On the Fiddle

You could never have made a service comedy like On The Fiddle during the World War II years in the United Kingdom. When the UK was fighting for its very life with Hitler only hours away by air, a film with the central character of a conman slacker like Alfred Lynch would have gone over like a lead dirigible. You could do it the USA with us thousands of miles away, but not then in the UK.

Lynch is a fabulous character though, a cockney conman who gets pinched peddling his wares at a recruitment station line and then has to enlist to prove those were his intentions being there. But once in the service he sees Ferengi like lucrative opportunities to make business killings.

His best friend turns out to be an amiable and diffident Sean Connery who just cheerfully accepts life as it comes. He and Lynch become quite a team in their business enterprises and in their skillful avoidance of where the fighting is until almost the end of the war.

The film also has in it the presence of American comedian Alan King of our Army Airs Corps who is as skilled an operator for the Yanks as Lynch and Connery are for their king and country. King was a rising star at the time, Ed Sullivan always had him on his variety show several times a year and no doubt his presence helped sell the film on this side of the pond.

Two great British character actors are here as well. Cecil Parker playing a most pompous air marshal who just can't quite put these guys out of business. Their enterprises do come to his attention. And Stanley Holloway plays a butcher with whom they go into profit selling black market beef from the RAF Commissary. And to hear them tell it, Lynch and Connery are doing a patriotic service as well as making a few bucks on the side.

It's been said that Sean Connery shows no gift for comedy. If you saw A Fine Madness you might have some grounds for saying that, but in On The Fiddle, he's quite droll in some of the lines he drops. Anyway his fans will not be disappointed.

ON THE FIDDLE is a WW2-era comedy starring the long-forgotten Alfred Lynch as a spiv who finds himself enrolled in the army and sent to France to fight, against his best intentions. The problem is that Lynch is a bit of coward and a man who's more interested in making money through his black market dealings than actual fighting.

This quaint and genteel comedy has dated, particularly in comparison to the early black-and-white CARRY ON films which were coming out at the same time and which feel almost highbrow in comparison. The main problem for me is Lynch's character: he plays an arrogant and cocky so-and-so who's impossible to like and I ended up waiting for him to get his just desserts, but sadly that never happened. Some might call him irrepressible, I just call him irritating.

Still, fans of the era will find much to enjoy in the presence of a number of notable British names in the supporting cast. Not least of these is Sean Connery, second-billed and playing Lynch's army buddy. In the USA, the film was retitled OPERATION SNAFU and the poster figured Connery's name predominantly to cash in on his new-found fame as Bond (DR NO was his next film after this) but I'd argue that his performance in this, as the slow-witted but lovable rogue, is actually better than his Bond. Others may disagree.

Meanwhile, there's a full parade of familiar faces who usually pop up in one-scene roles. Watch out for Stanley Holloway, John Le Mesurier, Eric Barker, Victor Maddern, Patsy Rowlands, Bill Owen, Wilfrid Hyde-White and last but not least Barbara Windsor in one of her earliest screen roles. These actors - who feel like old friends to any fan of British cinema - certainly keep you watching and take your mind off the weak jokes and otherwise episodic feel of the storyline.

'On the Fiddle' is OK, and won't let you down on a quiet afternoon. It's more interesting for the fact that it's a comedy war film from the point of view of the average soldier, and the officers who do appear are shown as complete idiots. Nowadays this is a given, but in 1960, when the UK still had conscription, to make a film like this was to take sides in the social changes that were happening. It's a forerunner of 'Kelly's Heroes' on a tiny budget, and it looks like it was fun to make, so you can't judge it too harshly. And there are few better than Sean Connery at buddy movies. In a way, it shows how Bond constrained Connery for the years he did it, and I wish there were more films of the time with him not wearing a toupee or being a psychopathic MCP.

A thoroughly enjoyable English comedy but the inimitable Cecil Parker who although he saw service in WWI he forgot his training. When John LeMesurier enters the room and salutes a hatless Group Captain, Cecil returns the salute. In the British Services one salutes the uniform not the individual and as hatless, the Group Captain does not merit a salute, merely coming to attention suffices. Cecil should have known this.

"On the Fiddle" is a good enough film for those who have an hour and a half to spare. Sean Connery was just 1 year away from becoming one of the biggest stars of our time when he made this war comedy/drama. Apparently, it was "On the Fiddle" that led to his being considered for James Bond. Alfred Lynch - largely forgotten today - takes the lead as a fast thinking lovable rogue who knows every dodge there is. Sean Connery is cast as Lynch's slightly dimwitted but loyal friend as they both share various experiences during the second world war. The tone is kept quite lighthearted until about the last 20 minutes of the film. Then both characters are confronted by how truly horrific war is. This film disappeared from everyone's radar apart from rare television broadcasts. The pace is pretty good and the film is a lively one. The joint leads work well together and they carry the film most effectively. All kinds of familiar actors crop up along the way: Stanley Holloway, Kathleen Harrison, Kenneth J. Warren, Hugh Lloyd (of Tony Hancock fame) and others. Alfred Lynch is given the chance to display a more tragic side to his character and it shows there is more to his character than just being a cockney spiv. This is worth a look.