Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18555 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-05-20
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Full Screen, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 284 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Morecambe & Wise Collection brings together the total cinematic oeuvre of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise: The Intelligence Men (1965), That Riviera Touch (1966) and The Magnificent Two (1967). Though intermittently amusing, they serve mostly to confirm that Morecambe & Wise did the smart thing in devoting the majority of their career to television sketch show. Their comedy was most potent in small doses.

The Intelligence Men is an obvious but likeable parody of the early Bond films and sets the pattern for all three films: Eric and Ernie as two well-meaning blunderers cast into an unfamiliar milieu (in this case, international espionage) and forced to survive armed with little more than a repertoire of wince-inducing puns.

That Riviera Touch is an obvious but likeable parody of the heist genre. Again, Eric and Ernie are cast as hapless ingénues, in this case a pair of traffic wardens whose holiday in France intersects with the plottings of a gang of jewel thieves. If anything, it’s even more contrived than that sounds, but the scenes in which Eric cleans out the casino by accident are wonderfully understated, and a reminder of a peerless comic actor.

The Magnificent Two, the final and by some distance the least funny of the three, is an updated though rather laboured subversion of the Spaghetti Western, relying rather too much on the notion that anything and everything to do with foreigners is inherently hilarious.

On the DVD: The Morecambe & Wise Collection has English subtitles for all three discs and all include the original cinematic trailer. That Riviera Touch is presented in 4:3 format, the remaining two in 16:9. As special features go, these are annoyingly desultory for a release that will certainly only be purchased by die-hard fans. It wouldn’t have killed the producers to commission some liner notes at the very least.--Andrew Mueller

Synopsis

The Morecambe & Wise Movie Collection three-disc box set features a triple dose of films from the popular British comedy duo Morecambe and Wise. The three titles included in the collection are: "The Intelligence Men", "That Riviera Touch" and "The Magnificent Two".

Customer Reviews

280 min. charming British black humour from the 60ies!
A great buy! These three comedy films are great fun to watch. I would recommend to start with "That Riviera Touch" as it gives the best introduction to the starring duet of comedians and is also the best of all three. I think I am going to watch this one until I know the phrases by heart - good for my ability to imitate British English which is not my mother tongue, unfortunately (anybody having a clue as to where I could get a copy of the script???). My 8-year old daughter also has fun watching it, in spite of not understanding English at all (yet).
Secondly, "The Intelligence Men" is a cynical parody on James Bond clichés, so having seen the early James Bond films would increase one's capacity of appreciating that one. I found it funnier the second time I watched it. It occurs to me that I have to laugh at some of the scenes thinking about them a couple of days later (which either proves that I'm real dumb or that I'm not English or both).
Last not least, "The Magnificent Two" features what might be some real English black humour (if my anthropological analysis is right), however, it also has some scenes which smack of that kind of cheapish boulevard-press-style stereotypical "erotic" wit which was typical for the late sixtees - so that one I found a bit embarrassing at one point. However, having overcome that slight cultural shock, I find that also that third film has some very good fun scenes and given the price of the set you really should buy this box and enjoy three times a bit over 90 minutes approximately of "jolly good" English entertainment.
There is a cultural gap now between our age and the age of Morecambe and Wise - this makes them a bit of an antiquity, legendary and charmingly cranky-crotchety. One has to really adapt some to these films - the humour is of a different kind when compared to what you have today in films, this makes watching them both a bit demanding now (in spite of their obviously having been hilariously undemanding and popular for English people back in the 60ies) and a refreshing relief from the contemporary mainstream film culture.

Much Maligned, but enjoyable
The intelligence men is a riot from start to finish, with Eric and Ern on top form - Eric's the child-like innocent, Ernie is the ambitious buffoon. The final scenes with Swan Lake are an absolute hoot.

That Riveria Touch is like an Abbott and Costello film, but again hugely enjoyable.

The Magnificent Two is the least of the three.

Brilliant fun for all ages
Eric and Ern are not so highly regarded for their big movie outings, but time passing and not a little nostalgia have made this trio of films shot at Pinewood in the South of France in the mid-sixties, well worth a revisit. What struck me seeing them again all these years later is how good are their production values. Eric's innocence and Ernie's beligerent confidence dovetail beautifully in a latter-day Stan and Ollie format. All three are enjoyable, but That Riviera Touch is sublime. My four kids fall about during the whole of that movie.