Wilt (film)
Encyclopedia
Wilt is a 1989
movie adaptation by LWT of the Tom Sharpe
novel of the same name
. The story follows the comic
misadventures of the eponymous Henry Wilt as he is accused of the murder of his wife when she suddenly goes missing after a party at a friend's house where they have a very public argument.
The movie was directed by Michael Tuchner
, with Andrew Marshall
and David Renwick
credited as screenplay writers
. It was released in North America under the title The Misadventures of Mr. Wilt.
teacher at a poorly funded college where most of the pupils seem to be fairly apathetic to learning. Eva Wilt, his wife, is interested in the spiritual aspects of martial arts
, Transcendental Meditation
and similar pursuits. Eva's disdain for Henry's interest in reading adds to his general frustration at work, including being turned down for a promotion again, and leads him to occasionally fantasize about killing her. Her friends Sally and Hugh only exacerbate his alienation from her world by talking disparagingly about teaching as a profession and about his car.
While he is walking home and speaking out one of his fantasies, he crosses paths with a botched sting operation by the incompetent Inspector Flint, whose wire has fallen off while trying to bust a drug dealer. Wilt intervenes in the resulting struggle and unknowingly helps the drug dealer to get away, thinking that he is witnessing a mugging.
Soon afterward, a construction worker at the school sees a woman's body in a hole being filled with concrete. Meanwhile Henry Wilt has had to get a lift into work as apparently he had an accident in his car last night. Inspector Flint arrives at the school as they start work on digging out the body. Some papers are found at the hole where the body was seen, and a brief search identifies the writer of those papers as Henry Wilt. Evidence against Wilt mounts as he makes a phone call to his home from the police station and pretends the answerphone is his wife while Inspector Flint is present.
During the interview, Wilt initially claims that he and his wife had an argument, and she disappeared and he has no idea where she is. Inspector Flint superficially accepts this explanation and tells him he can go, only to be confronted at the door by an old woman who claims to have seen him repeatedly stab a woman to death. Returning to the interview again, Wilt starts to go into more detail about the night of the party.
It is revealed that at the party Henry and Eva argued as normal, and that Sally is sexually interested in Eva. While arguing with Sally, Henry managed to knock himself unconscious opening a door that turns out to be a cupboard. When he woke up, he was naked and tied to a blow-up sex doll
. Eva walked in on him trying to burst the doll by writhing around, and also saw him appearing at a balcony above the disco in front of almost everyone at the party. After these incidents, Eva refused to return home with Henry.
On the way home, Wilt found that the doll had been put on the back seat of his car; distracted, he crashed into a telephone box. Losing his temper, he pulled the doll out of the car and tried to burst it by stabbing it repeatedly, but failed. He was spotted doing this by the old lady who identifies him later at the police station. Wilt then headed to the school and dumped the doll down the same hole where the corpse was found.
Back in the present, Inspector Flint follows the lead to Sally and Hugh's mansion, to find that they have also disappeared. They also find a knotted stocking at the scene, the signature of the notorious Swaffham Strangler. Flint takes Wilt down to the morgue where they claim to have found Eva's body, although it actually turns out to be another sex doll. It turns out that Flint is only on such an important case because Inspector Farmelow is on holiday, and that it is generally agreed that this is a chance for Flint to gain a promotion.
The next day, they are preparing to bring up the body, much to Wilt's amusement. Unfortunately for the college, this coincides with the visit of a group of Japan
ese businessmen who are being courted to sponsor the college. The body, encased in concrete, is lifted out but slips free and is dropped onto the bonnet of a police car, freeing the blow-up doll, much to Inspector Flint's chagrin. Undaunted, Flint determines that the whole doll incident is just an attempt by Wilt to cover up the actual murders of Eva, Sally and Hugh.
After many hours of interrogation, Wilt changes his story and starts telling Flint of his return to the mansion later the night of the party. He claims to have attacked the alleged victims with a chainsaw, and disposed of the bodies at the meat factory where many of the students work. Flint launches a search using massive amounts of manpower to find the evidence of this, before his superior points out that Wilt signed his confession "Sweeney Todd
". Following this, Wilt is released, although his wife and her friends are still missing.
Meanwhile, Eva has been stuck on a boat in the middle of a lake with Sally and Hugh, where Hugh finally tells her that Sally arranged the whole farce with the doll, intending to get Eva to split from her husband so that she would go on the trip and give Sally the opportunity to pursue her interest in her. Eva immediately leaves the boat using a small inflatable dinghy, and finds her way to a vicarage where she calls Wilt to get him to pick her up. She meets the vicar, who has apparently only recently moved to this location from Swaffham and happens to have a knotted stocking in his top pocket.
Wilt hitchhikes to the village, just in time to find the vicar about to strangle Eva in the cemetery. Unfortunately, as he tries to intervene, Inspector Flint – who has followed him from his house – confronts him with a shotgun. Wilt hits him with the shovel he has been given by Flint to "dig up his wife's body" and heads into the church where his wife has fled followed by the vicar. Eva temporarily fights off the vicar using her martial arts knowledge. Flint arrives, ignoring the vicar, to arrest Wilt for the murder of Sally and Hugh, who happen to arrive at that moment. Flint then tries to arrest him for the murder of Eva, who of course is present as well. Finally cracking up, he arrests himself, reading himself his rights.
The vicar, while trying to escape, is knocked out by a golf ball hit by Inspector Farmelow. The story finishes with Henry Wilt meeting Flint in his wife's new martial arts class; Flint has had to leave the force and join a private security firm which insists on his taking the class as a refresher course. Conversely the Japanese investors in the college are impressed with the way Wilt has dealt with the adversity, and have him promoted.
1989 in film
-Events:* Batman is released on June 23, and goes on to gross over $410 million worldwide.* Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton, Georgia, for $20 million...
movie adaptation by LWT of the Tom Sharpe
Tom Sharpe
Tom Sharpe is an English satirical author, best known for his Wilt series of novels.Sharpe was born in London and moved to South Africa in 1951, where he worked as a social worker and a teacher, before being deported for sedition in 1961...
novel of the same name
Wilt (novel)
Wilt is a comedic novel by the author Tom Sharpe, first published by Secker and Warburg in 1976. Later editions were published by Pan Books, and Overlook TP.-Plot introduction:The novel's title refers to its main character, Henry Wilt...
. The story follows the comic
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
misadventures of the eponymous Henry Wilt as he is accused of the murder of his wife when she suddenly goes missing after a party at a friend's house where they have a very public argument.
The movie was directed by Michael Tuchner
Michael Tuchner
Michael Tuchner is a British film and theatre director.He directed the BAFTA TV Award winning television play Bar Mitzvah Boy.-External links:...
, with Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall (writer)
Andrew Marshall is an English comedy screenwriter, most noted for the domestic sitcom 2point4 children. He was also the inspiration for Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
and David Renwick
David Renwick
David Peter Renwick is an English television writer, best known for creation of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave and the mystery series Jonathan Creek....
credited as screenplay writers
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. It was released in North America under the title The Misadventures of Mr. Wilt.
Plot
Henry Wilt is a community studiesCommunity studies
Community studies is an academic field drawing on both sociology and anthropology and the social research methods of ethnography and participant observation in the study of community. In academic settings around the world, community studies is variously a sub-discipline of anthropology or...
teacher at a poorly funded college where most of the pupils seem to be fairly apathetic to learning. Eva Wilt, his wife, is interested in the spiritual aspects of martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
, Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation refers to the Transcendental Meditation technique, a specific form of mantra meditation, and to the Transcendental Meditation movement, a spiritual movement...
and similar pursuits. Eva's disdain for Henry's interest in reading adds to his general frustration at work, including being turned down for a promotion again, and leads him to occasionally fantasize about killing her. Her friends Sally and Hugh only exacerbate his alienation from her world by talking disparagingly about teaching as a profession and about his car.
While he is walking home and speaking out one of his fantasies, he crosses paths with a botched sting operation by the incompetent Inspector Flint, whose wire has fallen off while trying to bust a drug dealer. Wilt intervenes in the resulting struggle and unknowingly helps the drug dealer to get away, thinking that he is witnessing a mugging.
Soon afterward, a construction worker at the school sees a woman's body in a hole being filled with concrete. Meanwhile Henry Wilt has had to get a lift into work as apparently he had an accident in his car last night. Inspector Flint arrives at the school as they start work on digging out the body. Some papers are found at the hole where the body was seen, and a brief search identifies the writer of those papers as Henry Wilt. Evidence against Wilt mounts as he makes a phone call to his home from the police station and pretends the answerphone is his wife while Inspector Flint is present.
During the interview, Wilt initially claims that he and his wife had an argument, and she disappeared and he has no idea where she is. Inspector Flint superficially accepts this explanation and tells him he can go, only to be confronted at the door by an old woman who claims to have seen him repeatedly stab a woman to death. Returning to the interview again, Wilt starts to go into more detail about the night of the party.
It is revealed that at the party Henry and Eva argued as normal, and that Sally is sexually interested in Eva. While arguing with Sally, Henry managed to knock himself unconscious opening a door that turns out to be a cupboard. When he woke up, he was naked and tied to a blow-up sex doll
Sex doll
A sex doll is a type of sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner for aid in masturbation....
. Eva walked in on him trying to burst the doll by writhing around, and also saw him appearing at a balcony above the disco in front of almost everyone at the party. After these incidents, Eva refused to return home with Henry.
On the way home, Wilt found that the doll had been put on the back seat of his car; distracted, he crashed into a telephone box. Losing his temper, he pulled the doll out of the car and tried to burst it by stabbing it repeatedly, but failed. He was spotted doing this by the old lady who identifies him later at the police station. Wilt then headed to the school and dumped the doll down the same hole where the corpse was found.
Back in the present, Inspector Flint follows the lead to Sally and Hugh's mansion, to find that they have also disappeared. They also find a knotted stocking at the scene, the signature of the notorious Swaffham Strangler. Flint takes Wilt down to the morgue where they claim to have found Eva's body, although it actually turns out to be another sex doll. It turns out that Flint is only on such an important case because Inspector Farmelow is on holiday, and that it is generally agreed that this is a chance for Flint to gain a promotion.
The next day, they are preparing to bring up the body, much to Wilt's amusement. Unfortunately for the college, this coincides with the visit of a group of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese businessmen who are being courted to sponsor the college. The body, encased in concrete, is lifted out but slips free and is dropped onto the bonnet of a police car, freeing the blow-up doll, much to Inspector Flint's chagrin. Undaunted, Flint determines that the whole doll incident is just an attempt by Wilt to cover up the actual murders of Eva, Sally and Hugh.
After many hours of interrogation, Wilt changes his story and starts telling Flint of his return to the mansion later the night of the party. He claims to have attacked the alleged victims with a chainsaw, and disposed of the bodies at the meat factory where many of the students work. Flint launches a search using massive amounts of manpower to find the evidence of this, before his superior points out that Wilt signed his confession "Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as then antagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls and he was later introduced as an antihero in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptation...
". Following this, Wilt is released, although his wife and her friends are still missing.
Meanwhile, Eva has been stuck on a boat in the middle of a lake with Sally and Hugh, where Hugh finally tells her that Sally arranged the whole farce with the doll, intending to get Eva to split from her husband so that she would go on the trip and give Sally the opportunity to pursue her interest in her. Eva immediately leaves the boat using a small inflatable dinghy, and finds her way to a vicarage where she calls Wilt to get him to pick her up. She meets the vicar, who has apparently only recently moved to this location from Swaffham and happens to have a knotted stocking in his top pocket.
Wilt hitchhikes to the village, just in time to find the vicar about to strangle Eva in the cemetery. Unfortunately, as he tries to intervene, Inspector Flint – who has followed him from his house – confronts him with a shotgun. Wilt hits him with the shovel he has been given by Flint to "dig up his wife's body" and heads into the church where his wife has fled followed by the vicar. Eva temporarily fights off the vicar using her martial arts knowledge. Flint arrives, ignoring the vicar, to arrest Wilt for the murder of Sally and Hugh, who happen to arrive at that moment. Flint then tries to arrest him for the murder of Eva, who of course is present as well. Finally cracking up, he arrests himself, reading himself his rights.
The vicar, while trying to escape, is knocked out by a golf ball hit by Inspector Farmelow. The story finishes with Henry Wilt meeting Flint in his wife's new martial arts class; Flint has had to leave the force and join a private security firm which insists on his taking the class as a refresher course. Conversely the Japanese investors in the college are impressed with the way Wilt has dealt with the adversity, and have him promoted.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Griff Rhys Jones Griff Rhys Jones Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith... |
Henry Wilt |
| Mel Smith Mel Smith Melvin Kenneth "Mel" Smith is an English comedian, writer, film director, producer, and actor. He is most famous for his work on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones.- Early life :Smith's father, Kenneth, was born... |
Inspector Flint |
| Alison Steadman Alison Steadman Alison Steadman OBE is an English actress. She established her career with roles such as Beverley in Abigail's Party and Candice Marie in Nuts in May for the director Mike Leigh, to whom she was once married. In addition to her stage and radio work, she has had lead roles in The Singing Detective,... |
Eva Wilt |
| Diana Quick Diana Quick -Life:Quick was born in London, England. She grew up in Dartford, Kent, the third of a dentist's four children. She was educated at Dartford Grammar School for Girls, Kent. She was greatly aided by her English teacher, Miss Davis, who encouraged her to pursue acting... |
Sally |
| Jeremy Clyde Jeremy Clyde Michael Thomas Jeremy Clyde is an English actor and musician. The son of Lady Elizabeth Wellesley, he made his first public appearance as a pageboy at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1953... |
Hugh |
| Roger Allam Roger Allam Roger Allam is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film and television. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables.... |
Dave |
| David Ryall David Ryall David Ryall is an English actor who has appeared on British television since the 1970s. He has had leading roles in Lytton's Diary and Goodnight Sweetheart, as well as memorable roles in Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective and Andrew Davies's adaptation of To Play the King and The Final Cut, the... |
Rev. Froude |
| Roger Lloyd Pack Roger Lloyd Pack Roger Lloyd-Pack is an English actor known for his roles in the TV shows The Vicar of Dibley, Only Fools and Horses and The Old Guys.-Career:... |
Dr. Pittman |
| Dermot Crowley Dermot Crowley Dermot Crowley is a Irish stage, film and television actor.-Career:Crowley's stage work has included a leading role in an Olivier Award winning production of Conor McPherson's The Weir, which played in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States in the late 1990s... |
Braintree |
| John Normington John Normington John Normington was an English actor who appeared widely on British television from the 1960s until the year of his death. Normington was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing in more than 20 RSC productions... |
Treadaway |