Dinner for One

1963

Comedy

Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 80% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 8.0/10 10 8855 8.9K

new year's eve butler birthday party dinner party short film

Director

Top cast

Freddie Frinton Photo
Freddie Frinton as James
May Warden Photo
May Warden as Miss Sophie
Heinz Piper Photo
Heinz Piper as Narrator
Sonja Göth Photo
Sonja Göth as Self - Audience

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ajohnp 9 / 10

A 'classic' in convention visual comedy/humour

This title is relatively unknown in Australia, but as someone who has studied comedy for 40 years and taught gifted students about it as a form of expression, communication and development of the comic conventions and constructs used in various forms of 'standard' literature, I consider that this film can be considered as one that stands out in its own field as a latter-day 'standard' of classic comic form and execution.In some ways it falls into the same category as films from the great Silent Era in Hollywood (e.g. the works of Sennett and Chaplin), the W C Fields' "The Great Chase" and Eric Syke's "The Plank" - but it also equates in some ways with Oscar Wilde's comedy (e.g. "The Importance of Being Ernest") - all are great examples of mixing visual activity, remarkable energy, the innuendo and the written and/or spoken word.
Reviewed by binderb 7 / 10

Dinner for One Live

I have been trying to see this for some years as I saw Freddie Frinton perform it on stage c 1955 where it was a standard routine of his stage act. As a television program it probably seems very stagy and dated for UK tastes but it is great that a classic piece of comedy has been preserved. I still remembered the names of the guests - Admiral Von Schneider etc from when I was 9. Good to see it again. Frinton's drunk was always a classic and I think he appeared in a number of films in the background doing just that. I do not know if May Warden appeared with him on stage but she was a regular character actress in the 60's. It would be interesting to know how many TV airings it has had in Germany. I do not think it has ever been shown in the UK.
Reviewed by raymond-15 9 / 10

Laughter is the best medicine and you can't do better than this

Miss Sophie (May Warden) believes that her birthdays should be celebrated even though she has outlived her dearest friends. So on her ninetieth the party becomes a fantasy and James the butler (Freddie Frinton) has to go along with the make-believe. With only two players, it is in my opinion one of the funniest short TV movies ever to hit the screen. I laugh even at the thought of it. Freddie Frinton does a superb job as the butler serving the three courses with the accompanying drinks. He not only impersonates each of the four imaginary guests (which he does in such admirable style that at the end we feel we know each of them so very well) but the arrangement is that he must quaff down all the drinks as well. His antics as the alcohol starts to take effect have to be seen to be believed. Miss Sophie, a lady of some standing(graciously played by May Warden although she doesn't look 90) seems to be totally unaware of her butler's inebriated condition. This contrast probably heightens the humour of the piece. She keeps insisting that the party should "proceed as usual". If by the end of the birthday party you have not fallen off your seat with uncontrollable laughter, then the very suggestive final punchline should do it. In short, a wonderful little movie and a lasting memorial to Freddie Frinton who died in 1968 just 5 years after the film was completed.
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