The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film: Difference between revisions

The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film
	Title card
Directed by	Dick Lester; Peter Sellers
Screenplay by	Spike Milligan; Peter Sellers; Mario Fabrizi; Dick Lester
Story by	Peter Sellers
Produced by	Peter Sellers
Starring	Peter Sellers; Spike Milligan
Cinematography	Dick Lester
Edited by	Dick Lester; Peter Sellers
Music by	Dick Lester
Production; company	Peter Sellers Productions
Distributed by	British Lion Films
Release date	November 1959;
Running time	11 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£70

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The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film is a 1959 British sketch comedy short film directed by Richard Lester and Peter Sellers, in collaboration with Bruce Lacey.^[2]

It was filmed over two Sundays in 1959, at a cost of around £70 (equivalent to £2,057 in 2023) (including £5 for the rental of a field).^[3]

It was a favourite of The Beatles, which led to Lester being hired to direct A Hard Day's Night (1964) and then Help! (1965), in which Lacey makes a guest appearance as George Harrison's gardener in the sequence where the group arrive at their "home".^[4]

Synopsis

The short consists of a series of surreal vignettes which transpire in the English countryside and involve a rotating array of protagonists. It begins with a man watching through a telescope how an old woman cleans a meadow with a rag and bucket. Other examples are a photographer who tries to develop a film in the water of a lake after wrapping a black piece of cloth around his head, or an athlete who is performing push-ups and is then used as the seat for the model of a portrait painter. The model has numbers on her face which the painter uses to choose the correct colours from his numbered palette. The same athlete later throws a hammer, which is then shot down like a skeet shooting target by a hunter. The film ends with a man wearing a top hat and a single boxing glove knocking out another man he had been luring for a long time. The man then enters a hut, undresses, puts the boxing glove back on and goes to sleep, turning off the light and ending the movie.

Cast

Critical reception

BFI Screenonline concluded that the film's lasting legacy "was its influence (as part of Milligan's overall body of work) on British comedy in general, and on Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC, 1969–74) in particular. This is evident not only in its surreal humour, but in the way that elements of one routine are threaded through subsequent scenes, transcending the stand-alone sketch form—a tactic subsequently favoured by the Python team."^[5]

Empire magazine called it "Sublime slapstick surrealism."^[6]

Releases

The film has been made available as a special feature on several home video releases of A Hard Day's Night. It is also featured in The Unknown Peter Sellers (TV documentary, 2000) and a British Film Institute released collection of rarely seen films from Bruce Lacey's career entitled The Lacey Rituals. It is also included as a special feature of the StudioCanal issue of I'm All Right Jack (1959).

Accolades

It was nominated for the 1959 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject, but lost to the Jacques Cousteau film The Golden Fish (1959).^[7]^[8]

References

^ "THE RUNNING JUMPING & STANDING STILL FILM - British Board of Film Classification". www.bbfc.co.uk.
^ "The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959) - Richard Lester, Peter Sellers - Cast and Crew - AllMovie". AllMovie.
^ "Running Jumping & Standing Still..." A Short History of The Telegoons... The Goon Show Preservation Society. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
^ James, David E. (10 December 2015). Rock 'N' Film: Cinema's Dance With Popular Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199387625 – via Google Books.
^ "BFI Screenonline: Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film, The (1960)". www.screenonline.org.uk.
^ Parkinson, David. "The Running, Jumping And Standing Still Film". Empire.
^ "1959 Short Subject (Live Action)". Academy Awards database. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
^ Philo, Simon (6 November 2014). British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810886278 – via Google Books.

External links

The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film at IMDb
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film at AllMovie
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film at the BFI's Screenonline
The short film The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.

[1] "THE RUNNING JUMPING & STANDING STILL FILM - British Board of Film Classification". www.bbfc.co.uk.

[2] "The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959) - Richard Lester, Peter Sellers - Cast and Crew - AllMovie". AllMovie.

[Tele-3] "Running Jumping & Standing Still..." A Short History of The Telegoons... The Goon Show Preservation Society. Retrieved 2 July 2008.

[4] James, David E. (10 December 2015). Rock 'N' Film: Cinema's Dance With Popular Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199387625 – via Google Books.

[5] "BFI Screenonline: Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film, The (1960)". www.screenonline.org.uk.

[6] Parkinson, David. "The Running, Jumping And Standing Still Film". Empire.

[7] "1959 Short Subject (Live Action)". Academy Awards database. Retrieved 1 March 2024.

[8] Philo, Simon (6 November 2014). British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810886278 – via Google Books.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|1959 British film by Richard Lester}}
 {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
 {{Use British English|date=May 2016}}
@@ Line 5: / Line 6: @@
 | image          = The Running Jumping and Standing Still Film.jpg
 | caption        = Title card
-| director       = [[Richard Lester|Dick Lester]]<br>[[Peter Sellers]]
+| director       = [[Richard Lester|Dick Lester]]<br />[[Peter Sellers]]
 | producer       = Peter Sellers
-| screenplay         = [[Spike Milligan]]<br>Peter Sellers<br>[[Mario Fabrizi]]<br>Dick Lester
+| screenplay     = [[Spike Milligan]]<br>Peter Sellers<br>[[Mario Fabrizi]]<br>Dick Lester
-| story = Peter Sellers
+| story          = Peter Sellers
 | starring       = Peter Sellers<br>Spike Milligan
 | music          = Dick Lester
@@ Line 15: / Line 16: @@
 | studio         = Peter Sellers Productions
 | distributor    = [[British Lion Films]]
-| released       = November 1959
+| released       = {{Film date|1959|11}}
 | runtime        = 11 minutes<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/running-jumping-standing-still-film-1959|title=THE RUNNING JUMPING & STANDING STILL FILM - British Board of Film Classification|website=www.bbfc.co.uk}}</ref>
 | country        = United Kingdom
@@ Line 21: / Line 22: @@
 | budget         = £70
 }}
-'''''The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film''''' is a 1959 British [[sketch comedy]] [[short film]] directed by [[Richard Lester]] and [[Peter Sellers]], in collaboration with [[Bruce Lacey]]. The film was released in 1959.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-running-jumping-standing-still-film-v151423/cast-crew|title=The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959) - Richard Lester, Peter Sellers - Cast and Crew - AllMovie|website=AllMovie}}</ref>
+'''''The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film''''' is a 1959 British [[sketch comedy]] [[short film]] directed by [[Richard Lester]] and [[Peter Sellers]], in collaboration with [[Bruce Lacey]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-running-jumping-standing-still-film-v151423/cast-crew|title=The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959) - Richard Lester, Peter Sellers - Cast and Crew - AllMovie|website=AllMovie}}</ref>
 It was filmed over two Sundays in 1959, at a cost of around £70 ({{Inflation|UK|70|1959|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) (including £5 for the rental of a field).<ref name="Tele">{{cite web|url=http://telegoons.org/history_4_running_jumping.htm|title=Running Jumping & Standing Still...|work=A Short History of The Telegoons...|publisher=The Goon Show Preservation Society|accessdate=2008-07-02}}</ref>
-It was nominated for an [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]], but did not win.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqiDBQAAQBAJ&q=The+Running+Jumping+&pg=PA54|title=British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence|first=Simon|last=Philo|date=6 November 2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780810886278|via=Google Books}}</ref> It was a favourite of [[The Beatles]], which led to Lester's being hired to direct ''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|A Hard Day's Night]]'' and then ''[[Help! (film)|Help!]]'', in which Lacey makes a guest appearance as [[George Harrison]]'s gardener in the sequence where the group arrive at their 'home'.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1K_ZCgAAQBAJ&q=The+Running+Jumping+&pg=PT160|title=Rock 'N' Film: Cinema's Dance With Popular Music|first=David E.|last=James|date=10 December 2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199387625|via=Google Books}}</ref>
+It was a favourite of [[The Beatles]], which led to Lester being hired to direct ''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|A Hard Day's Night]]'' (1964) and then ''[[Help! (film)|Help!]]'' (1965), in which Lacey makes a guest appearance as [[George Harrison]]'s gardener in the sequence where the group arrive at their "home".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1K_ZCgAAQBAJ&q=The+Running+Jumping+&pg=PT160|title=Rock 'N' Film: Cinema's Dance With Popular Music|first=David E.|last=James|date=10 December 2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199387625|via=Google Books}}</ref>
+==Synopsis==
-The short film has been made available as a special feature on several home video releases of ''A Hard Day's Night''. It is also featured in ''The Unknown Peter Sellers'' and a [[British Film Institute|BFI]] released collection of rarely seen films from Bruce Lacey's career entitled ''The Lacey Rituals''. It is also included as a special feature of the [[StudioCanal]] issue of ''[[I'm All Right Jack]]''.
+The short consists of a series of surreal vignettes which transpire in the English countryside and involve a rotating array of protagonists. It begins with a man watching through a telescope how an old woman cleans a meadow with a rag and bucket. Other examples are a photographer who [[photographic processing|tries to develop a film]] in the water of a lake after wrapping a black piece of cloth around his head, or an athlete who is performing push-ups and is then used as the seat for the model of a portrait painter. The model has numbers on her face which the painter uses to choose the correct colours from his numbered [[palette (painting)|palette]]. The same athlete later [[hammer throw|throws a hammer]], which is then shot down like a [[skeet shooting]] target by a hunter. The film ends with a man wearing a [[top hat]] and a single [[boxing glove]] knocking out another man he had been luring for a long time. The man then enters a hut, undresses, puts the boxing glove back on and goes to sleep, turning off the light and ending the movie.
 ==Cast==
@@ Line 41: / Line 43: @@
 ==Critical reception==
-''[[BFI Screenonline]]'' concluded that the film's lasting legacy "was its influence (as part of Milligan's overall body of work) on British comedy in general, and on [[Monty Python's Flying Circus]] (BBC, 1969-74) in particular. This is evident not only in its surreal humour, but in the way that elements of one routine are threaded through subsequent scenes, transcending the stand-alone [[Sketch comedy|sketch form]] - a tactic subsequently favoured by the Python team."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/471274/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film, The (1960)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> ''[[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]]'' magazine called it "Sublime slapstick surrealism."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/running-jumping-standing-still-film/review/|title=The Running, Jumping And Standing Still Film|first=David|last=Parkinson|website=Empire}}</ref>
+''[[BFI Screenonline]]'' concluded that the film's lasting legacy "was its influence (as part of Milligan's overall body of work) on British comedy in general, and on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' (BBC, 1969–74) in particular. This is evident not only in its surreal humour, but in the way that elements of one routine are threaded through subsequent scenes, transcending the stand-alone [[Sketch comedy|sketch form]]—a tactic subsequently favoured by the Python team."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/471274/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film, The (1960)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref>
+''[[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]]'' magazine called it "Sublime slapstick surrealism."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/running-jumping-standing-still-film/review/|title=The Running, Jumping And Standing Still Film|first=David|last=Parkinson|website=Empire}}</ref>
-==See also==
+== Releases ==
+The film has been made available as a special feature on several home video releases of ''A Hard Day's Night''. It is also featured in ''The Unknown Peter Sellers'' (TV documentary, 2000) and a [[British Film Institute]] released collection of rarely seen films from Bruce Lacey's career entitled ''The Lacey Rituals''. It is also included as a special feature of the [[StudioCanal]] issue of ''[[I'm All Right Jack]]'' (1959).
+== Accolades ==
+It was nominated for the 1959 [[Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film|Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject]], but lost to the [[Jacques Cousteau]] film ''[[The Golden Fish (film)|The Golden Fish]]'' (1959).<ref>{{Cite web |title=1959 Short Subject (Live Action) |url=https://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/Search/Nominations?categoryExactId=60&awardShowFrom=32&view=3-Award%20Category-Chron |access-date=1 March 2024 |website=Academy Awards database}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Philo |first=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqiDBQAAQBAJ&q=The+Running+Jumping+&pg=PA54 |title=British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence |date=6 November 2014 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780810886278 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
+== See also ==
 * [[List of avant-garde films of the 1950s]]
@@ Line 60: / Line 70: @@
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Running Jumping and Standing Still Film, The}}
 [[Category:1959 films]]
-[[Category:British comedy films]]
 [[Category:1959 comedy films]]
 [[Category:Films directed by Peter Sellers]]
 [[Category:Films directed by Richard Lester]]
 [[Category:1959 short films]]
-[[Category:Surreal comedy]]
+[[Category:Surreal comedy films]]
 [[Category:Surrealist films]]
-[[Category:Comedy short films]]
+[[Category:British comedy short films]]
 [[Category:1960s English-language films]]
 [[Category:1950s English-language films]]
 [[Category:1950s British films]]
-{{1960s-UK-film-stub}}
-{{short-comedy-film-stub}}

v t e The Goons
Spike Milligan Harry Secombe Peter Sellers Michael Bentine
Radio / TV series	The Goon Show The Telegoons The Last Goon Show of All
Characters	Major Dennis Bloodnok Bluebottle Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister Eccles Hercules Grytpype-Thynne Count Jim Moriarty Neddie Seagoon
Films	Let's Go Crazy Penny Points to Paradise Down Among the Z Men The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film
Related	Episodes Goon Show Preservation Society Running jokes "Ying Tong Song"