Norbert Smith - a Life
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Norbert Smith – a Life is a spoof TV documentary film (a "mockumentary
") charting the life and career of the fictitious British actor Sir Norbert Smith. It stars Harry Enfield
in the title role. It was written by Harry Enfield and Geoffrey Perkins
and directed by Geoff Posner
. It was made by Hat Trick Productions
for Channel 4
and was first broadcast on 3 November 1989.
The film is presented as if it were an edition of the ITV
arts programme The South Bank Show
, and features Melvyn Bragg
, the presenter of the real South Bank Show, playing himself as the interviewer visiting Sir Norbert at his home, and encouraging him to reminisce about his past career. The humour arises from the fact that although Sir Norbert is acclaimed as one of Britain’s “Knights of the Theatre”, in the mould of a Laurence Olivier
or John Gielgud
, actually none of his contemporaries has anything particularly good to say about him, and he appears to have had limited success in landing good film roles. Interviewed now in his old age, he is demented, and has confused memories about his past.
The main point of the film, however, is the parodying of various 20th century film genres, through interspersed clips that feature Enfield as Sir Norbert in a variety of film roles.
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
") charting the life and career of the fictitious British actor Sir Norbert Smith. It stars Harry Enfield
Harry Enfield
Henry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...
in the title role. It was written by Harry Enfield and Geoffrey Perkins
Geoffrey Perkins
Geoffrey Howard Perkins was a comedy producer, writer and performer, and an important figure in British comedy broadcasting. This was recognised in December 2008 when he was awarded with an Outstanding Contribution to Comedy Award...
and directed by Geoff Posner
Geoff Posner
Geoffrey Posner is a British television producer and director. Posner has directed and produced some of Britain's most successful comedy shows since the early 1980s....
. It was made by Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions is a British independent production company that produces television programmes, mainly specialising in comedy.-History:...
for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
and was first broadcast on 3 November 1989.
The film is presented as if it were an edition of the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
arts programme The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show was a television arts magazine show, originally made by London Weekend Television , presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States...
, and features Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...
, the presenter of the real South Bank Show, playing himself as the interviewer visiting Sir Norbert at his home, and encouraging him to reminisce about his past career. The humour arises from the fact that although Sir Norbert is acclaimed as one of Britain’s “Knights of the Theatre”, in the mould of a Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
or John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
, actually none of his contemporaries has anything particularly good to say about him, and he appears to have had limited success in landing good film roles. Interviewed now in his old age, he is demented, and has confused memories about his past.
The main point of the film, however, is the parodying of various 20th century film genres, through interspersed clips that feature Enfield as Sir Norbert in a variety of film roles.
Parodied film genres
- Oh, Mr Bankrobber! (1936). This is based on the comedy films of Will HayWill HayWilliam Thomson "Will" Hay was an English comedian, actor, film director and amateur astronomer.-Early life:He was born in Stockton-on-Tees, in north east England, to William R...
, and features Peter Goodwright as "Will Silly", with Smith playing the "Albert" character (as played by Graham MoffattGraham MoffattGraham Moffatt was a British character actor and comedian.Born in Hammersmith, London, he is best known for a number of films where he appeared with Will Hay and Moore Marriott as 'Albert': an insolent, overweight, overgrown-schoolboy type character, loosely reminiscent of Billy Bunter.His first...
in the original films). This sketch is an affectionate homage to the Will Hay films, and the script does not so much parody the originals, as represent their style exactly.
- Rebel Without a Tie (1937). Although the title hints at Rebel Without a CauseRebel Without a CauseRebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...
, this excerpt is more a parody of pre-war British films, with a strong moralising tone. Smith plays a petty criminal who, after a clip round the ear from a policeman, suddenly sees the error of his ways and is reformed.
- Lullaby of London (1940). In the style of a Busby BerkeleyBusby BerkeleyBusby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...
musical. This excerpt pokes fun at Hollywood’s misinformed ideas about Britain, e.g. one lyric is "The Tower of London, where the President of England chopped off the heads of his wives".
- Venereal Disease – the Facts (1941) is a spoof public information filmPublic information filmPublic Information Films are a series of government commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the UK. The US equivalent is the Public Service Announcement .-Subjects:...
. Smith speaks direct to camera, in deadly earnest, about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseaseSexually transmitted diseaseSexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
. However, due to the film censorship and prudishness prevalent at the time, he is unable to convey any useful information at all. Any reference to the disease is hidden behind euphemisms such as "unmentionables". The clip has deliberate jump cutJump cutA jump cut is a cut in film editing and vloging in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit causes the subject of the shots to appear to "jump" position in a discontinuous way...
s, scratches on the film and clicks on the soundtrack, to make it seem old. This spoof became the basis for the Mr Cholmondley-Warner sketches in Enfield’s subsequent TV sketch shows.
- ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
’s HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
(1949), imagined as if Noel CowardNoël CowardSir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
had made a film version of it. Smith plays Hamlet/Coward. This spoof had previously appeared in producer Perkins' radio comedy series Radio Active.
- A parody of Brief EncounterBrief EncounterBrief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David Lean about the conventions of British suburban life, centring on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey...
(with Smith in the Trevor HowardTrevor HowardTrevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
role). After a few moments it turns out that what we are watching is not a feature film at all, but an advertisement for "Sudso" soap powder.
- They Called Him Stranger (1955). Satirising low-budget British attempts at producing home-grown WesternsWestern (genre)The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
in TechnicolorTechnicolorTechnicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
.
- MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
– Man of Music (1957), a historical costume drama.
- BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
– Man of Music (1958), and Andrew Lloyd-WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
– Man of Music (1984). Two identical remakes of the Mozart film but with the subject changed to Beethoven and then Lloyd Webber.
- It’s Grim Up North (1962). A spoof of the kitchen sink realismKitchen sink realismKitchen sink realism is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement which developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose 'heroes' usually could be described as angry young men...
films of the early 1960s, with working class Northern EnglishNorthern EnglandNorthern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
settings, such as Saturday Night and Sunday MorningSaturday Night and Sunday Morning (film)Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 British film. It is an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe. Sillitoe wrote the screenplay adaptation and the film was directed by Karel Reisz.-Synopsis:...
. Smith (now Sir Norbert) plays the father of a poor working class household, unable to exert any authority over his family, and over his rebellious adult son in particular: "If I find out who's taken my belt, I'll take my bloody belt to them".
- Keep Your Hair On, Daddio (1962). A parody of early 1960s films featuring Cliff RichardCliff RichardSir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
, in particular The Young OnesThe Young Ones (film)The Young Ones is a British musical released in 1961, featuring singer Cliff Richard. The musical was directed by Sidney J. Furie and was produced by Kenneth Harper and Andrew Mitchell for the Associated British Studios at Elstree. The original screenplay was written by Peter Myers and Ronald...
. The Cliff Richard character is portrayed here as "Davey Throb". Sir Norbert plays Throb’s father, unable to appreciate the new beat music performed by Throb and his friends, but he finally grows to love the music scene, and joins in.
- Rover Returns Home (1964). Poor British attempt at replicating the American LassieLassieLassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six...
films. This excerpt pokes fun at the acting "versatility" of Michael CaineMichael CaineSir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
, as it is implied that Caine plays the role of the dog Rover, dressed up in a dog suit.
- Head to Head. A parody of the TV interview series Face to Face, where interviewer John Freeman famously unsettled his guests by asking deeply personal questions. In this spoof Cyril Freebody throws insults rather than questions at Sir Norbert, e.g. "all the films you've been in have been total rubbish, and the last three made me physically vomit".
- Dogs of Death. All-action World War II epic featuring a cast of veteran actors, parodying films such as The Wild GeeseThe Wild GeeseThe Wild Geese is a British 1978 film about a group of mercenaries in Africa. It stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger...
. By now Sir Norbert has a drink problem, and his fellow cast-members appear to be similarly afflicted: they are Richard Smashed, Dick Booze, Oliver Guinness and Peter O’Pissed (references to hell-raising actors Richard BurtonRichard BurtonRichard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
, Richard HarrisRichard HarrisRichard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
, Oliver ReedOliver ReedOliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
and Peter O'ToolePeter O'ToolePeter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
). Sir Norbert drinks heavily on set, and in a two-way dialogue scene his glass has been re-filled each time the camera returns to him.
- Carry on Banging. Excerpt from a Carry-On filmCarry On filmsThe Carry On films are a series of low-budget British comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. They are an energetic mix of parody, farce, slapstick and double entendres....
, whose setting is the Greenham Common Women's Peace CampGreenham Common Women's Peace CampGreenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a peace camp established to protest at nuclear weapons being sited at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began in September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life on Earth, arrived at Greenham to protest against the decision of the British...
of the 1980s. This sketch features three actors from the genuine Carry On series: Barbara WindsorBarbara WindsorBarbara Ann Windsor, MBE , better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....
, Jack DouglasJack Douglas (actor)Jack Douglas, born John Roberton was an English actor most famous for his roles in the Carry On films.- Career :...
and Kenneth ConnorKenneth ConnorKenneth Connor MBE was an English comedy stage, radio, film and TV actor, best known for his appearances in the Carry On films.-Career:...
.
- Martha (1983). Sir Norbert plays a British butler, similar to Sir John Gielgud’s role in the film Arthur.
- A biopicBiographical filmA biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
of Nelson MandelaNelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
, with Sir Norbert putting on blackfaceBlackfaceBlackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
make-up for the title role. When asked by Bragg why Sir Norbert cast himself in this role, despite public criticism, Sir Norbert replies “well, Sir Alec GuinnessAlec GuinnessSir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
simply wasn’t available”. Enfield would later play an affectionate parody of Mandela in his sketch show Harry & Paul.