A Nag Gag
Alf (Ronald Shiner), Flash Harry (Sidney James) and Fred (Brian Rix) are bookmakers but not very successful at it as they always end up paying out. Well paying out fake notes as they are always on the make and always have a con to get out of trouble. After fleeing the track pretending to be Italian ice-cream sellers following their latest fiddle they come across a horse which is a dead ringer for a race horse. It gives Alf a cunning idea as he plans to use the horse and pass it off as a famous race horse in order to fix a race in their favour.
"Dry Rot" is now one of those old British comedies which will make you question whether you still find funny what you once did. I say that because the humour in "Dry Rot" is shall we say old school British as in when Alf tells the dim witted Fred to go straight on at the round about he drives straight over the round about. We also have Flash Harry donning a bushy moustache and doing an impersonation of an Italian ice cream salesman, you can imagine how that would sound when it is Sid James as Flash Harry especially when every now and then the trade mark Sid James cackle comes out during the coarse of the movie.
The thing is that when it comes to "Dry Rot" there isn't really much else to mention rather than mention the gags and the confusion comedy which simply revolve around pulling get rich quick cons. And the thing is that whilst the comedy is fun to start with it actually becomes tiring before the movie is even close to finishing. Maybe it is me as I have found this to be the case with a lot of older British comedies which feature various familiar faces delivering trademark performances. That is what you get from Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix and Sidney James here with the likes of Joan Sims and Lee Patterson providing fun but forgettable support.
What this all boils down to is that "Dry Rot" whilst probably fun back on its release and maybe providing some nostalgic fun for those who watched it back then is now one of those British comedies which seems like an onslaught of gags with a slim storyline providing a vehicle for it all.
