clockwise

Director: christopher morahan

Actor: john cleese,penny leatherbarrow,howard lloyd-lewis,jonathan bowater

Data Published: Fri Mar 14 1986

Genres: Comedy

Key Words: headmaster,train,school,road movie,clock

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090852/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwise_(film)

Description: Clockwise is a movie starring John Cleese, Penny Leatherbarrow, and Howard Lloyd-Lewis. An obsessively punctual comprehensive school headmaster sets out to give an important speech at the annual Headmasters' Conference.

Plot: Brian Stimpson (Cleese), headmaster of Thomas Tompion Comprehensive School, has been elected to chair the annual Headmasters' Conference. Extremely disorganised as a young man, Stimpson is now obsessively organised and punctual, and his school runs "like clockwork". He is the first headmaster of a comprehensive school to chair the Headmasters' Conference, that honour usually being reserved for heads of the more elite private schools. Despite repetitive rehearsal of his speech and preparations for the journey to the conference, Stimpson's ordered world unwinds as a series of misadventures plague him en route. He misses the train to Norwich, loses the text of his speech, and is left at the train station by his wife, who thinks he departed on the train. Frantic to get to Norwich on time, Stimpson searches for his wife at home and at the hospital where she volunteers, but just misses her. Commandeering the car of a sixth form student, Stimpson travels to the conference with the student, called Laura. Stimpson's wife sees him with Laura at a petrol station and assumes the worst; that her husband is carrying on with the student and bringing her along to attend the conference. Mrs. Stimpson (who is looking after three senile women) drives after Stimpson and both parties forget to pay for their petrol. The police are called and, responding to an auto theft call from Laura's parents as well, attempt to find Stimpson and arrest him for kidnapping. Stimpson's wife, Laura's parents, the police and Mr. Jolly, a teacher at Thomas Tompion who has secretly been dating Laura, all pursue Stimpson and Laura to the conference. En route, Stimpson and Laura try to call the conference by a telephone box. A local mistakes them for vandals when the phones don't work and calls the police. The local sends her daughter to Stimpson, the daughter turns out to be a childhood friend and former girlfriend of Stimpson. Stimpson coerces her into driving them to the Conference. The group drive into a farm field and get stuck in deep mud whilst Stimpson's wife and the others arrive at the Conference uninvited, much to the annoyance of the headmasters. Brian leaves the stuck car to seek help, but ends up instead having a bath at a nearby monastery. His ex-girlfriend finally drives away in the car but is soon arrested for assaulting a police officer. Stranded without transport, Laura and Stimpson (who is dressed in monks' robes) attempt to hitchhike. They are picked up by a wealthy car salesman, whom they persuade to come for a walk in the woods. They trick the traveller into swapping clothes with Stimpson under the ruse of naughty fun, but Stimpson and Laura run away and steal his car. Stimpson finally arrives at the conference in the torn suit of the car salesman and gives an improvised, abrasive speech to the shocked headmasters. During his speech various characters including the old women, Mr. Jolly and Laura's parents walk into the hall. Finally, he directs all of the headmasters to stand and sing the hymn "To Be a Pilgrim", as he often would to his own pupils. He is then accosted by his disappointed wife, Laura's worried parents and several other parties he had hurt over the course of his journey. The film ends as he is led away by several policemen.