Film
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins
- Satire
- Dip in and out
A British comedy anthology from 1971 tackling the seven deadly sins through separate sketches. It's loose, irreverent, and stuffed with period comedians doing what they do best—riffing, mugging, and finding chaos in everyday vice. For fans of variety shows and sketch comedy who don't mind uneven execution.
If you liked this
The Italian Job1969
Same era, same spirit of organised mayhem and British charm. A heist film that's genuinely funny without sacrificing plot, and Michael Caine is magnetic throughout.
But It's been everywhere. The famous Mini chase and that ending are played to death. If you want novelty, look elsewhere.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail1975
Sketch comedy stretched into narrative form by comedy geniuses. Anarchic, quotable, and genuinely inventive—Python at their peak before they got precious.
But Some stretches sag. The humour is relentlessly silly in ways that don't land if you're after something with more structure.

Withnail & I1987
British comedy about two degenerates with real pathos underneath. Every frame is quotable, the dialogue is surgical, and it captures a specific kind of creative desperation perfectly.
But It's slow and mannered. If you want constant laughs, you'll find long passages that ask for patience and attention.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
La Dolce Vita1960
Both examine the seven sins, but where Seven Deadly Sins jokes about them, La Dolce Vita mourns them. Watching both shows what happens when you shift register from sketch comedy to genuine tragedy.
Fellini's masterpiece about excess, decadence, and spiritual emptiness in Rome. It's the film Seven Deadly Sins is riffing on—the serious version. Visually stunning, morally complex, endlessly fascinating.
But It's a three-hour Italian art film from 1960. It moves slowly, it's in black and white, and the pleasures are reflective rather than comedic. Patience required.

More like this (8)
The Producers1968
Mel Brooks at full throttle: absurd, theatrical, and genuinely subversive. Fast-paced vaudeville energy with real stakes underneath the gags.
But Some of the comedy lands harder if you know Broadway well. The tone is deliberately over-the-top, which can feel exhausting if you're not in the mood.

Kind Hearts and Coronets1949
Ealing comedy gold: Alec Guinness plays eight roles in a murder caper. Witty, elegant, and proves British comedy doesn't need shouting to be devastating.
But It's formal and reserved. Modern sensibilities find it slow. The humour is dry enough to miss entirely if you're not paying close attention.

Carry On Cleo1964
The Carry On series at its best: bawdy, anachronistic, and shamelessly silly. Pure entertainment with no pretense, enormous cast of reliable funny people.
But The humour is entirely pun-based and juvenile. Double entendres wear thin fast. It's essentially the same joke for ninety minutes.

The Pink Panther1963
Physical comedy genius. Peter Sellers is extraordinary as the bumbling inspector, and the film moves at a clip that makes it endlessly rewatchable.
But Sellers' accent is broad and might feel dated. The plot is thin. If you want narrative substance, this prioritises gag momentum over everything else.

Up Pompeii1971
Frankie Howerd in his element: a theatrical, crowd-pleasing romp through ancient Rome. The same year as Seven Deadly Sins, made with similar energy and shamelessness.
But It's crude and cartoonish. The humour hasn't aged well for some tastes. Howerd's constant mugging is either endearing or irritating with no middle ground.

The Bed Sitting Room1969
Post-apocalyptic satire by Richard Lester with genuine strangeness and invention. Absurdist, ambitious, and willing to let comedy sit alongside genuine weirdness.
But It's genuinely peculiar and disjointed. The satire can be opaque. If you want coherence or conventional narrative, this will frustrate you.

Variety Lights1950
Same DNA as Seven Deadly Sins—ensemble cast, theatre world, vignettes of character—but treated as tragedy instead of satire. Shows what the same material becomes when filtered through genuine emotion.
Fellini's debut about shabby theatrical troupe and the cruelties of show business. Documentary-like in texture, full of performers and bit-parts, captured with real affection and sadness.
But It's in Italian with subtitles, grainy and melancholy. There's no plot. If you want entertainment rather than observation, this won't deliver it.

The Magic Christian1969
Both are sketch-based satires of excess and human nature from the same era, both assembled from disconnected pieces. But Magic Christian is weirder and more genuinely disorienting—darker and stranger than Seven Deadly Sins ever tries to be.
Bizarre, unclassifiable, and genuinely funny: Terry Southern's adaptation of his own novel, with Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. Surreal social satire that predates absurdism becoming mainstream.
But It's incoherent. The structure is deliberately confusing. Some sketches go nowhere. If you need plot or theme to hold together, this will feel like it's actively resisting you.

People
Cast
Spike MilliganTramp (segment "Sloth")
Marty FeldmanGuest Appearance (segment "Sloth")
Leslie PhillipsDickie (segment "Gluttony")
Harry H. CorbettAmbrose (segment "Lust")- Yvonne PaulReceptionist (segment "Lust")
Bruce ForsythClayton (segment "Avarice")
Felicity DevonshireNude Girl
Paul Whitsun-JonesElsinore (segment "Avarice")
Bernard BresslawMr. Violet (segment "Avarice")
Joan SimsPolicewoman (segment "Avarice")
Roy HuddFisherman (segment "Avarice")- Julie SamuelPetrol Attendant (segment "Avarice")
Directing
- Derek CracknellAssistant Director
- Renée GlynneContinuity
- Graham StarkDirector
- Richard JenkinsSecond Assistant Director
- Raymond BeckettThird Assistant Director
Writing
- Alan SimpsonWriter
- Barry CryerWriter
- Bob LarbeyWriter
- Dave FreemanWriter
- Graham ChapmanWriter
- Graham StarkWriter
- John EsmondeWriter
- Marty FeldmanWriter
- Ray GaltonWriter
- Spike MilliganWriter
Production
- Paul Lee LanderCasting
- Bob GuccioneExecutive Producer
- Michael L. GreenExecutive Producer
- Tony TenserExecutive Producer
- Jim BrennanLocation Manager
- Graham StarkProducer
- Jack CauseyProduction Manager