A pair of wishes—pronounced over an Indian artifact stolen by a disreputable brother-in-law—switch the bodies of Paul Bultitude (Roger Livesey), a pompous Victorian stockbroker, and Dick (Anthony Newley), his more than ordinarily silly son. Dick, happy with the transition, attempts to emulate his father but appears to those around him to have gone insane. Paul refuses to come to grips with the situation and finds himself on the wrong end of the boys at boarding school.
Body switching comedies became overly common in the ’80s, but the ground was less trod (but not virginal) when Peter Ustinov introduced his absurdist and thoroughly British take on the material. Surprisingly, it was not only fresh at the time, but still is many years later. We are spared a saccharine examination of the generations and instead offered a whimsical tale without a shred of meaning. Vice Versa a is pure silliness, but it is silliness with wit.
Much of the humor comes from playing with the old, stiff-upper-lip stereotype as well as the Victorian obsession with propriety. Everyone’s priorities pass from the ridiculous and enter the bizarre. No one focuses on what is important. When the participants in a duel are hauled into court, the judge is more concerned with the music that a nearby band was playing and what schools people went to than in a potential stabbing. All this could be taken as a satire on English society, but that’s adding weight to fluff.
There are few rules in this comedy. The forth wall is broken repeatedly with several characters speaking directly to the audience. Religions and peoples have little connection to reality, and the two leads behave without any regard to their situation. None of that should be taken negatively. Much of the joy comes from the no-holds-barred preposterousness. It is clearly pointing the way to Monty Python.
The rest of the fun comes from the dialog, where the English language is twisted into a mobius strip. It seldom matters what is said, but how it is said, and how is always amusing.
Vice Versa is a Post-War British Comedies, in the sense that it is British and made after WWII, but while its country of origin is clear, it shows no influence from the war. It could have been made as easily in 1934. I’d like to say it could be made now, but I’m afraid that isn’t true.