Be wary of the high marks for this weak film from TV director Jeremy Summers who was obviously inexperienced when it came to making this drab effort with Hancock. I grew up watching HHH and oh how we laughed each week. The problem though with Tony Hancock was that he thought he was better than Galton & Simpson his comedy writers and sacked them. The truth was, he was not, by a long chalk. Without G & S he was all at sea. Hancock was only as good as his material and although an accomplished actor, to bring out the magic that made him the funniest man on TV in the middle fifties, he really needed that chemistry that he had with those writers. He never had that with his subsequent work and I well remember his solo series after HHH had ended. I remember how let down I felt when the first episode was shown when he went solo without the great Sid James, a disaster. This film is no better in spite of some good supporting actors around him. Lovely Sylvia Syms acts her socks off as does Ronald Fraser. John Le Mesurier, Hugh Lloyd, Peter Vaughn, Barbara Murray, Eddie Byrne and Mario Fabrizi all did their best with weak material and bad direction. Summers was relegated to directing episodes of countless TV series and this film shows why.
Review of The Punch and Judy Man
