THE ODD JOB (1978)

3 stars

Severin Films. Blu ray. Also digital on Amazon Prime. 25th August

Graham Chapman, in a solo effort away from the Python crew, stars in this quirky black comedy as one Arthur Harris. Returning home with a gift for his wife Fiona (Diana Quick) on their fifth anniversary, he is somewhat surprised that she is leaving him.

She hightails it to Arthur’s best friend Tony Sloane (Simon Williams) – who clearly has a thing for her and tries to make moves to seduce her. Arthur meanwhile gets drunk, and visits his sexy neighbour Angie (Carolyn Seymour – who was married to director Peter Medak at the time). He runs away when she strips off!

Now a drunken and depressed mess he decides he is going to kill himself – except he is not very good at it. As luck, and plotlines would have it, an odd job man (David Jason) turns up at his door, and the desperate Arthur proposes that this strange little man kills him when he least expects it, and not to stop… no matter what. Which causes a problem when his wife returns!

This seems to be something of an obscurity so Severin are to be applauded for resurrecting it – even if it isn’t a premium presentation, as it was taken from Medak’s personal 35mm print as the negative couldn’t be located. They have done what they can, but the colours fluctuate a bit and the image is soft.

Silly and somewhat absurd, it is sporadically amusing, if not out and out hilarious. Chapman gives a histrionic performance in the central role. The script was written by him and Bernard McKenna and based on an episode from the TV series “Six Dates with Barker” (1971) starring Ronnie Barker in the main part and David Jason in the same role as in the movie. Interestingly, drummer Keith Moon of the band The Who, was approached to play the killer initially.

Steve Kirkham

EXTRAS

Intro/short interview with Peter Medak (2 mins)

Audio interview with Medak which plays over the film

Reunion between Medak and David Jason over Zoom (16 mins)

Interviews with Bernard McKenna (20 mins); Co-producer Mark Forstater (18 mins); actor Richard O’Brien (13 mins); actress Carolyn Seymour (7 mins); actor Simon Williams (14 mins)