That was an excellent one.

Sick Product of a Sick System

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The poster who compared "Dinner For One" to the candies yams on Thanksgiving comes very close to the truth of the success of "Dinner For One". The other poster who brags about the sophisticated British sense of humor doesn't seem to know that bragging with one's own sense of humor only shows that person's lack of it. Watching "Dinner For One" on New Year's Eve in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and some more European countries is a tradition and at least in Germany you have lots of dialect versions and parodies of it. "Dinner For One" may not be the greatest comedy piece on earth but it surely has its qualities, mostly butler James's absolute loyalty toward Miss Sophie which causes him year after year to act as her four late friends which seem quite different characters. This elderly man seems fully aware of the consequences of his part in this story from the very start and he hates it. His loyalty and his being caught in this tradition ("Same procedure as every year") make him a kind of tragic figure, especially when in the end you get aware that poor old James, who's already dead drunk, after dinner in Miss Sophie's bedroom may have to do the work of four men again ("Well, I'll do my very best").I give it 7 and next year I'll watch it again.

As a Brit working working in Sweden in the early 1980's, I first saw this hilarious sketch there and subsequently in Denmark. I knew of Freddie Frinton from the U.K. in music hall and TV performances but was totally unaware of the sketch's existence. I'm sure it would also be become a New Year institution in the U.K. if it was "introduced" there and made available on DVD. I believe there would also be a market for Germans and Scandinavians living outside those countries.I have Danish friends in the U.S.A. who would love to have a DVD of this. Does anyone know of a source, presumably in Germany, of the DVD shown on this site? Or maybe I have missed a link to such a site?!Roy Hindle

During preparations for Thanksgiving a few years back, my dad noticed that no one had made any candied yams. Fine, we bought a can, warmed them up and set them out. Nobody touched them, pa included. "Why," we asked, "did you insist on the yams?" Simple--tradition. With Thanksgiving you need candied yams.And with New Years in central Europe, you need "Dinner for One." That people here love it, is clear. *Why* they love it is an absolute mystery. I honestly believe that it is enjoyed primarily because it is tradition -- it is beloved, so people love it. Being married to a German, I have now seen this short at least five times; I *have* laughed during it. Of course, I can pretend to like yams, too.The film relies entirely on the clownish antics of the protagonist, Freddie Frinton, as he steadily drinks himself into oblivion. Purely pie-in-the-mush humor here, with gags that were old when the film was made forty years ago. Neither is Frinton a genius of physical comedy, his timing truly hit-and-miss in the skit.If you are from central Europe, you have already seen this film. Otherwise, spare yourself the bother.

Even here in Australia one is not spared the ritual of "Dinner for One".For many years SBS (the multi language public broadcaster here) has shown "Dinner for One" on New Year's Eve.The version that is shown is the 1963 German TV version with English subtitles for the German introduction. (Although for some reason they have edited out the Heinz Piper's German explanation of the English dialogue!)It remains a simple pleasure to be savoured each year!