One of my modules this year is looking at scriptwriting, and we're often shown a variety of short films. With this in mind, I thought I'd take a look at one of my favourite short films, The Duel at Blood Creek, a comedic period piece directed in 2010 by Leo Burton.
Taking place some time in the early 19th Century, we follow Lord Allesbury as he travels to Blood Creek with his servant, Benton. His intention is to fight a duel with Sir Oliver Hawthorne over an affair of honour. Unfortunately, he's not the only one coming to Blood Creek to fight a duel:
Judge Edgar Proust is seeking to fight a duel with a man named Townsend, when he and Allesbury take an instant dislike to one another
Lt Simon Beckett has been challenged to a duel by Captain Howard Gower
Mr Mason and Mr Tunstall have come to settle their business dispute in a pistol duel overseen by their mutual friend Mr Elliot.
You'd think a short film couldn't work with so many characters, but somehow it creates some great humour from the bickering between the various duellists, especially as the reasons for duelling come to light. They're not exactly honourable, and some are outright childish.
For a film about duelling, there isn't much focus on any duelling until the end, but that's the joke; they're too busy arguing about who gets to duel first. Even when the duelling is underway, it gets hampered by the tensions between the different duellists.
If there's anything I do have to criticise, it's that nothing truly gets resolved. It ends with an anti-climactic deus ex machima. However, that itself is also pretty funny, so it's not a major issue for me.
The Duel at Blood Creek can be found online here. I highly recommend it for the laughs.
Happy writing, and if I don't post anything else in the next few days; Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and any other holidays from around this time I may have missed.
It's December. Another time of year when we stretch one day of celebration into a whole month. Except the retail sector who stretch it for much longer. A time when we've started to see how long we can go without hearing "Last Christmas" by Wham!
(Five days for me, if you're asking)
Anyway, in honour of the holiday (and to procrastinate an assignment), I decided to take a look Mischief Theatre's Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Mischief Theatre's "Goes Wrong" productions are a series of stage shows which centre around the fictional Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, whose productions are exactly as the title suggests. The series started with The Play That Goes Wrong in 2012, but I haven't seen that one.
I'm specifically looking at the Peter Pan Goes Wrong TV special which Mischief Theatre did with the BBC during Christmas in 2016. The hour-long special follows the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society as they perform the traditional Christmas vignette (not pantomime), Peter Pan. Unfortunately, their production is seriously hampered by faulty props, cast members forgetting their lines, substandard sets, and even some personal dramas. What results from this is some of the funniest slapstick comedy I've ever seen.
The characters are all great. To illustrate things easier, I'll talk you through the cast members:
Chris, the director, plays Captain Hook and Mr Darling, and gets angry when the audience regards the production of a pantomime
Robert, who refers to himself as the "lead actor", plays none of the lead roles (Nana the dog, an unintelligible pirate called Starkey, and Peter's Shadow)
The showboating Jonathan plays Peter Pan
Sandra plays Wendy, and is in a relationship with Jonathan off-stage
Max plays Michael and the Crocodile, has a crush on Sandra, and is said to have only got the parts because his aunt runs the BBC
Dennis plays John and Mr Smee, and has to have his lines delivered to him through a headset
Annie plays Mrs Darling, Liza the Maid, Tinkerbell (who is traditionaly played by a beam of light), Tiger Lily and a pirate (both in the same scene)
Robert's niece Lucy plays Tootles the Lost Boy, but suffers from stage fright and multiple injuries
Trevor serves as the stage manager, and sometimes ends up working on-stage as well as off
David Suchet makes a guest appearance as the narrator
There are plenty of other jokes I haven't shared here. I'd say my favourite scene is when Mrs Darling is singing a lullaby, while Robert (as Nana) is stuck in the dog flap and the stage hands are trying to extricate him. Annie has to belt out the lullaby as her words are being drowned out by the stage crew's power tools. This is immediately followed by this gem:
Overall, it's a great show with some great laughs, but I have the feeling that something as slapstick-heavy as this would be even funnier on stage.
The TV special was so popular that they returned for A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong the following year. In this one, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society have been blacklisted by the BBC, and hijack their made-for-TV special of A Christmas Carol. To expand on the comedy utilised in the previous special, this one also has Chris dealing with attempts on his life from Robert (who wanted to play Scrooge), and Sir Derek Jacobi (who was playing Scrooge).
If you ever get a chance to see these specials, I highly recommend that you do. I don't see a lot of stuff on stage, but I'd love to check this out at some point.
