''Ooh... You Are Awful'' (U.S. title: ''Get Charlie Tully'') is a 1972 British

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Cliff Owen Cliff Owen (22 April 1919 – November 1993) was a British film and Television director, TV director. He directed ''The Wrong Arm of the Law'' (1963), two of the three mid-1960s Morecambe and Wise films, and the 1972 film version of the BBC sitco ...

and starring

Dick Emery Richard Gilbert Emery (19 February 19152 January 1983) was an English comedian and comic actor. His broadcasting career began on radio in the 1950s, and his self-titled television series ran from 1963 to 1981. Life and career Richard Gilbert Emer ...

Derren Nesbitt Derren Nesbitt (born Derren Michael Horwitz; 19 June 1935) is a British actor. Nesbitt's film career began in the late 1950s, and he appeared in many British television series throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He is perhaps best known for his ro ...

, Ronald Fraser and Cheryl Kennedy. It was written by John Warren and John Singer. It is a feature-length adaptation of ''

The Dick Emery Show ''The Dick Emery Show'' is a British sketch comedy show starring Dick Emery. It was broadcast on the BBC from 1963 to 1981. It was directed and produced by Harold Snoad. The show was broadcast over 18 series with 166 episodes. The show experien ...

'' (

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

, 1963–1981). It was Emery's sole starring film.

Plot

Conmen Charlie Tully and Reggie Peek have successfully conned a couple of Italian men, and are making an easy escape with £500,000. Flushed with success, Tully is unable to resist running a "quick and easy" con on a passing American tourist, but Tully is arrested. While Tully is imprisoned, Peek manages to escape and deposits the £500,000 in a Swiss bank account. Peek meets Tully on his release, intending to give him the bank account number. But Peek has been having an affair with the sister of London crime lord Sid Sabbath, and his reunion with Tully is cut short when Peek is murdered, on the orders of Sabbath. Peek has left a record of the bank account number, tattooed on the bottoms of four young women. Tully adopts a range of disguises to track down each woman in turn to see her naked bottom. Throughout, Tully is confronted by members of Sid Sabbath's gang, with orders to kill as only for them to mysteriously die themselves. Tully thinks he is "lucky", while Sabbath thinks Tully is a one-man army. Neither realise Tully is being secretly guarded by Italian gangsters.

Cast

as Charlie Tully *

as Sid Sabbath * Ronald Fraser as Reggie Campbell Peek *

Pat Coombs Patricia Doreen Coombs (27 August 1926 – 25 May 2002) was an English actress. She specialised in the portrayal of the eternal downtrodden female, comically under the thumb of stronger personalities. She was known for many roles on radio, ...

as Libby Niven *

William Franklyn William Leo Franklyn (; 22 September 1925 – 31 October 2006) was an English actor, perhaps best known for voicing the "Schhh... You Know Who" adverts for Schweppes from 1965 to 1973. He also performed on stage, film, television and rad ...

as Arnold Van Cleef * Cheryl Kennedy as Jo Mason *

Norman Bird John George Norman Bird (30 October 1924 – 22 April 2005) was an English character actor. Early life Bird was born in Coalville, Leicestershire, England. A RADA graduate, he made his West End debut in Peter Brook's production of ''The Wi ...

as Warder Burke *

Roland Curram Roland Kingsford Bernard Curram (6 June 1932 – 1 June 2025) was an English actor and author. Career Curram was educated at Brighton College and has had a long film, television and theatre career. His appearances include Julie Christie's trave ...

as Vivian *

Liza Goddard Louise Elizabeth Goddard (born 20 January 1950), professionally known as Liza Goddard, is an English television and stage actress, best known for her work in the 1970s and 1980s. Early life Goddard was born in Smethwick, Staffordshire.Before ...

as Liza Missenden Green *

Ambrosine Phillpotts Ambrosine Phillpotts (13 September 1912 – 12 October 1980) was a British actress of theatre, TV, radio and film. ''The Times'' wrote, "She was one of the last great stage aristocrats, a stylish comedienne best known for playing on stage an ...

as Lady Missenden Green *

Brian Oulton Brian Oulton (11 February 1908 – 13 April 1992) was an English character actor. Biography Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, Oulton made his acting debut in 1939 as a lead actor. During the Second World War he served in the British Army, and retu ...

as funeral director * David Healy as tourist (as Dave Healey) *

Steve Plytas Phokion Stavros Plytas (9 January 1913 – 27 December 1994), known professionally as Steve Plytas, was a Greek film and television actor based in the United Kingdom. His stage work included West End appearances in Tennessee Williams' ''The Nig ...

as Signor Vittorio Ferruchi *

Louis Negin Louis Negin (20 October 1929 – 2 December 2022) was a British-born Canadian actor, best known for his roles in the films of Guy Maddin."Enchantment". ''In Toronto'', September 2011. Career Born in London, England, and raised in Toronto, Onta ...

as Emilio Ferruchi * Neil Wilson as Attendant Price * Henry Gilbert as Don Luigi * Anthony Stamboulieh as Dino (as Antony Stamboulieh) * Guido Adorni as Carlo *

Stefan Gryff Stefan Gryff (5 May 1938 – 3 June 2017) was a Polish-Australian actor. He specialised in playing Poles, Russians, Greeks and other Mediterranean types. Gryff studied law at the University of Sydney and during his studies appeared in several pl ...

as Capo Mafioso *

Louis Mansi John Louis Mansi (born John Patrick Adams; 8 November 1926 – 6 August 2010) was a British television and film actor whose career spanned the years from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. Born in London to an Italian father and an Irish moth ...

as Mancini * Frank Coda as Mafioso (as Frank Codo) *

Sheila Keith Sheila Keith (9 June 1920 – 14 October 2004) was a Scottish stage and screen actress. She is well-known to horror film fans for her collaborations with director Pete Walker, starring in '' House of Whipcord'', '' Frightmare'', '' House of Mor ...

as Lady Magistrate *

Tucker McGuire Anne Tucker McGuire (January 29, 1913 – August 3, 1988) was an American-born actress who appeared largely in British films and television. She married actor Tom Macaulay. She appeared in the 1949 West End musical ''Her Excellency''. In ...

as American woman * Phil Brown as American man * Joan Ingram as Woman in Art Gallery * Julie Crosthwaite as Patsy * Anna Gilchrist as Jane * Margaret Courtenay as woman police officer * Dinny Powell as Arthur (as Dinnie Powell) *

Larry Taylor Samuel Lawrence Taylor (June 26, 1942 – August 19, 2019) was an American bass guitarist, best known for his work as a member of the blues rock band Canned Heat. Before joining Canned Heat, he had been a session musician, session bassist for T ...

as hood * as second American tourist * Reg Lye as bogus milkman

Production

The National Film Finance Corporation invested £62,000 in the film. It was the first NFFC investment following the ending of their Government funding, with new finance obtained from a consortium of merchant banks. The NFFC decided to only make "safe" films, and ''Ooh... You Are Awful'' was the first of these.

said that her nude scene in this film was a "horrible, embarrassing experience".

Reception

The film made a profit. ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' wrote: "Often wasted on television, Dick Emery's considerable talent for comic impersonations is here woven into an entertaining plot which finds plausible excuses for him to don an assortment of disguises and appear in drag (as a bereaved mother, a blowsy woman police officer), as a diplomat, or as the familiar butler figure, Lampwick. Authors John Warren and John Singer have avoided the danger of fragmenting their story into a series of unrelated sketches; and though they don't invariably resist clichés (of character and situation), there is still much to enjoy. Cliff Owen's direction is imaginative; there is an engaging, if mild, element of black comedy (at one point Charlie nonchalantly flicks his cigarette ash into the urn containing Reggie's cremated remains); and although the film is essentially Emery's vehicle, there are some amusing cameos – most notably, Brian Oulton's consolatory funeral director and Stefan Gryff's Mafia boss" ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' called it "the best British comedy in many years."

Leslie Halliwell Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fi ...

wrote: "Amusing star vehicle with plenty of room for impersonations and outrageous jokes." ''The Radio Times Guide to Films'' gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "This is a

McGill McGill is a surname of Scottish and Irish origin, from which the names of many places and organizations are derived. It may refer to: People * McGill (surname) (including a list of individuals with the surname) * McGill family (Monrovia), a promin ...

seaside postcard come to boozy nudge-nudge wink-wink life and if that's to your taste then it belts along like a runaway Blackpool train."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ooh... You Are Awful 1972 films British independent films 1972 comedy films Films based on television series Films directed by Cliff Owen Films scored by Christopher Gunning British Lion Films films Films set in London 1970s English-language films 1970s British films