Doors and Sardines

I know I've mentioned it before, but I guess I saw Noises Off! (1992) before I started the blog - so second time watching, first time blogging. Actually, we saw the play first in San Fran, as I'll mention a few times below.

It's about a play called Nothing On, directed by Michael Caine, a typical sex romp. He starts by flashing back to the last rehearsal for opening night in Des Moines. It's the dress rehearsal, but also the technical, because they open the next day. The play in the play stars Carol Burnett, the housekeeper in an old English estate. She's brought out a plate of sardines and is about to put her feet up when the phone rings. A little more business, she goes offstage - and Caine stops the performance. She forgot the sardines. As he explains a little later, the play is all about sardines and doors, doors and sardines, like life. 

After clearing that up, Burnett goes offstage and John Ritter and Nicollette Sheridan come in. He's the rental agent for the house, and they are having an assignation, not realizing that Burnett is there. When they are tucked away in a bedroom, Christopher Reeve and Marilu Henner come in. They are the house's owners, supposedly in Spain for tax reasons, sneaking home for an assignation with each other. The key to the farce is that the two couples don't know each other are around, and Burnett doesn't realize it. Also, there's a burglar played by Denholm Elliot. We see the actors trying to get this all to work with their timing off - Someone wonders who left the sardines there, when Burnett forgot to leave the sardines there, the two couples wind up in the same place when they aren't supposed to know about each other, and so on. Doors and sardines.

Just quickly, the actors that these actors are playing:

• Burnett is a classic comedian who is always getting her lines wrong: "Hold on, I've only got one leg" comes out "I've only got two heads",
• Ritter plays an actor who quibbles with the director, but his arguments mostly amount to "my God, well, you know?"
• Sheridan is a sex kitten who answers every question, "What?" When the play is going to hell and everyone is trying to improvise to fix it, she just sticks to her lines, no matter what anyone on stage is saying or doing. She also plays most of the show in her underwear.
• Reeve is a handsome actor who proclaims how stupid he is about plots and things, and isn't exaggerating.
• Henner seems nice but tends to stir up shit gossiping about who is sleeping with who (Ritter/Burnett, Caine and stage manager).
• Elliot played an ancient but revered actor who is partly deaf and totally alcoholic. When he's not visible, the entire cast has to run around calling his name like a theatrical firedrill.

As mentioned. there is a stage manager, Julie Haggerty (Airplane!) who is haggard and self-conscious. Mark Linn-Baker plays the sleep-deprived and bullied set carpenter.

The second act is the same as the first, except this time we see a disastrous matinee in Florida, mainly from backstage. When we saw this theatrically, it was entirely backstage, but the film didn't stick to this strictly. 

The last act is closing night in Cleveland, facing the stage, when things go very wrong. Elliot is late for a cue, so Linn-Baker shows up as understudy, then Caine shows up as understudy, then Elliot shows up. Three burglars - calls for some clever improvisation. Too bad the cast isn't up to it.

The play was written by Michael Frayn, and it really is a wonder, both a send up of the sex farce doors-and-sardines and a tribute to it. There's a scene backstage where a bottle of scotch and a fire axe are past around and used in various ways that shows precise staging, all the while threatening to derail the show going on in front.

Peter Bogdanovich directed this (our second in a row! With John Ritter!) but tried to keep it the play's vision pure. It was funnier seeing it in the theater, and sharper too, because it was a play in a play, not in a movie. He did change it from England to America, and added a happy ending. 

I guess people didn't really love this movie - I don't know if the problem was the script or the direction. We loved it, even if it was only a reflection of the play.