The Green Man

Mr Sim is ideally cast as a seemingly mild but actually ruthless assassin. His perfect comic timing, expressive features and ability to switch on a sense of genuine menace are well used in this sprightly farce. George Cole is admirable as the well meaning young hero while Jill Adams is a radiantly beautiful and desirable heroine. As indisputably English as Wimbledon but much more fun!

A murder, a deliberate mix-up with house numbers, a vacuum-cleaner salesman and a young bride-to-be in a compromising position. Oh, and a pompous politician about to be blown up by an assassin with a bomb in a wireless. It gets even better when these people are played by George Cole, Jill Adams, Raymond Huntley and of course the great Alastair Sim. This is a farce in the true British sense, with lots of running about, hiding of bodies and misunderstandings. Add to the mix Terry-Thomas making the most of his modest role and the much underrated Colin Gordon playing a stiff BBC announcer on the edge of a nervous breakdown and we have the recipe for a wonderful Sunday afternoon film. Britain made this type of film with great aplomb in the 50's, perhaps because our National Character was so 'send-upable' at the time and we didn't mind laughing at ourselves. We don't make them now, which is why we go out and buy DVD's of 50-year-old comedies that have no equal. Superb.

Great performance from Alistair Sim surely Britains greatest actor (well I think so), with good performances from the rest of the cast, especially Terry Thomas a top hoe old boy performance. The film is farcical in the best tradition of British farce, man caught in compromising position with another man's fiancée under a bed, man caught in compromising position with same fiancée in her under garments, a murder,a missing body, plus confusion and misunderstanding, but all good clean innocent fun, maybe the plot does contain more holes than a swiss cheese.....is that not what farce is meant to be, the audience see the outrageousness and implausibility of the situation while the characters think it's all perfectly normal and explainable, but above all the film is truly funny and it contains one of the funniest lines in British film comedy, when the character Reginald Willoughby-Cruft (Colin Gordon) confronts William Blake (George Cole) and says, "by heaven I'd thrash the life out of you, if I didn't have to read the 9 o'clock news." How much more British can you get!!

Utterly hilarious from the first montage of droll assassinations (not really funny in news-horror 2006) but hilarious in it's clunky 50s tone set by Alistair Sim, THE GREEN MAN is a situation comedy of mistaken identity (including the title) that is as sharp now as 50 years ago. From clumsy George Cole and his vacuum cleaner salesman antics at the wrong house (Windybanks? anyone?) to Terry Thomas' leering spluttering "Basil Brush" type pub skirt-chasing THE GREEN MAN lurches hilariously from one weird character and place to screamingly funny suspense with the radio on the wrong station at the pub of the title. This is one of the most unappreciated and funniest Brit pix of the 50s and I implore you to get a copy any way you can. It should be up there with THE LADYKILLERS or SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH in beloved UK comedies...it even has Richard Wattis! Delight! And Alistair Sim...a sublime dry performance of apt face contortions ...his look of disgust alone had me laughing for days.

Great Ealing farce in the Kind Hearts and Coronets murder-comedy stylee, revolving around Sim's hitman (specialising in slapstick bomb-hits) plotting the death of a prominent businessman, and George Cole's vacuum cleaner salesman, out to thwart the killer...Room for plenty of comedy shenanigans as the top cast blunder around leaving clues and confusing each other, building to a climax at the country inn of the title. Thoroughly enjoyable for fans of the genre, with just a little bit of Terry-Thomas thrown in near the end to add his unique suave zest to a very appealing mix. Expect the thrills to come from Sim's eyebrows and laid-back attitude, and Terry-Thomas' 'tache, rather than the plot.