It might have been simple for Stephen Corridor – beloved for his kooky characters on Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell – to tug collectively a sketch present for MICF 2025. He might have taken Darius Horsham (his Arnie-esque cigar chomper) off the shelf to ship a number of crowd-pleasing catch phrases. However Corridor likes to stretch himself as he’s confirmed in his earlier MICF exhibits like Bond-A-Rama! which crammed each 007 film right into a single reside efficiency or his tackle three Indiana Jones movies in Raiders of the Temple of Doom’s Final Campaign. This time Corridor has taken his love of cinema craft into an even bigger problem: splicing collectively 15 unrelated movies right into a single narrative and by some means making hilarity out of drama.
Corridor introduces the present himself in a tuxedo telling us that he has ransacked 15 traditional (and undoubtedly out of copyright) movies then dubbed his personal dialogue excessive. In case you’ve ever chuckled at The Late Show’s Bargearse you then get the vibe. The movie opens in a Washington dungeon the place a besuited agent is interviewing John Smith, a 2187-year-old man locked up for “suspiciously unreliable narration”. It’s a wink to how this movie each makes use of outdated movie units whereas parodying those self same mechanics.
Via Smith’s nonchalant and distinctly Australian drawl we’re taken again to Paris by dubbing over the 1954 movie The Final Time I Noticed Paris. Right here character voiceovers poke enjoyable at dangerous make-up, awkward costume decisions and hammy appearing of the unique to large laughs. Corridor switches between male character voices and is joined by Mad As Hell alumni Roz Hammond doing characters which go well with their comedic chemistry. Hammond making sobbing choking noises over a younger Elizabeth Taylor trying like she’s consuming a ribbon is pure gold that would have run longer.
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From this the story jumps to Biblical occasions (utilizing 1949’s The Pilgrimage Play) then leaps to Custer’s Final Stand which reminds us of the Spaghetti Westerns and their unintentionally humorous English voiceovers. One of many higher imaginative and prescient vs audio gags overlays a sax soundtrack to bend a firing squad scene into one thing spicier.
That is For the Time period of His Pure Lies at its finest: undercutting the unique movie’s drama with whimsy. It has that uncommon foolish humour of Monty Python, which Corridor isn’t solely a fan of but additionally a participant in, having appeared in stage variations of Spamalot and Fawlty Towers. Some characters in a parade scene could possibly be cantering with coconuts by means of the Holy Grail as they’ve some foolish dialogue.
The disjointed narrative is difficult to keep away from in reducing between so many movies which Corridor pulls along with recurring jokes and characters. The story is unapologetically secondary to the prospect to chortle at outdated film-making strategies from greenscreen driving journeys to stunt punches that miss their mark.
An extended minimize of For the Time period of His Pure Lies may need allowed for gags to land and audiences to catch their breath however with solely an hour the edit has to skip frenetically between jokes, occasions and movies. Don’t take anybody with you who must ask “Who’s that once more?” as a result of making sense of the story or characters isn’t actually the purpose. What the viewers will get is frolic by means of movie with an opportunity to rediscover silliness when the remainder of the world appears so terminally severe.
Stephen Hall, For the Term of His Natural Lies shall be carried out at DoubleTree by Hilton Melbourne till 20 April as a part of Melbourne Worldwide Comedy Pageant (MICF 2025).
