Not Now, Comrade
British quad poster
Directed by	Ray Cooney Harold Snoad
Written by	Ray Cooney
Based on	"Chase Me, Comrade" (play) by Ray Cooney
Produced by	Martin C. Schute
Starring	Leslie Phillips Roy Kinnear Windsor Davies Don Estelle Michelle Dotrice Ray Cooney June Whitfield Carol Hawkins Lewis Fiander Ian Lavender
Cinematography	Jack Hildyard
Edited by	Peter Thornton
Music by	Harry Robinson
Production company	Not Now Films (Independent)
Distributed by	EMI (UK)
Release date	1976 (1976)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Not Now, Comrade is a 1976 British comedy film directed by Ray Cooney. It was a follow-up to the similarly named 1973 farce Not Now, Darling. It featured a number of British comedy actors including Leslie Phillips, Windsor Davies, Don Estelle and Ian Lavender.^[1] The film was shot at Elstree studios, and was intended as the second in a series of ‘Not Now’ films, with 'Not Now, Prime Minister' pencilled in as a follow-up, but box office returns for the film, unlike those of its predecessor, were disappointing.^[2][3] Cooney also appears as the MI5 agent Mr Laver. The film was the first and only time that Harold Snoad directed a feature film.

Plot

Russian ballet dancer Rudi Petrovyan wants to defect. Unable to reach the British embassy and pursued by the KGB, he hides out with, and falls for, stripper Barbara Wilcox. But Rudi's planned escape in the boot of a Triumph backfires when he climbs into the wrong car, and he ends up in the country home of unsuspecting naval Commander Rimmington (Leslie Phillips).

Cast

• Leslie Phillips as Commander Rimmington
• Roy Kinnear as Hoskins
• Windsor Davies as Constable Pulford
• Don Estelle as Bobby Hargreaves
• Michele Dotrice as Nancy Rimmington
• Ray Cooney as Mr Laver
• June Whitfield as Janet Rimmington
• Carol Hawkins as Barbara Wilcox
• Lewis Fiander as Rudi Petrovyan
• Ian Lavender as Gerry Buss
• Richard Marner as 1st Russian official
• Michael Sharvell-Martin as 2nd Russian official

Stage origins

Ray Cooney's 1964 play Chase Me, Comrade was based on the 1961 defection of Rudolf Nureyev. First appearing in 1964 at the Theatre Royal, Windsor Cooney himself played Gerry Buss.^[4] The play became a Whitehall farce running for 765 performances between 1964 and 1966. It was televised by the BBC's Laughter from the Whitehall in August 1964 ^[5] and again in December 1967.^[6] Cooney published a 1966 novelisation of the play. In 1981 Dutch television transmitted a version of the play called Een Kus van een Rus'.^[7]

Critical reception

The British Comedy Guide called the film "a really delightful forgotten gem of British cinema comedy".^[8] However, the Radio Times called it a "horrid comedy of errors," adding "for the sake of a hard-working cast, let's draw a discreet Iron Curtain over the whole charade";^[9] while Time Out said it was "from the darkest days of British cinema, a farrago which began life as Cooney's Whitehall farce, Chase Me, Comrade."^[10]

Songs

• "Not Now"

Sung by Don Estelle
Lyric by Sammy Cahn
Composed by Walter Ridley