A party of friends and relatives comes to stay for the weekend at General Futtock's country house. Hilarity Ensues.
Futtock's End is a 1970 comedy film written by Ronnie Barker. It is a silent film with sound effects — the characters' speech is never quite discernable on the soundtrack.
Barker subsequently wrote two similar films (The Picnic and By the Sea) in which Ronnie Corbett, his co-star from The Two Ronnies, joined him.
Tropes:
- All There in the Script: The characters' names are only found in the script. In the credits of the film itself they are named only as "The General", "The Niece", "The Butler" and so on.
- Censor Suds: As the script specifies, the General emerges from his shower "clad only in soap-suds, of which, for propriety's sake, there are a great many."
- Dirty Old Man: Hawk, the butler, is quick to take any opportunity to leer at pretty young women. The General isn't above it either.
- Distracted by the Sexy: While driving the party back from the station, the General is so distracted by the sight of Carol riding pillion on a motorbike that he nearly loses control of the car.
- Double Take: When Carol strips to swim, a nearby cow double-takes.
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: At one point the house staff are dancing to a record player, yet every time they hear the butler enter behind them they quickly revert to silently polishing the silver. Until the butler comes in twice in quick succession, whereupon they are tricked into dancing when the butler is present and polishing the silver when he leaves.
- Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: Hawk the butler firstly steals Carol's swimming costume, so she has to swim naked, and then follows her and steals her clothes while she's in the water.
- Hangover Sensitivity: The morning after a drunken dinner, the characters are seen at breakfast, and we hear what they hear. The lids on serving dishes sound like cymbals crashing, cereal being poured sounds like a cement mixer, and so on.
- High-Class Glass: The General wears a monocle, which falls off when he is Distracted by the Sexy.
- Ms. Fanservice: Carol, the twit's girlfriend, is this in-universe; the script describes her as a photographic model.
- Running Gag: Every time the toilet is flushed, there are destructive consequences elsewhere in the house or grounds (plaster falls from the ceiling, a tree in the garden collapses...)
- Sex Dressed: A fuse blows just as everyone is going to bed, plunging the house into darkness. When the lights come back on, everyone is on the landing in their sleepwear; the housemaid and the Boots are wearing each other's pajama trousers.
- Stripping Snag: As the group are leaving, Carol's skirt gets caught in the car door and torn off.
- Undercrank: Hawk is seen stalking Carol in sped-up motion.
- Unsuspectingly Soused: At dinner, two bottles of brandy accidentally get knocked into the dessert, which is then eaten by the unsuspecting guests.
