I Watch Films: The Plank

The Plank

British comedy legends Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper are workmen finishing the floor of a house when they discover they are short one plank. They go to the wood yard, collect it and bring it back. This is the plot.

There is a lot of slapstick along the way, the plank itself falling off their car, getting caught in places, acting as a see-saw, connecting a policeman on a bike and a lorry as part of the traffic sequence. As well as the clever inter-connected physical comedy sequences, the excellent cast of recognisable 60s British comedy actors* convey almost all the story in their gestures, with only enough words to stop the film from seeming obtrusively silent.

An extended sketch, or series of sketches, though not so long as to overstay its welcome or run out of ideas. Although everyone is a stock character, and unable to see anything but what is directly in front of them (and sometimes not even that) they’re portrayed well. The policeman taking off his duty armband when he gives up, only to have to immediately put it back on as another plank related incident occurs is a good running gag, entirely of its time (the duty armband was abolished the next year). It's constructed as a silent film, with long periods of no one using their words.

Watch This: It’s funny, it’s short, it’s about a plank
Don’t Watch This: Slapstick 60s humour is not amusing

* Mostly men and mostly white, though interestingly the bin men are black