brilliant actors, brilliant editing

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

John Cleese is marvellous and is cute in this show

"Fawlty Towers" must be the funniest programming ever put on television. I include in that the comedy shows of old, the modern sitcoms and the various series over the years. This BBC production is called a mini-series, and it was produced just two years – and those, four years apart. The initial season was 1975 with six episodes. It proved so popular, and John Cleese and Connie Booth had enough material, that it returned for another season of six episodes in 1979. Not only did it go against the grain of ongoing shows wearing out (diminishing in quality), "Fawlty Towers" was even better the second time around. Each episode seemed to be a little funnier than the one before it. I rate comedy by a few factors. Uppermost is how much it makes one laugh. Not just me, but others as well. And not just once, but on repeated viewings. Then, is its broad audience appeal. It must be clean (not toilet humor or foul language). Witty, clever lines appeal to more mature audiences; slapstick appeals to all ages but is especially catching for younger audiences; and hilarious antics reach across the board. Add to these smaller things such as tongue- in-cheek comments, off-hand jabs, aside glances, double takes, and various comedy nuances. Finally is its longevity and timelessness. Regardless of when it was made, or where, the humor is not dated. It's just as funny to succeeding audiences over time. Since the advent of TV in the mid-20th century, there have been hundreds of comedy show, mini-series, and what today are called sitcoms. Few TV comedy programs today fit the above criteria that make for great, lasting comedies. Few of them today will sustain the laughter some old shows generated. "I Love Lucy" of 1951-1957 often had people rolling with laughter. Reruns of it today still are very funny. The Carol Burnett Show of 1967-1978 had some of the most outlandishly funny and clever skits ever done on TV. The reruns of those still get much laughter. But, since I first saw "Fawlty Towers" after it came out in the 1970s, I haven't seen any comedy that can top it. So, once a year or so, I trot out my DVD set of the complete series and watch it again. John Cleese's Basil Fawlty is the perfect antidote for the blues or lethargy that may set in at times. The egocentric, stuffed shirt, proud, prudish and bombastic Basil is a surefire cure for the doldrums. My DVD set Includes some bonus materials on the background for the series. Cleese and Connie Booth (who plays Polly in the series) got the material for the show while staying at a hotel in Torquay on the English Channel. That was while they were working on "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Apparently, the innkeeper was a boorish character who tended to turn customers away. So, they modeled Basil on him. All the members of the cast contribute to the success and humor of the series. But this is a Cleese show all the way. I enjoy great humor, and "Warty Fowls" (one of the many derivatives of the title shown with the opening credits of succeeding shows) is my favorite TV comedy of all time.

Classic, iconic, hilarious comedy series.Fawlty Towers is a hotel in Torquay, UK. Its owner and manager is curmudgeonly, irascible, sarcastic Basil Fawlty (played by Monty Python's John Cleese). There is also his wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales), level-headed Polly (Connie Booth) and Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs)...Hysterically funny, and really an instructional video on how not to provide customer service. Some of the skits are classic and will still be repeated and quoted for decades to come.John Cleese's over-the-top antics steal the show, but the others are perfect in their roles. The only pity about this show is that only 12 episodes were ever made.

Seriously, as dumb an American as I am, all it simply takes is one to take a look at "Brit. Humour, then watch Fawlty Towers; it becomes easier to separate the former: ("Brit Humor") from Fawlty Towers; (the latter) one begins to separate in their mind; British Humor vs. pure humor. Pure unadulterated humor. One that runs amok. Runs rampant, twisting and turning. Branching. Swirling like tendrils of ivy on a drab, lime stained brick wall. This is Fawlty Towers to me. (Duh). Basil Fawlty: (a main character) owns a hotel. [(Much like a particular twisted individual in real life, who owned a "hotel" (murder, albeit) in Chicago, Illinois, (...on that turd mound across the pond)...(for some) back in the late 1800s'].Basil lures his victims in to his web of torture, by posing as an eccentric innkeeper by the shore. As smart as some in the cast think they are, how little do they know just how far Basil will go to brutally and unmercifully bully, insult, defame, humiliate, taunt, and torture all he allows in his web, and just how stupid they really are for not seeing it. Except one.That tart of a maid under Basil's employ. Yes! She also takes great pleasure by allowing and enabling the borderline dissociative, sociopath, ASD riddled, word salad spewing, worm brained, multiple personality disorder afflicted, severely emasculated, sexually repressed and frustrated Basil to take his great pleasure torturing the guests, (damn the collateral damage)in some sort of kinky humor fetish thing the both are afflicted with; partaking, if you will, in some S&M 'humoric intercourse' with each other, taking it all the way to the brink of an endorphins soaked ecstasy, (because it is all about sex and/or the lack thereof, mind you).Yes. Simply put: All are victims of some nut job who gets his rocks off by messing around with his staff, family and guests to the point of rage quitting, or becoming a captive with Stockholm Syndrome I guess,as they become just as mad as a hatter as himself.Yes. You will laugh. Laugh yourself retarded.Something you want to watch...?