Out'' described the movie as a "very funny, innocent and tastefully filmed nudist romp".

wrote that while "the plot is slender, it makes very funny jokes at the expense of class and gender hierarchies". David Cornelius of ''

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

'' praised the movie as a "wonderful, sweet, and often riotous celebration of life" that combines "playful physical comedy and whimsical nature of the love story that unfolds with a smile". Paul Shrimpton of ''The Spinning Image'' also called it "surprisingly innocent and naive" despite Cleese and Booth spend most of the time naked; he also praised their performances "scattered with typical Cleese lunacy here and there".Paul Shrimpton.
Romance With a Double Bass
' review at ''The Spinning Image''

References

External links

*
Romance with a Double Bass
at

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

{{Robert Young 1974 films Films directed by Robert Young Films with screenplays by John Cleese 1974 short films British comedy short films 1974 comedy films 1970s English-language films 1970s British films