Leon the Pig Farmer
(1992)

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Three classic cult comedies bound up in one box. WILT: The popular comedy duo Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith star in this comedy based on the Tom Sharpe novel. Henry Wilt (Jones) is a lecturer who is under the thumb of his domineering wife. Wilt lands himself in hot water when he makes a fool of himself at a party with an inflatable doll, which he later buries on a building site. Unfortunately, Wilt's wife has also gone missing and the local police--led by Inspector Flint (Smith)--are convinced that it was a real body that Wilt was hiding. PERSONAL SERVICES: A seemingly conservative woman and her clientele of kinky connoisseurs become daily tabloid sensations when it's discovered that her suburban brothel caters to some of Great Britain's elite. Members of Parliament, diplomats, judges, bankers, and even men of the cloth are all caught with their pants down in England's scandal of the decade. LEON TH EPIG FARMER: Leon (Mark Frankel), a young Jewish Londoner, quits his job at an uncouth real estate firm and begins to work part-time for his mother's catering company. On a delivery to a local sperm bank, he discovers that he is the product of a botched artificial insemination and his father's sperm was confused with that of a northern pig farmer. His family is disconsolate over the news, so Leon decides to go up to Yorkshire to meet his biological dad. The farmer and his wife are thrilled to learn that they have a son; they quickly make an effort to integrate his Jewish culture with their own, learning certain key Yiddish expressions and how to cook kosher food. Even so, Leon does not take easily to farm life. When he mistakenly injects sheep semen into a pig, however, Leon creates a stir by creating what might be the first ever kosher pig. He escapes with the animal to London, where both of his families meet and exchange "cultural dialogue." (Not to be confused with LEON, THE PROFESSIONAL.)
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As a prime piece of crackling, this low-budget British comedy from Vadim Jean and Gary Sinyor isn't as hilarious as it thinks it is (arguably not as funny as that other porker-story, Babe). But, nevertheless, the story of a Jewish estate agent (Mark Frankel) discovering — shock! horror! — that his real father is a Yorkshire pig-breeder does have flashes of comic illumination to light up religious bigotry. The fantasy of a kosher pig is laboured, but there's still plenty of crisped flesh worth flossing for, especially Brian Glover as the ee-bah-goom breeder.
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