Nigel Dennis (Dennis Price) blackmails the high and mighty: £10,000 or their stories will appear in his scandal sheet. Four victims, insurance salesman Lord Mayley (Terry-Thomas), TV personality Wee Sonny MacGregor (Peter Sellers), author Flora Ransom (Peggy Mount), and model Melissa Right (Shirley Eaton), decide to fight back, and plan to eliminate Dennis with what can only be described as their meager criminal skills.
An ensemble piece in the fading days of Post-War British Comedies, The Naked Truth has its satiric moments (politicians and TV stars taking advantage of their status to cheat the people; attempts to buy a bomb from the IRA), but this is mainly a comedy of errors. Our hapless heroes fall into the river, have furniture dropped on their toes, are accidentally drugged, and are arrested, and always because of making silly choices. It is all amusing but never laugh-out-loud funny.
The cast is the film’s main strength. Dennis Price (Kind Hearts and Coronets) could do smarmy in his sleep, just as Terry-Thomas (Carlton-Browne of the F.O., Blue Murder at St. Trinian’s, The Green Man, Make Mine Mink) could become a likeable upper-class-twit. They are both in fine form. Price is underused, as was generally the case in a career that never went as far as his talent dictated, but Thomas has plenty of opportunity to act the fool. With abundant double-takes and blustering, he couldn’t have been better. The beautiful Shirley Eaton (Carry On Sergeant, Gold Finger) is so adorable it’s hard not to reach out and squeeze her—which is a way of getting strange looks at a theater. Joan Sims, who is best known for her parts in twenty-four of the Carry On films, plays Flora Ransom’s daughter as a walking, twitching, comedy of hysteria. They are supported by the mainstay of British comedy, Miles Malleson (Kind Hearts and Coronets, Scrooge, The Importance of Being Earnest, Barnacle Bill, Horror of Dracula) in one of his many small roles, this time as the muddled fiancé of Flora. And in such fine company, it is the formidable Peggy Mount who steals the show. She is a force of nature. In one of the film’s best gags, Mount’s Flora runs about town asking druggists, supposed criminals, and even the police for a “Mickey Finn.”
While I’ve mentioned the superb work of just about everyone in the film, I haven’t yet mentioned its most famous participant, Peter Sellers (Carlton-Browne of the F.O., Heavens Above!, The Smallest Show on Earth). That’s because he isn’t very good. Oh, he’s not bad, but he is working purely as a slapstick comedian. He makes lots of funny faces and does strange walks, plays with accents and wears disguises, none of which is funny on its own. It helps that his servant mentions that Wee Sonny MacGregor is not a very good actor and always over plays. Interesting that this condemnation is given to Sellers’ usual bits that he uses again and again in later films.
The Naked Truth is no classic of the British comedy moment, but it is fun. It will also leave you repeating “You mean to say I get all that with such a small premium?”
As the title was too salacious for the conservative U.S., it was renamed Your Past is Showing on this side of the Atlantic. The DVD release is advertised under its British name, however, the title card still bears the American title.