David Jason had quite a career in television, but one gets the feeling he could have been so much more. He was part of the ensemble of the counterculture kids show Do Not Adjust Your Set, alongside Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. That show even had Terry Gilliam doing some animations. Even among this talent, Jason was a standout, playing a superhero in a recurring bit that was the best part of most episodes. Then the show imploded following the move of the others to Python, and the rest is history.
He should have been history, too, except he actually had a late career boost courtesy of the wildly popular UK show Only Fools and Horses. In the dry period between those shows, he starred in a 1971 episode of Six Dates with Barker, where he was an odd job man hired by Ronnie Barker to kill him. This black comedy was very well-received. In 1978, Jason would return to the role in a feature-length expansion of the same concept, this time titled The Odd Job.
It is odd that Jason had worked with so many members of Python, yet the star here is Graham Chapman, whom he had not worked with before. Chapman is often my favorite Python, but I think it is telling he didn’t do many feature films outside of the troupe. Unfortunately, this film is good demonstration of why that is.
He plays a man whose despondency quickly curdles into suicidal urges following the departure of wife Diana Quick. Both of these characters are instantaneously and thoroughly unlikeable, with each doing nothing more than yell at the other. They also only act “at” each other and not “with”, so each might as well be addressing an empty room.
It is odd that Chapman does the same shtick here that was largely what he brought to Python, and that is a man who is completely exasperated at the insanity around him, though it is he who is the most unhinged person in the room. It worked great when he was in old woman drag and pondering aloud how a penguin ended up on top of the television set. It is another thing when this is supposed to be a real flesh-and-blood person with a partner, a job and other commitments.
Jason arrives at Chapman’s apartment to find the man has has jury-rigged his own electric chair. This odd job man will not have any qualms with being hired to off Chapman, but he doesn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about it. There is dickering about money and method. A detour in the conversation has them talking about the superior quality of American electric chairs.
Finally, it is decided that Jason will kill Chapman when the victim least suspects it. This sets up a long series of attempted murders gone awry, a couple of which will take the lives of innocent bystanders. Eventually, Quick will return to her husband, only Chapman doesn’t have any way to reach Jason to call the whole thing off. Now they are both trying to dodge the would-be assassin.
Comedies about suicide are difficult to pull off, with one of the few exceptions being Harold and Maude. There is something off-putting about the premise without actually feeling transgressive. Without that feeling, and without any really solid gags, there isn’t much to fill the void.
There is a moment of intrigue I found interesting, where Chapman fears the wine in a bottle may have been poisoned, as it was not opened in front of him. This reminded me of the fit Michael Douglas has in The Game over an opened bottle of water. One of the few times I laughed in The Odd Job is when Joe Melia, as the waiter, tests the wine and appears to be poisoned. Then it is revealed he was just fucking with Chapman’s head.
Another moment which mildly amused me had Chapman trying to hide behind a tree next to a building’s entrance. He urges Quick to hide behind the tree on the other side, resulting in two people whispering to each other while failing to be concealed by foliage flanking a doorway through which people are entering and exiting. This isn’t terribly funny, but I’ll settle for what I can get. I also liked a scene in the nocturnal animals house at the zoo, where Quick and Chapman have this exchange: “We’ll wait in here until it’s dark.” “It is dark in here.” “I meant outside.”
There aren’t many surprises in this, except that the apartments we see are much larger than I have come to expect in London. You could maintain a fair size herd of sheep in Chapman’s as well as the one in which neighbor Carolyn Seymour resides. Hers is where Chapman goes the first night after his wife leaves and she is quite receptive to having sex with him. She has a waterbed, and I thought the Brits had better taste than that. When Chapman chickens out, she grabs a very large stuffed Snoopy for a purpose I can only assume and which I am grateful we do not witness.
One pleasant surprise is some of the casting in the minor roles, such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s Richard O’ Brien as a thug in a mafia organization, where they let him wear his leather fetish gear. The top man of that organization is long-time character actor Michael Elphick. Bill Patterson plays a rude detective, some years before playing a completely different role in Bill Forsyth’s Comfort and Joy.
But The Odd Job is really a showcase for Chapman, and I never thought I would be disappointed to see him in that capacity. I was also surprised to be annoyed by Jason’s performance, when he was one of the best assets of Do Not Adjust Your Set. Jason wisely returned to television, where he found success. Chapman, aside from a couple more Python films, did Yellowbeard, a film far worse than even this.
Dir: Peter Medak
Starring Graham Chapman, David Jason, Diana Quick
Watched on Severin blu-ray