Rent Wilt (aka The Misadventures of Mr. Wilt) Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental

Rent Wilt (1989)

3.3 of 5 from 87 ratings
1h 28min
  • General info
  • Available formats
Synopsis:
Henry Wilt (Griff Rhys Jones) spends his evenings walking his dog and fantasising about murdering his domineering wife, Eva (Alison Steadman). Whilst incredibly drunk at a party, Wilt's entanglement with a life-size inflatable doll ends with him dumping it in a convenient hole at a building site.The following morning, when Eva cannot be found, Wilt's activities attract the suspicion of the dogged Inspector Flint (Mel Smith) of Norwich CID, who firmly believes that Mrs. Wilt is now pushing up twenty tons of pre-mixed concrete...
Actors:
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Directors:
Producers:
Brian Eastman
Writers:
Tom Sharpe, Andrew Marshall, David Renwick
Aka:
The Misadventures of Mr. Wilt
Studio:
Carlton Video
Genres:
Classics, Comedy
Collections:
Cinema's Most Memorable Comedy Double Acts, Films & TV by topic
BBFC:
Release Date:
07/07/2003
Run Time:
88 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono
Subtitles:
English Hard of Hearing
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • 37 Minutes of Exclusive Previously Unseen Footage Including Featurette
  • Mel Smith Interview
  • Griff Rhys Jones Interview
  • Michael Tuchner Interview
  • Location Footage
  • Various Clips
  • Theatrical Trailer
BBFC:
Release Date:
10/02/2020
Run Time:
92 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 2.0, English LPCM Stereo
Subtitles:
English
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 1.85:1
Colour:
Colour
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Archive Interviews
  • Location Footage
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Image Gallery

More like Wilt

Reviews (1) of Wilt

Satirical comedy laced with much vulgarity. Great in its day - but now very dated - Wilt review by RP

Spoiler Alert
17/01/2015

Back in the days when I had a very long commute, I read an enormous number of books. The only ones that made me laugh out loud - always dangerous when surrounded by other commuters - were by Tom Sharpe: 'Porterhouse Blue', 'Blott on the Landscape' - and 'Wilt'.

The books are a strange mix of satirical comedy and slapstick humour, laced with much comic sexual innuendo, poking fun at certain British institutions and small-minded pomposity. I haven't picked up a Tom Sharpe book in years and I suspect the humour may be very dated now - but I happened to chance across the film version of 'Wilt'. It's now over 25 years since it was released, so - what's it like?

With comic duo Griff Rhys Jones and the late lamented Mel Rees, together with the always excellent Alison Steadman, this should be excellent stuff. And it is - but unfortunately the on-screen humour and vulgar comic antics (much use of an inflatable sex doll), poking of fun at minor academics and their dim-witted students and at dim-witted policemen is not as funny on screen as it is on the page. And the passage of time has made what was amusing in the mid-1970s (when the book was written) and late 1980s (when the film was made) seem very dated...

Just to recap the storyline: Lowly academic Henry Wilt (Griff Rhys Jones) is suspected of murdering his wife (Alison Steadman). Local plod (Mel Rees) digs up supposed body, only to find it's a blow-up doll. Err - that's it (well, there's more in the same vein, but you get the picture).

If I'd seen it 25 years ago I might have found it wildly funny. Now, it raised but a single smile (for what it's worth, a minor joke involving a Thermos flask). Nope, it's dated and unfunny, and the comic genius of the actors is fading with time.

3/5 stars, and that's being very, very generous.

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