Deux des commandos

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.

A film that hasn't "dated", a good script and full of all the reliable British actors of the time. Alfred Lynch is superb as the main RAF "spiv" charachter supported by a subdued Sean Connery. The US comparisons with Sgt Bilko are very valid and in the same way that Bilko had the strength in some brilliant minor cast members, so it is with "On the Fiddle". A really good "watch" for Sunday afternoon TV and although there are a few touches of "farce" around it captures the feeling of ordinary Service life towards the end of World War II extremely accurately. Alfred Lynch was a real class British actor who drew brilliantly on his East End background for many of his films. I was sad to hear of his untimely death just before Christmas (2003).

'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.

On the Fiddle is a passable film with Alfred Lynch in a rare leading role as Horace Pope a spiv type scam artist who ends up being sent to the army by a judge.

Once he has joined up he teams up with dim witted but amiable squaddie Pedlar Pascoe (Sean Connery) who tags along with his money making schemes and provides the brawn to his brains.

The duo accidentally become war heroes, then end up running a pub serving US based soldiers.

Connery would go on to become James Bond a year later so here is a role where he is kind of cast against type. Lynch better known as a shifty type character actor rather enjoys being in the limelight as the star but he really is charmless and unsympathetic here, more a third rate and not nice Sergeant Bilko.

The movie has a host of familiar faces ranging from Lance Percival to Barbara Windsor.

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.