Off-Key Farce

Why Bother to Knock is a glib, mildly titillating Hollywood-style sex farce. Unfortunately, the film was made by Britons, and the results are about as predictably askew as an American effort to make one of those barmy little British comedies about tweedy bird watchers and eccentric country curates.

Richard Todd plays a man-about-Edinburgh, a passionate travel agent who longs to be Scotch with a twist of Lemmon but more often looks stolid as a Rock. Todd has a prim fiancee and a yen for side trips. When his girl says no, he treks off to the Continent to find more accessible playmates, and for remembrance gives each a key to his flat. In Munich, he meets Nicole Maurey. In Venice, he nuzzles a handsome matron whose teen-age daughter gets the key by mistake. In the Alps, he gets stranded with blonde Elke Sommer, a scenic spectacular who conducts walking tours among the peaks.

Back in Edinburgh for the music festival, Todd soon finds his apartment burgeoning with Nicole, Elke, two teenagers, an Italian cellist, and some spongy smart talk. As a friend who pops by on occasion, Classicist Judith Anderson clowns with the air of a lady willing but unable to whip out a bare bodkin and turn the arrant nonsense into a bloody good show. Would that she could.

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