''The Optimists of Nine Elms'', also known as ''The Optimists'', is a 1973 British drama film starring
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
and directed by
Anthony Simmons, who also wrote the 1964 novel upon which the film is based. The film is about an old street musician (played by Sellers) who strikes up a friendship with two children - Liz, played by Donna Mullane, and her younger brother Mark, played by
John Chaffey. Neither of the child actors was featured in future films. A young
Keith Chegwin
Keith Chegwin (17 January 1957 – 11 December 2017) was an English television presenter and actor, appearing in several children's entertainment shows in the 1970s and 1980s, including ''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'' and ''Cheggers Plays Pop''.
...
also played a small role.
Mullane was recruited for her role by the film crew when they were scouting locations and saw her as she was walking home from school.
Plot
The story revolves around Sam, a dignified, former
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
artist who now works with his elderly trained dog Bella,
busking
Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...
in the
West End of London
The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buil ...
. He lives in a run down goods yard alongside a derelict canal in
Nine Elms
Nine Elms is an area of south-west London, England, within the London Borough of Wandsworth. It lies on the River Thames, with Battersea to the west, South Lambeth to the south and Vauxhall to the east.
The area was formerly mainly industrial bu ...
. Two young children, Liz and Mark, stumble upon his yard whilst out walking. He chases them away, but his manner attracts their attention and, despite his best efforts, they later follow him as he goes off to work pushing his dog and all his busking paraphernalia in an Edwardian
pram. Liz and Mark live nearby with their parents, Chrissie and Bob, and baby brother James in a drab, cramped basement flat. Bob works at the local
gasworks
A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space.
Early gasworks
Coal ...
and the family are desperate to move to a new
Council flat
A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 a ...
. When they're out of school, their mother has little time for Liz and Mark and they find their own adventures together on the streets.
Begrudgingly, Sam develops a relationship with the children as they tag along. Having mentioned it in passing, he agrees to take them to visit the
Hyde Park pet cemetery
The Hyde Park pet cemetery (originally the London Hyde Park Dog Cemetery and advertised as The Secret Pet Cemetery of Hyde Park) is a disused burial ground for animals in Hyde Park, London. It was established in 1880 or 1881 in the garden of Vi ...
, where he anticipates Bella will be buried someday after an elaborate funeral, the next day on his way to the West End. They also discuss visiting the new flats. During the following day, it becomes clear that Bella is increasingly frail and Sam is worried about her. At the new flats, he tells them how his wife died ten years previously and how his seven grown up children are now scattered all over the world. He has found human beings unreliable throughout his life and “only dogs can be depended upon”. Bella is his best friend and, although getting a new flat was all very well, getting a dog was more important. Between them, they conclude the family needs a dog and, having established the children would look after it properly, Sam agrees to help them get one.
The following afternoon, he takes them to
Battersea Dogs Home where, posing as their grandfather, he helps them choose a dog. However, Sam is astounded and angry when the home tell him they can only take the dog if it is paid for.
The children and Sam leave the home bitterly disappointed and, having admonished the children for telling lies as “he wasn’t their grandfather”, Sam tells them they will have to ask their mum and dad for the money and leaves, humiliated. The children return home despondent and are further discouraged when their mum seems unsympathetic to the idea of getting a dog. The children resolve to try to save the money to get it anyway and make money doing odd jobs. When they next see Sam, he is crotchety, and Bella is very ill. Sam offers to pay them to baby-sit Bella while he is working and having haggled about the fee, they agree.
The following day they resolve to visit their dad at work to see if he will give them the balance to pay for their dog, but he tells them he needs to save everything he can if he is to have a hope of getting the flat. They return to Sam who, reluctant to concede that Bella's condition is terminal, agrees to give them the balance they need as an advance for more baby-sitting duties. Next day, they learn they have got the new flat and, together with Sam, collect their dog which they name Battersea. They return home later to be told they should not have bought the dog. They discover that the new flat is in Nine Elms, not the flats they had seen with Sam in Westminster, and that dogs are not allowed. The children run off to Sam's, where they find Sam drunk and in mourning for Bella. They try to give Battersea to Sam, but he rejects it and, when they talk of the majestic funeral for Bella, he laughs and tells them she will go in the
dustcart
A garbage truck is a truck specially designed to collect municipal solid waste and transport it to a solid waste treatment facility, such as a landfill, recycling center or transfer station. In Australia they are commonly called rubbish truck ...
. He leaves and, after tying Battersea to his table, the children take Bella's body, and at night sneak into the cemetery at Hyde Park and bury it there. They hide when their dad and Sam arrive outside the cemetery with Battersea, but fall asleep as the two talk into the night about life, death, dogs and children. When they awake the following morning Dad is overjoyed to see them and they leave Battersea with Sam.
Cast
*
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
as Sam
* Donna Mullane as Liz
*
John Chaffey as Mark
*
David Daker
Colin David Daker (born 29 September 1935) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Harry Crawford in the hit series ''Boon''. He also played Tommy Mackay in ''Only Fools and Horses'' and Jarvis in '' Porridge''.
He has made two ap ...
as Bob Ellis
*
Marjorie Yates
Marjorie Yates (born 13 April 1941) is a British actress best known for her role as Carol Fisher in the Channel 4 drama '' Shameless''.
Yates was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, and studied at the Bournville College of Art. An early TV ...
as Chrissie Ellis
*
Patricia Brake
Patricia Ann Brake (25 June 1942 – 28 May 2022) was an English actress.
From the age of 16, Brake trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, before joining the Salisbury Playhouse. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where (among ...
as Dogs Home Secretary
* Don Crown as Busker
*
Michael Graham Cox
Michael Graham Cox (6 January 1938 – 30 April 1995) was an English actor.
Career
Born at Wolverhampton, and educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School, Cox moved to London after graduating in Music with German from Bristol University in ...
as Park Keeper
*
Bruce Purchase
Bruce Purchase (2 October 1938 – 5 June 2008) was a New Zealand actor known for his roles on stage and television. Born in Thames, New Zealand, he won a scholarship to study acting in England, training at RADA, and went on to become a foundin ...
as Policeman
*
Pat Ashton
Pat Ashton (28 February 1931 – 23 June 2013) was an English actress. Her engaging cockney, blonde persona is best remembered for appearances in English TV-sitcom film spin-offs ''On the Buses'' (1971) and ''Mutiny on the Buses'' (1972).
She wa ...
as Woman at Nursery
*
Keith Chegwin
Keith Chegwin (17 January 1957 – 11 December 2017) was an English television presenter and actor, appearing in several children's entertainment shows in the 1970s and 1980s, including ''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'' and ''Cheggers Plays Pop''.
...
as Georgie (uncredited)
*
Hilary Pritchard
Hilary Pritchard (1942–1996) was a Manx film and television actress.
Career
Television roles included parts in '' The Avengers'' episode "Take-Over" and three episodes of the BBC's department store sitcom ''Are You Being Served?''. Pritcha ...
as Laundry lady (uncredited)
Novel and screenplay
Simmons is said to have planned the film around the time his two award-winning short films ''Sunday By the Sea'' (1953) and ''Bow Bells'' (1954) were released.
Both films were set to
cockney
Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...
music hall songs,
lending a clear continuity between the works.
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
was to have played the lead role of Sam, however British financiers were not convinced of Keaton's box office potential and the project collapsed.
The novel was first published in 1964.
Critical reception
''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, "It all sounds like goo, and the film’s last half-hour verges perilously close. But even at its worst ''The Optimists'' is acceptable family fare, and for much of its first 80 minutes it engagingly achieves a sense of fantasy." while ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' described the film as "the sort of old-fashioned excursion into sentiment that ought to warm the hearts of parents in search of that elusive piece of merchandise that goes under the name of good family entertainment. Peter Sellers, with a wardrobe of old music hall clothes, a talented but aged dog named Bella and a pram he pushes around London, plays the lonely, idiosyncratic old busker. And commendably, he submerges himself sufficiently in the part to allow old Sam to have a life of his own."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Optimists of Nine Elms, The
1974 films
British drama films
1973 drama films
1973 films
1970s English-language films
Films directed by Anthony Simmons
Films based on British novels
Films scored by George Martin
Films set in London
1974 drama films
Nine Elms
1970s British films