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Customer Reviews of A Private Function

Charming wartime comedy
The Alan Bennett-scripted A Private Function is an amusing tale about a chiropodist's attempt to steal a pig in post-WWII Yorkshire. Michael Palin is the longsuffering husband whose wife, Maggie Smith, wants to eat pork and move up in the world during a time when rationing was still in force, and the market for illicit meat was booming. <
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>Eventually Palin and rival pig-thief Richard Griffiths, looking surprisingly porcine himself, fall in love with the hapless swine. <
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>This is an often very funny look at postwar Britain from a unique perspective. It boasts a stellar cast that also includes Denholm Elliot, Tom Postlethwaite, Bill Paterson, Alison Steadman and Liz Smith.

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For certain tastes only, but good Brit fun
It's all about the Princess and the Pig in this bleak black comedy, which takes place in war-rationed England, circa 1947. The princess, only in a peripheral story, is Elizabeth; and the pig, who takes front and center, is Betty, a sow who's being illegally fatted for slaughter. She gets a second chance at life when someone (Michael Palin) steals her. Very dark comedy, not for the light-hearted! <
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>Staci Layne Wilson <
>Author of Staci's Guide to Animal Movies <
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Clear transfer and great story....
Michael Palin of Monty Python and 'Fish Called Wanda' fame teams up with Maggie Smith ('Prime of Miss Jean Brodie', 'Room With a View', 'Gosford Park') to form one of the most eccentric married couples in English history. To top it off, the couple live with her mother played by the acctress who portrays the eccentric female vestry member (always knitting and creating strange kitchen concoctions) in the 'Vicar of Dilby' series.

Palin is "foot doctor" who spends his days bicycling from house to house in post-War II Yorkshire tending to female patients. In his travels around and about he crosses paths with a syndicate of "business men" who are raising an illegal pig for a "private function" to be held the day the Princess Elizabeth (II) marries.

Following a farcical turn of events, Palin kidnaps the pig named "Betty" planned for the roast. Urged on by Smith's character (pure Maggie), the couple "keep" the pig in their bathroom and try to kill it. Soon enough, the syndicate members discover the kidnapping and are hot on the tail of the missing pig. In the meantime, a zealous copper is hot on their tails.

Other wonderful actors in this romp include Denholm Elliot ('Room With a View'), Alison Steadman ('Singing Dectective', 'Pride and Prejudice'), Pete Postlehwaite ('Name of the Father', 'Brassed Off') and other very familiar faces. An uplifting film, but not suitable for those who are weak of stomach.