"Hardluck Hotel"

The fabled 13th episode of Fawlty Towers.

Season 1 Episode 15 (episode 15 overall)

Original broadcast date: 13 December 1988

Writer: Brian Trueman, John Broadhead and Joyce MacAleer
Additional voices: Hotel Manager/Sviatoslav:   
                               Jimmy Hibbert

                               Dmitri: Brian Trueman

                               Gloria: Ruby Wax

Travel location: Cactus beach (not via castle)
Joke credit: Film Location - Erland Hodge

Castle transport visual not used.

Duckula takes a break away from the castle and ends up having an arguably worse experience than he usually would if he'd not bothered. Soaked through, with luggage to carry and no taxis or buses in sight, he treads an angry web-footed path to a seaside hotel apparently run by a popular John Cleese character.

This series generally averted topical pop culture referencing, which is a blessing, as it could so very easily have become dated. Apart from some typically 80s references to the likes of yuppies (much of which is still relevant anyway) or spoofing generic 80s cartoons ('Planet Cute' in 'The Vampire Strikes Back') "Count Duckula" tended to shy away from band-wagon jumping, preferring to do its own thing in its own way. I think this is why the series holds up so well and to repeated viewings. Also, given the gloomy, archaic nature of the Überwald the main cast generally inhabit, anything dated is done with intent, so it still seems fresh. That's why the Fawlty Towers reference works. Like that show, this series is dry, acerbic and oftentimes farcical and given that Fawlty Towers had been off the air (disregarding repeats) for about a decade at the time this episode was made, those involved knew that Basil was still a well-known enough comedy character to reference. Like the Count, he's stood the test of time and like "Count Duckula", I can still re-watch "Fawlty Towers" and get a laugh many times.The main difference between live-action Basil and this guy is that the latter is clearly more in control (perhaps due to lack of a Sybil?), so we sympathise more with Duckula because of the poor treatment he gets.

 The opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the episode. It's just one joke after another and each line, while funny on its own, more often than not, sets up a follow-up gag and so on. It's a very well-written episode, even by this show's high standards. Duckula checks in to Hardluck Hotel (at least the name is honest!) and discovers that his booking is literally 'room only' - there's nothing in his room but unvarnished floorboards. But he can't complain (though he tries) because the manager's vicious dog, Grinder, would not approve. Duckula reluctantly settles in for an uncomfortable night, hoping against hope that Igor never finds out. He'd never live down the embarrassment.

Meanwhile back at the castle, Nanny and Igor are preparing to head out on their little break away. Igor naturally has somewhat more specific tastes and decides that Hardluck Hotel is the ideal place to visit, gloomy and run-down that it is, unaware that Duckula is already staying there.
 

The next morning, Duckula is checking out- 'In fact I'm nearly passing out!' I mean those were the worse floorboards I've ever slept on!' - while Igor and Nanny make their way to the hotel, due to arrive later on in the day. Unfortunately for the Count, he is unable to check out until he's paid his bill, which he can't do. The reason for this is not because he's skint (as he so often is) but because the Transylvanian drachma has been devalued by 100% overnight. Duckula is stuck with 10 thousand drachmas worth of money that he can't even spend!

Hotel manager: Your drachmas are not worth the recycled bicycle clips they're made of!

So while Duckula is forced (mainly by Grinder) into doing a load of washing up, Nanny and Igor check in. It's not long before Duckula has to unknowingly wait on his own servants by bringing them food and drink into the small hours! It's pretty funny watching Duckula act out all his roles at once, doing quick changes and giving the chef a guttural voice to contrast with his own. While attending to the guests, we discover Igor's room is in pitch black (through choice!) so Duckula can't see him. He doesn't seem recognise his butler's familiar voice (Basil had the same issue with Sybil once) and Nanny won't let him in to her room, so his eventual meeting with his staff is delayed, allowing us to have a laugh at the poor Count's shoddy treatment. He has to serve them breakfast the next day and bring them coffee too. But the worst of it is when the manager informs him that he is to take the place of the hotel entertainment and perform magic tricks for the guests. There's an irony to this scene as normally Duckula would jump at the chance to perform before an audience, but by this stage his confidence has been pretty badly worn down. Also, he (as far as he knows) doesn't have Igor and Nanny around to show off to, so this naturally affects his belief in himself. Or perhaps he learned how bad he really is at magic from 'Dr. Von Goosewing's Invisible Ray.'

At any rate, 'good ol' Grinder' once again...persuades him to reconsider and the show goes on, with the aid of a mystic change of outfit and the 'assistance' of the rude waitress from earlier on. Asking 'Princess Gloriana' to select a lady and gentleman from the audience, she naturally selects Igor and Nanny, given that they seem to be the only ones there. Also that she has something of a crush on Igor. This is rather endearing actually, as Igor seems very flattered rather than repulsed! Before Duckula can do any magic tricks he reveals himself to his servants in shock and the next scene has him hiding in his room, totally embarrassed - he now realises just which guests have had him working flat out all this time - his own staff!

Igor: I shan't breathe a word about it milord.
Duckula: You won't breathe at all if I come out there!

He cheers up however, when he finds out that said servants are intending to pay their bill in Translyvanian drachmas. Enjoying a mean little chuckle, Duckula imagines that they'll soon at least be in the same boat as him. Or at least at the same sink. Here's where the knife twists another 90 degrees. Turns out that the drachma crisis is over and the currency is now worth twice it's original denomination! So, rather than help pay Duckula's bill, Nanny uses her amazing mathematical skills to deduce that 'Mr. Igor and I can stay on with you til the end of the week!' while the Count's still stuck dogsbodying! Oh and if you're wondering what happened to the Count's wad of notes? He gave them away for a bag of sweets from a small child. Not only is he not a great magician, but as Igor drily observes, 'No financial wizard.' 

A fantastic instalment of the series and certainly one of the best episodes, in terms of both the sitcom plotting and the expressively fluid animation. If you like Count Duckula and Fawlty Towers you'll love this one even though the episode holds up just as well on it's own. Jokes come so thick and fast that I honestly forgot how much I enjoyed this one. The cynicism is turned up to 11, as is often the case with this series, but it's just so well crafted that it becomes very funny and smile-worthy, in spite of the bad things happening to the main character.

The Count is floored by the financial news. Duck's off, sorry.

Music
Apart from Dmitri and Sviatoslav's faithful 'Vamp Til Ready' (Wally Asp, no. 88) I don't recognise much cues in this one. There isn't all that much used as it happens, the track is mainly loaded with dialogue jokes. The hotel foyer is underscored with the same muzak used in 'Rent A Butler' and 'Hi-Duck' though (James Clark's) 'Girl of my Dreams' and Duckula's magic show uses 'Casbah Nights' (George Fenton/John Leach) with a tinny tape recorder filter over it. Vaudeville style music plays under the Count acting out his workplace roles. 'Old Honky Tonk' (Keith Nichols) plays while he does his chores in the kitchen. 'Down the pan (g)' (Dick Walter) plays when the Count gets hit by the oven door.  

Backgrounds 
Some really good images of the seedy run-down hotel areas. As with any image (or image collection) on this blog, you can click on them to get a better look.

"YESSSS?! What do you want?"

Hey, this is my kitchen.

    We pan up the hotel exterior, cut away for the clock bats bit, then pan down the washing-up scene.

The Quatermass Suite is shot from the same angle as room 1313 as if to emphasise the difference.

To close off, we have the same view as the intro, only better lit, with no rain and panning away.

Trivia

• Episode doesn't start with a title card. Instead, we follow Duckula along the way to the hotel and then see the neon sign indicating the episode's title. As a child, I just assumed this episode had no title!
• The title is a pun on the Elvis Presley song 'Heartbreak Hotel.' 
• The letter H falling off the neon sign could be a sly reference to the signage jokes at the start of each episode of 'Fawlty Towers.'
• Episode doesn't start but ends on Duckula's sobbing.
• It should be fairly obvious to most viewers that the manager is a pastiche of Basil Fawlty from the BBC sitcom 'Fawlty Towers.' Jimmy Hibbert does an excellent John Cleese take-off (as a child I assumed it was Cleese) and there's even some ludicrously animated silly walks thrown in, to boot.

Illustration in the 'Count Duckula Joke Book.'

• The hotel elevator got stuck in the basement at the turn of the century. As a bonus chuckle, I got a copy of this episode in early January, 2000 - so it seemed recent at that time!
• Duckula is not seen in his castle in this one, though Igor and Nanny have a brief scene there.
• Some very out of date (even at the time this was made) posters can be seen in the hotel, saying "Holiday '57", "61", "77" and "78".
• Duckula's room is 1313 (doubly unlucky!) and doesn't have a lock but does appear to have a boarded up window with a fake clear sky pasted on.
• Another use of the 'Transylvania Morning Sun', though the paper simply reads 'Transylvania Sun'. It spells drachma without the h, which is also correct.
• One of a handful of times in the series where the Count seems to be quite well off. It's all for naught of course as his money is, literally, worthless. Until he gives it away. 
• One of two times in the series we see what appears to be Nanny's bedroom. The other being 'The Zombie Awakes.'
• The Count uses his teleport ability when angry. This doesn't faze the manager in the slightest.
• Duckula puns the biblical phrase 'Where there's life there's hope (there's soap)'
• Both Jimmy's characters have moustaches.
• Igor and Nanny are staying in the Louis Quatermass Suite. This is a reference to Quatermass and the Pit which is a BBC science fiction serial, transmitted live in late 1958/early 1959. There were also a couple of films by Hammer Horror based on the same concept. Clearly the suite in the hotel is in a shocking and frightening mess. As the manager says 'If you'd seen it, you wouldn't ask.' Duckula mistakenly assumes it to be referencing Louis Quatorze - otherwise known as Louis the 14th of France. Coincidentally, Delboy Trotter references Louis the 14th in the 'Only Fool and Horses' episode, 'A Touch Of Glass'. On another tangent, the first episode of 'Fawlty Towers' was called 'A Touch of Class.'
• Igor and Nanny order a rancid steak on mouldy bread with a green slime sandwich and one peanut butter sandwich with custard and a cherry on top with a mug of cocoa. Guess who orders which?
• 1st time Duckula wears a chef's outfit. Next time would be in 'The Incredible Shrinking Duck.'
• Duckula has to act against himself as chef and bellboy, and briefly chambermaid. Igor is mistaken for 'some sort of English lord' by the smitten waitress. These are both ideas that would be taken further in 'Prime Time Duck.'
• Igor uses the French phrase 'Entrée' to admit Duckula to his room. Duckula's response? 'Yes sir, one meal, on tray.'
• A rare episode where Nanny does not destroy or break anything.
• The missing illusionist is called 'The Great Ostrichini.' Duckula's sobriquet is 'The Great Duckaroonie.'
• The manager is noticeably more polite to Igor and Nanny, presumably because they went for the posher suites. 
• The waitress's name is not spoken, but she wears a badge saying 'Hi! I'm Gloria' hence her stage name in the magic act.
• Unusually, this episode lists three writers, rather than the usual one, or very occasional two. Series regular Trueman is there, as well as John Broadhead and Joyce MacAleer who wrote several tie-in books related to the series.
• Tenuous links time: In the FT episode 'Waldorf Salad' Mr. Hamilton calls Fawlty 'the British Tourist Board's answer to Donald Duck!'. Terry the chef is played by Brian Hall; sounds like spoonerism of Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall. And finally, Ballard Berkeley (Major Gowan) provided the voice of the Head of the Army in Cosgrove-Hall's 'The BFG.' One can only imagine how the manager would treat Von Goosewing. 'Don't mention the war!'
• Igor also makes reference to the rising damp in his room. 
• This episode was released on VHS in 1988 (before broadcast?) along with 'The Vampire Strikes Back' and 'Dear Diary' (definitely before broadcast).
• I did mention this on another post, but I wonder how much of Basil and Manuel acted as inspirations for some of Gaston & Pierre/Victor & Hugo's shtick? Tall, skinny shouty man and a nubby little annoying-but-well-meaning man? Sounds plausible.
• Grinder makes an appearance in this mini choose your own adventure style comic that cam free with Shreddies.
  
  
  
  
  
  Can anyone explain the joke credit in this one? It's got me stumped I admit! '00 Duck' lists the storyboad artist as Erland Hodge too, so is this an actual person or what?

Goof and Nitpicks 

• The manager's eyelid flickers grey very briefly when Duckula complains.
• Igor's blue eye-rims are coloured purple just before he entreés the hotel.