Milkman Pitkin (Wisdom) and his employer, Mr Grimsdale (Chapman), pit their small, archaic dairy against a conglomerate, hell bent on taking their business by fair means or foul.
This film is largely innocent and boisterous fun, slapstick and so forth. Even in its day it was hardly considered cutting edge, so it may be of limited appeal to folk who know not of Norman Wisdom and his earlier outings. This is the first Norman Wisdom film in colour and the last to feature regulars Wisdom, Chapman and Desmonde together.
Wisdom we expect to fall about, but others didn't have it easy either; Desmonde passed away two years after this film was made and was in his late fifties (and possibly in poor health) during shooting; he must have been game though; he variously gets sprayed with foam, falls out of a building, drenched with a fire hose, dragged by a runaway lawnmower and hangs from a tree, all whilst doing his trademark 'outraged patrician type' act. Good stuff. Supporting roles from John Le Mesurier, Richard Vernon, Frank Thornton, Peter Jeffrey, and Brian Pringle (as Machiavellian milkman Austin) are well done. Honourable mention goes to Nellie the horse too.
Some of the scenes in this film are quite memorable; the horse tranquilliser's effects on Pitkin and Grimsdale are a nod to the upcoming era of psychedelia.
Yes this is mostly hackneyed, old fashioned, and so forth, but that was really the point; open up a Norman Wisdom film and inside you will find mostly harmless fun, occasionally with a little pathos thrown in. This is a pretty fair example of a Norman Wisdom film; simply being in colour means it is more likely to get watched by some modern audiences.
