The Green Man (1956)
9/10
The perfect cast
12 December 2006
The wonderful thing about this film is that the screenplay and the cast fit together like hand in glove. Raymond Huntley unsurpassable in his stock role as the pompous but devious politician, Terry Thomas in the car dealer/lothario role that so suits him, George Cole as the puppyishly eager but naive and accident prone vacuum cleaner salesman, Colin Gordon as the uptight BBC newsreader, Arthur Borough as the irascible hotel landlord, Dora Bryan as the helpful and slightly saucy barmaid, and above all Alastair Sim giving full range to all his facial and vocal capabilities, sinister and menacing one moment, joyous and charming the next. And they are all believable, not caricatures - we have all come across similar people in real life. The lovely Jill Adams provides the romantic interest. The plot is of course extremely contrived, and the settings rather stagey (it was originally a stage play), but this is pure British 50s comedy, not Carry on slapstick. One to cherish.
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