Death on the Tyne

Brian Johns

Dedicated Member
I watched this yesterday. It is a made for TV movie, spoof murder whodunit comedy with Johnny Vegas and an ensemble cast.
It isn't going to win any awards, but is harmless, brainless entertainment. Apparently it is a follow on to a film he did LAST Christmas called
Murder on the Blackpool Express, which I haven't seen yet but may catch up with later this week.

My reason for mentioning it is to see if anyone else has seen it and can perhaps try and explain the Continuity Costume Errors towards the end of the film.

These errors are so blatant, continuous and restricted to one character that they MUST be deliberate. I just cannot work out the "in" joke.:12:

Without giving anything away about the plot (???) of the movie, towards the end there are a series of scenes in which one of the characters is wearing a uniform shirt
with rank epaulets. He is supposed to be the 1st officer of basically a cross channel ferry, just being promoted to Captain.

He starts off wearing 3 gold bars on one shoulder and 4 on the other....BUT.....over the next series of scenes these "Bars" change almost every shot.
Sometimes he wears 3 on each shoulder, sometimes 4, sometimes 3 on one and 4 on the other (switching shoulders as well) The "bars also change colour, being white in some scenes and gold in others and also 1 of each. At one stage in a close up, it can be seen that the epaulet is upside down with the "bars" on the underside instead of the top.

NOTE: He is not changing shirts in the film, its is just every time the camera angle changes or there is a change of scene as he rushes around the ship, you can see these changes.

As I say this is done so blatantly it MUST be deliberate and gave me some slight amusement as I am used to wearing similar rank epaulets in a previous life. This I suppose makes me more conscious of the changes, but even Blind Freddy would see these ones.

As nothing is said in the film about it, it appears to be a self contained "in" joke by the makers.
I am just wondering if anyone might know what the joke actually means??:13::13:
 
The titles are spoofs on Agatha Christie books;) .Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile ! :fp:
 
Not seen the movie you are talking about. It does sound interesting. Seems they are definitely trying for some effect with the epaulets. Similar to that Robin Hood movie with the guy who had a mole on his face which always moved to a different spot every time the camera went to him.

For some strange reason I just thought of the 1976 movie Murder by Death - with five famous literary detective characters and their sidekicks are invited to a bizarre mansion to solve an even stranger mystery. ... Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers. ... Six guests are invited to a strange house and must cooperate with the staff to solve a murder mystery. *Description blatantly copied from the imdb paragraph that popped up on google search.

Another classic funny, non-serious murder mystery movie.
 
Yes Dick, I spotted that. ;)
Rick, Robin Hood Men in Tights (Another Mel Brooks classic) did have Prince John with a moving mole as a gag, but you knew it was a gag as other characters reacted to it occasionally.:18:
 
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