After the Monty Python team split up in 1974 (albeit John Cleese had already left in 1973) they all went onto their projects soon after. Terry Gilliam began directing in earnest, Eric Idle formed The Rutles, Michael Palin & Terry Jones wrote and performed in Ripping Yarns and Cleese went onto do some sit com about a Torquay hotel. Which left Chapman. He appeared in the occasional thing but it was a short sitcom pilot with Ronnie Barker that caught is attention. The story centred on a husband whose wife leaves him and in despair he hires am odd job man to kill him when he’s not expecting it. But when his wife returns to him he finds that the hit man is intent on carrying out the hit regardless.
Along with co-writer Bernard McKenna the pair expanded it into a feature film length with Chapman as the lead and David Jason taking the role of an odd job man hired to carry out the hit. But what should be a series of farcical slapstick moments turns into a often ponderously paced comedy with often laboriously plotted moments. It’s perhaps that Chapman was a notoriously difficult person to write with as Cleese himself would attest to in their Python days and his alcoholism hardly helped. But Chapman gave his performance his all in The Odd Job with that persona of the stuffed shirt driven to moments of hysteria being a trademark of many of his roles that made him such an excellent and essential lead in the Python films Holy Grail and Life of Brian making those films difficult to imagine with anyone else but him in the lead.
That the script seems always a draft or two from being far better it was also not helped by the original director Cliff Owen who had helmed succesful feature films with Morecambe & Wise, Dick Emery and Steptoe & Son but with him out of the frame after an accident with only weeks to spare director Peter Medak was hired. An extremely skilled director who would later helm the excellent supernatural film ‘The Changeling’ as well as true life tales ‘The Krays’ (1990) and Let Him Have it but comedy did not sit easily with his flair for more grounded drama meaning the slapstick did not always land as it should.
For Python fans this is something of a curiosity and still worth a look being released as it is on blu-ray for the first time with a host of bonus features that includes and introduction by director Peter Medak plus…..
- Audio Interview with Peter Medak
- The Odd Job Men– Zoom reunion between star Sir David Jason and Peter Medak
- The Unusual Work– Interview with writer Bernard McKenna
- Producer, An Odd Job– Interview with co-producer Mark Forstater
- The Odd Batch– Interview with actor Richard O’Brien
- The Naughty Neighbour– Interview with actress Carolyn Seymour
- Most Peculiar Craft– Interview with actor Simon Williams
Feature Specs for THE ODD JOB:
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Audio: English Mono
- Closed Captions: English SDH
- Runtime: 88 mins
- Region: A/B/C
The film stumbled at the box office and a US release faltered with Chapman returning to the safety of Monty Python and their controversial Life Of Brian that would be his last really notable work before he passed away in 1989.
Something of a rarity and hardly seen since its release in 1978 The Odd Job is nonetheless worth a look for fans of Python.
We chatted with producer Mark Forstater about the making of the film and what went on behind the scenes
related feature : Terry Gilliam talks about working with the late Shelley Duvall on ‘Time Bandits’
related feature : The controversial character cut from Monty Python’s, ‘Life of Brian
Here’s The Odd Job trailer…..
