PASSION POTION

One day on the way home from work, Mike Carter finds himself propositioned by a woman on the train. He has been working on developing a new aftershave for his company along with his friend and colleague Alan Simpson. When Alan has a similar encounter with one of the women scientists at their office, they both realise it is linked to one of the numerous aftershave formulas they have developed creating a love potion which makes them irresistible to any woman.

The two men begin to test their formula with some success with the women of London. They persuade themselves that before they take it to their boss, the strict Andrew Coombes, they must give it extensive testing to make sure it does not contain any unsavoury side effects. Eager to keep their discovery secret from their wives, they begin to use an old army hut in Effingham for their trials, taking woman back there who they have picked up on the train.

When they begin to run out of the formula, they attempt to create some more using the original recipe. When this does not have any effect on woman, they realise that it must be due to a contaminated chemical that they put in the original potion. They try to locate it, but all issues of it have been destroyed. They begin doing tests to try to find the missing ingredient that will make their potion work.

Their wives are becoming increasingly suspicious about their strange behaviour, and their boss is demanding that they produce a new aftershave to a deadline. When they accidentally allow their boss to get hold of the secret, he too discovers its potency with his secretary. When the two men's wives arrive in London on a surprise shopping trip, the two men fear the game is up. They confess to their boss about the real nature of the potion, and the trials they have been conducting at Effingham. When the three men go to Effingham they discover the army are now demolishing the old huts, and the remaining potion is destroyed by accident. Coombes now threatens them with the sack, threatening to reveal to their wives what they have been doing, unless they can recreate the formula by endless testing of various chemicals to find the magic ingredient.

The potion is accidentally destroyed when the army demolishes the hut, and the men confess their experiments to their boss, who then blackmails them into trying to recreate the formula.

The ending underscores the comic futility of the men’s attempts to control their discovery and keep their escapades hidden. With the formula lost and their secrets exposed, the film shifts the power dynamic—now their boss is in on the mischief, leveraging their predicament for his own benefit. It’s a classic sex farce resolution, pivoting from chaos to a cycle of comic comeuppance.