Leonard Rossiter was one of the funniest modern comics on British television. He was an underrated staple of British humor for many years and almost totally ignored by Americans, which should be much to their regret. I liken Rossiter to Benny Hill, with whom many Americans are familiar, since they both seemed to have that razor-sharp, acidic, sarcastic wit with the entendres, double and single, flying through the dialogue.
Between the accents, the pace, and the often intelligent and frenetic humor, viewers had to be quick-witted to follow the action and not be left out of the humor. When two or more characters banter back and forth rapidly, they may as well be speaking Urdu.
Rossitor is the obvious star of Rising Damp — not that the other four main characters are slouches — but just as Benny Hill needed straight men and women as foils for his brand of humor, so does Rossitor. His sneering, odious, prejudiced, miserly character, Rigsby, whose first name we learn only late in this movie, could be described as the English Archie Bunker.
He’s supported by Don Warrington as Philip, a black medical student who claims to be an African prince with ten wives; Frances de la Tour as Miss Jones, an oversexed spinster who falls in love several times during the movie, while at the same time trying to avoid Rigsby’s clumsy, lecherous passes; Christopher Strauli as John, a gullible art student; and Denholm Elliott as Seymour, an oily conman who completely takes in both Rigsby and Miss Jones with his public school manners and speech.
Rising Damp was a long-running television series in England before the movie was made, winning several prestigious awards and earning high praise. The plots were mostly thin, and more used to bind together Rigsby’s insulting, looking-down-his-nose-at-everybody bluster, which he uses to hide his own shortcomings - mainly his lack of confidence and his feelings of inferiority.
Rigsby lets out rooms in his house. It’s run down, with water stains on the walls, hence the title for both the movie and the series. At times his humor incorporates the poor state of the house — mainly when a tenant complains or questions something — making it sound as if the tenant didn’t deserve better and should consider himself lucky to get what he’s getting.
John’s naiveté is shown early on when he inquires about a room Rigsby has to let. The first room he is shown by Rigsby is tiny and looks like it was cobbled into a room by using odd parts of other rooms, making it strangely-shaped, cramped, and inconveniently laid out. John is trying to politely talk the place down, and when Rigsby quotes him the rent figure, he immediately declines.
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