Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974) Movie Review

Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Peter Sellers in Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974)

Fighting them in the Knocking Shops

The Nazis have occupied France and so Major Robinson of the British Intelligence has hidden himself in a French brothel run by Madame Grenier who along with her girls assist the resistance and also assist Major Robinson using their rigged beds to eliminate and dispose of important German Officers.

Let me say now that "Soft Beds, Hard Battles" was a tedious 107 minutes for me but then I admit that I am one of those who has not found Peter Sellers to be the comic genius others declare he was. Don't get me wrong as some of his movies are entertaining but I am not a die hard fan and I reckon you need to be an extreme fan to enjoy "Soft Beds, Hard Battles". Let me put it this way, I have read that director Roy Boulting hated making this movie and he found Peter Sellers' behaviour a nightmare to deal with whilst this movie almost bankrupted him as well.

The thing is that there isn't really much to "Soft Beds, Hard Battles" as we have some supposed comedy surrounding Nazis being bumped off in a Parisian knocking shop. But truth be told so little of the humour is in fact funny and instead what this becomes is an ego trip for Peter Sellers as he plays numerous characters and as such appears in many a scene. And when you haven't got Sellers playing various characters what you have is various actresses who work in the brothel and walk around in lingerie, often see through or appear topless none of which is erotic, sexy, dirty or funny just titillation for the sense of titillation.

What this all boils down to is that "Soft Beds, Hard Battles" is a poor movie and one which for a comedy is particularly short on laughs. Maybe for die hard fans of Peter Sellers this will be fun but for anyone else it ends up coming across a bit like an ego trip.


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