Clockwise (1986) on Netflix
Brian Stimpson, a headmaster obsessed with punctuality, is due to chair the Headmasters' Conference in Norwich. He misses his train and commandeers a car driven by sixth former Laura Wisely.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.6/1014,801 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
Brian Stimpson is the head of Thomas Tompion Comprehensive School, a man so devoted to order and punctuality that the place runs like clockwork. He has been chosen to chair the annual Headmasters' Conference, held that year in Norwich, and he rehearses the speech he means to give there. His careful plans fall apart at the railway station: he boards the wrong train, misses his connection, and forgets his speech on it. His wife Gwenda, believing he has already gone, drives away without him. Frantic to arrive on time, Stimpson takes charge of a car being driven by Laura Wisely, a sixth form pupil skipping a study break. Gwenda spots the pair at a petrol station and, convinced her husband is involved with the girl, sets off after them.
Cast
- Penny Leatherbarrowas Woman Teacher
- Howard Lloyd-Lewisas Ted
- Jonathan Bowateras Clint
- Mark Buntingas Studious Boy
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Clockwise (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Cleese set out to survive the eight-week shoot by getting to bed very early and having his masseur work on him for forty-five minutes every night, and he managed it fine, although he still smashed his left knee on a staircase and pulled a hamstring chasing a train at Hull station.
- Michael Frayn, then better known as a novelist and playwright, wrote the script on spec, saying he had always wanted to write about a man who is late because he has considerable problems with lateness himself and only gets places early by enormous expenditure of psychic energy.
- Cleese recalled a scene in which none of the phones in a row of public booths worked and he had to go from booth to booth with increasing fury; in England it got a big laugh, but it played to total silence in America, where they all expect to get through on a phone the first time.
- A line spoken by Stimpson has become famous, "It's not the despair, Laura. I can stand the despair. It's the hope!", and it has been quoted and misquoted many times in newspapers and books, often as "It's the hope I can't stand!"
- Cleese said the only other country that liked the very held-in film at all was Sweden, adding that Swedish audiences presumably found the equally held-in Stimpson quite extrovert.
- The film was originally titled Man of the Moment, but the name had to be changed once it was realized that the title had already been used for a Norman Wisdom film.
- Clockwise was the last film credit for the executive Nat Cohen, and it has since been called "a classy final credit" for him.
