‘WALDORF SALAD’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is my Dad’s favourite ‘Fawlty Towers’ episode! The reason why he likes this episode is because it’s a story about an American and his wife who come to stay at the hotel. My Dad enjoyed some of the famous dialogue that’s featured in the episode and how Basil messes things up in the episode. 🙂
Bruce Boa guest stars as Mr. Hamilton and Claire Nielson guest stars as Mrs. Hamilton. It was interesting to see how the American attitude compares to the British attitude as far as hotels are concerned. Mr. Hamilton gets increasingly frustrated by Basil’s lack of competence at Fawlty Towers.
This is when Basil serves the Hamiltons dinner that evening. May I point out, this is on their first and only night at the hotel and they leave when they’re dissatisfied with the service provided by Basil. I don’t know how they came to know about Fawlty Towers, but they must have regretted the decision. 😀
Just to explain, Basil tries to get Terry the Chef to work on after 9 o’clock to cook dinner for the Hamiltons. But Terry’s got his ‘karate class’ to go to with Manuel and Polly that evening. Basil eventually decides to do the cooking himself and Terry, Manuel and Polly go off to have a good time.
I found it funny when Basil attends to the Hamiltons that evening and is unable to make a Waldorf salad for Mr. Hamilton. It was funny when Basil gets the recipe wrong and Mr. Hamilton tells him it’s ‘celery, apples, walnuts and grapes in a mayonnaise sauce’. Basil keeps making excuses in the tale. 😀
There are also a number of ‘unsatisfied’ guests at Fawlty Towers in the episode. There’s Terence Conoley and June Ellis as Mr. and Mrs. Johnston, Norman Bird and Stella Tanner as Mr. and Mrs. Arrad, Beatrice Shaw as Miss Gurke, Dorothy Frere as Miss Hare and Anthony Dawes as Mr. Libson. 🙂
It was funny when the guests made complaints about the hotel once Mr. Hamilton found out about the appalling service provided by Basil. In response, Basil shouts back with his own complaints to the guests. All Basil cares about is himself and he’s not considerate when the guests make complaints. 😐
‘Waldorf Salad’ is a very enjoyable ‘Fawlty Towers’ episode as it portrays Basil Fawlty in a way where his incompetence becomes the better of him and it’s interesting how he interacts with an American. The episode’s ending is funny when Basil requested a room from Sybil behind the reception desk. 😀
On Disc 2 of the ‘Fawlty Towers – The Complete Collection Remastered’ DVD, there are two audio commentaries on ‘Waldorf Salad’. There’s an audio commentary with director Bob Spiers and there’s an audio commentary with John Cleese.
‘Waldorf Salad’ rating – 7/10
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