Clockwise (film)
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| Clockwise | |
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| Directed by | Christopher Morahan |
| Produced by | Michael Codron |
| Written by | Michael Frayn |
| Starring | John Cleese Penelope Wilton Stephen Moore |
| Music by | George Fenton |
| Cinematography | John Coquillon |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 11 July, 1986 |
| Running time | 96 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Clockwise is a 1986 British comedy film starring John Cleese. It was directed by Christopher Morahan, written by Michael Frayn and produced by Michael Codron. The film was co-produced by Moment Films and Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. The music in the film was composed by George Fenton.
The film centres on Brian Stimpson (played by Cleese), the successful but obsessive headmaster of a comprehensive school. His school runs 'like clockwork'. On the way to a headmasters' conference at which he is a speaker many misfortunes befall him and his ordered world begins to unwind in a way reminiscent of Greek tragedy. A Morris 1100 car, similar to the Austin 1300 beaten with a stick by Cleese in Fawlty Towers episode 'Gourmet Night', plays a key role in the plot of this film.
Michael Frayn's screenplay has a different opening, involving illuminated digits on a clock radio, Cleese waking up when the alarm goes off and Cleese seen naked and wet in the shower ("a sight few of us expected to see in our lifetime").
For his performance in the film, Cleese won the 1987 Peter Sellers Award For Comedy at the Evening Standard British Film Awards.
The school used in the beginning of the film (where Cleese was Headmaster) was Menzies High School, in West Bromwich (West Midlands). King Edward's School, a private boys' day school and the east entrance to the University of Birmingham, both in Edgbaston, Birmingham, were also used as filming locations, as were Hull railway station and Grimsby's Scartho Road Hospital. The entrance to the on-screen hospital (in which the car Cleese and others are seen driving out of) is actually the entrance to the Scartho Road Cemetery in Grimsby.
