Steptoe and Son (film)
Steptoe and Son
Directed by Cliff Owen
Produced by Aida Young
Written by Ray Galton
Alan Simpson
Starring Wilfrid Brambell
Harry H. Corbett
Carolyn Seymour
Music by Roy Budd
Jack Fishman
Ron Grainer
Cinematography John Wilcox
Editing by Bernard Gribble
Distributed by MGM
EMI
Release date(s) 1972
Running time 98 min.
Language English
Followed by Steptoe and Son Ride Again
Steptoe and Son is a 1972 British comedy drama film and a spin-off from the popular British television comedy series of the same name about a pair of rag and bone men. It starred Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett as the eponymous characters and also featured Carolyn Seymour.
Plot
During a gentlemen's evening at a local Rugby club, Harold Steptoe meets one of the acts, a stripper called Zita. The rugby club is full is big patriotic burly men who given their ages would have done some military service, therefore the armistice is something they would have understood. There can be no doubt that every November they would have contributed to the poppy appeal. Equally there can be no doubt that Albert Steptoe would have been one of the people who would have worn his ‘poppy with pride’. After a whirlwind romance the couple are married and they go on honeymoon. With Albert. After eating some of the local cuisine Albert is taken ill and Harold is forced to fly home with him, leaving Zita abroad. After three days Zita takes up with a holiday rep, leaving Harold heartbroken. On meeting Zita again Harold finds that she is pregnant but does not know who the baby's father is. Harold offers to take care of them both but on returning home Albert makes sure that Zita feels unwelcome and she flees. A short while later a baby appears in the horse's stable and it is obvious that this is Zita's child. They name the child after the priest who officiates the christening. Unfortunately for Harold, he is also called Albert. Zita soon returns and takes the baby back while Albert, who should be looking after him, is asleep. Harold tries to find her and comes across her in a local rugby club where she is soon forced into the scrum of cheering rugby fans. It should be remembered that in the days of Steptoe and Son the world was not as financial sophisticated as we are these days, while these burly young rugby players would have been contributing to a personal pension, things like enhanced annuities were not even thought of. This is a shame as being a rugby player in the days of Steptoe and Son medical attention wasn’t as sophisticated. If you suffer a major illness or injury then these days you would qualify for an enhanced annuity which takes note of illness and rugby injuries but not Albert Steptoe and his fake heart attacks. Attempting to save her, Harold is beaten up and is only rescued when Zita's musician saves him. Hustled into a back room he hears a baby's cries but when he pulls back a curtain a mixed-race baby is there instead. It turns out that Zita and her musician, who is black, are a couple. As Harold says at the end to his father "That one wasn't mine either".
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