Main Cast: Harry Secombe, Eric Sykes, Jimmy Edwards, Hattie Jacques, Gordon Rollings
Release Year: 1970
Country: UK
Run Time: 37 minutes
Plot
This feature is basically a silent comedy as the only word spoken is "rhubarb." A Vicar (Harry Secombe) plays golf with the local police inspector (Eric Sykes), with the lawman cheating mercilessly with the help of his constable (Jimmy Edwards). Soon the Vicar calls on help from the Almighty to conjure up a lighting bolt to help his game. Sight gags and pantomime dominate this engaging 37 minute feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Johnny Speight - Man In Park; Ann Lancaster - Wife; Kenneth Connor - Husband; Graham Stark - Golfer; Sheree Winton - Girl Friend
Credit
Eric Sykes - Director, Anthony Sloman - Editor, Brian Fahey - Composer (Music Score), Arthur Wooster - Cinematographer, Jon Penington - Producer, Eric Sykes - Screenwriter
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has 2 meanings:
Meaning #1:
long pinkish sour leafstalks usually eaten cooked and sweetened
Synonym: pieplant
Meaning #2:
plants having long green or reddish acidic leafstalks growing in basal clumps; stems (and only the stems) are edible when cooked; leaves are poisonous
Synonym: rhubarb plant
Rhubarb was a 1969British short film written and directed by Eric Sykes, starring Sykes and Harry Secombe. The dialogue consisted entirely of repetitions of the word "rhubarb", all the characters last names were "Rhubarb", and even the license plates on vehicles were "RHU BAR B". A baby "spoke" by holding a sign with the word "Rhubarb" written on it.
Rhubarb is a radio idiom for unintelligible background speech. Typically extras would mutter the word over and over to provide ambience for a crowd or party scene. In The Goon Show the cast was usually only the three principals, who would pretend to try to sound like a larger group by repeating "rhubarb" very quickly but clearly, with outbreaks of "Custard!" for good measure. Sykes was a close collaborator and friend of the Goons. He remade the piece in 1980 for Thames Television, as Rhubarb Rhubarb.
A PoliceInspector and a vicar play a round of golf. The Police Inspector has a Constable help him to cheat by removing his golf ball from awkward situations, and the vicar ultimately requests Divine Intervention.
Other Eric Sykes short silent films in similar style: The Plank (1967), The Plank (1979 remake of the 1967 film), It's Your Move (1982), Mr. H Is Late (1988) and The Big Freeze (1993).
