Steptoe & Son

1972 ""You'd think if the Berk's going to get tied up with a stripper, he'd do it on the telly - not on the big screen where everyone can see it - Dirty little devil.""
6.5| 1h38m| en| More Info
Released: 01 March 1972 Released
Producted By: Associated London Films
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are rag-and-bone men, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live together at the junk yard. Harold, who likes the bright lights in the West End of London, meets a stripper, marries her and takes her home. Albert is furious and tries every trick he knows to drive the new bride from his household.

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Reviews

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.
Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
Leofwine_draca The 1970s was the decade of big screen adaptations for popular British TV series and STEPTOE AND SON is the first of two such workings for the ever-popular show (STEPTOE AND SON RIDE AGAIN would be released the following year). Fans of the series are likely to enjoy it as it sees the return of Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell to their most famous roles, and the old camaraderie is back once more as if they'd never been away.However, this is a film that feels very different to the good-natured and light-hearted TV show. There's a cold, almost ruthless streak of pessimism in the production that makes this feel more like a tragedy than a comedy. In some ways it feels like an episode drawn out to feature length and the single-strand plot makes some elements of the production feel drawn out and repetitive.In essence the tale is about Corbett falling for a stripper and deciding to marry her, only for the needy Brambell to get in the way. Carolyn Seymour successfully portrays the awkwardness felt at coming between this pairing. There's little more to it than that, but at times this film feels like a depiction of psychological and emotional torture, with Brambell turning the thumb screws at every opportunity. It's testament to the skill of the two stars that this remains a likable comedy despite the darkness of the script. Inevitably, the grimy surroundings are better realised than ever on film as opposed to television, and the envelope is pushed further than ever with nudity and bad language in the mix.
Spikeopath Steptoe and Son was massively popular in the UK, and sure enough in keeping with a trend that continued throughout the 1970s, it was a show that was guaranteed to have a movie spin off. In fact it got two! Such was its popularity.This first feature length film has the basic traits of the show, the tragi-comedy aspects of a son (Harry H. Corbett) forever destined to be held back by his lecherous and unclean father (Wilfrid Brambell) are fully born out. All set to the very basic working class backdrop of a Rag & Bone family business.Enter a stripper, excuse me, exotic dancer (Carolyn Seymour), who bizarrely marries Corbett and cues up a number of scenes where old man Steptoe single handedly manages to destroy the marriage on the honeymoon.It's not the coarseness of the screenplay that hurts the movie, or some of the dialogue that has the PC brigade spitting feathers, it's that in spite of sound performances and some well written sequences (Galton & Simpson), it's just too bleak for its own good!The gags quickly dry up entering the second half of the picture, which leaves us with only our good will to stay with characters that we have a mild interest in anyway. For hard core fans of the show, it's easy to go with the flow, but there's nothing here to remotely entice the outsider to venture further into the hygienically challenge world of Steptoe & Son. 6/10
Malcolm Parker In the TV series, Steptoe and Son always played with the audiences empathy. Old man Steptoe was a horrible man, but this was redeemed by the ludicrousness of his acts. Harold was naive and pretentious but because he was a rag and bone man nobody took him seriously. In this film someone does take Harold seriously and Steptoe is generally just horrible. The actors play their roles with their usual gusto, but the underlying love between Steptoe & his son that sustained the TV series is replaced here by something far less wholesome and more akin to psychological and emotional abuse. Cliff Owen (Director) had either never seen the series, or in this instance was incapable of capturing the subtlety and nuance that great comedy depends upon. Every gag is wrung dry and instead of pathos you get squalor. The TV series is and will remain a great example of British comedy, this film is not.
Joseph P. Ulibas Steptoe and Son (1972) was a feature length movie featuring the two leads of the popular English television series. The plot deals with Harold falling for a "scrubber". Albert in his cruel and crude ways can see the marriage will never work, can Harold and his new bride work things out or will his mean old man ruin his plans for a happy family life?The first film is a lot like the television series, a mixture of melodrama and comedy. A tad uneven in some places but it's very enjoyable. The second film is more of a farcical comedy and it's more accessible to non-fans of this brilliant television series.Highly recommended for fans of the t.v. series and for people who want to take a peek at the original "Sanford and Son".