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The Green Man [1956]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

The Green Man is a charming film that carries a wickedly subversive streak of black humour sqarely on the back of Alastair Simms' disgruntled criminal mastermind. Planning to assassinate a windbag MP, his dastardly plot is embroiled in a comedy of errors when George Cole's vacuum cleaning demonstration turns up a corpse in the piano at Simms' Windyridge cottage. Teaming up with the long-legged neighbour Cole tracks down the bomb to a secret hideaway for the MP--a pub called the Green Man. This is the sort of masterful comedy that deftly gets away with confusing the audience who are never sure whose side they should be cheering. When Simms' carefully timed explosive device threatens to decimate a lounge bar trip of old dears, it is hilarious fun to be manipulated into hoping he can speed up their performance enough to whisk them to the safety of a gin and tonic elsewhere. This is a gem in both British comedy and the great Alastair Simms treasury. --Paul Tonks


Outstanding black comedy.
Review date: 2008-07-21 Rating: 10 out of 10

The Green Man is a super black comedy. Eveything about this movie is great. Full of the superstars of their day. Real proper actings who can make people laugh. See a young George Cole, Alastair Sim and Terry Thomas.

The story line is good, a real story with some very funny sections. Well infact the whole film is very funny.

A great buy.

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Reviews


Alistair Sim is brilliant
Review date: 2008-04-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

Wonderful black comedy. Any movie with Alistair Sim in it is bound to be enjoyable. I buy any DVD with him in it, and I have most of them. Eveything about this movie is totally charming, watch it on a cosy rainy day and get lost in all the fun and enjoy yourself

Highly Entertaining Black Comedy
Review date: 2007-09-20 Rating: 10 out of 10


This is a wonderful black comedy starring the incomparable Alastair Sim as a clockmaker, who is secretly one of the world's foremost assassins. He takes a pride in his work, is self-important, and not used to things going wrong. However, when George Cole comes on the scene as a bungling vacuum cleaner salesman, Sim's latest assassination plans begin to unravel. Lots of laughs in this film, which is also available as a double set with 'School for Scoundrels' (Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and Alastair Sim).

Classic English farce with a dark sense of humour
Review date: 2007-09-02 Rating: 10 out of 10

This film's theatrical origins are very noticable, but it doesn't take away from the enjoyment at all. In fact it is quite filmic with some good location scenes. Sim is the trump card in the kind of role written for his brand of dark humour. It also boasts a very good screenplay full of satire about staid and civilised English life (as it was then), the stresses of embarking on elicit affairs, class snobbery and the British middle class' love of murder mysteries, contrasting with their own conservative lives. A good turn is put in by George Cole as the slightly vulgar but enthusiastic salesman who puts his foot in the way of cunning Alastair Sim's plans. Great old British fun that looks quite nostalgic now.

A British classic
Review date: 2007-07-20 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is a marvellous black comedy that holds up to repeated viewings. Starring the great Alistair Sim but also featuring George Cole, Terry Thomas, Dora Bryan and a few other faces you will probably recognise. Sim plays Hawkins a clock-maker by trade but really a freelance assassin. Hawkins wants to kill, or is paid to kill, a pompous and boring man Sir Gregory Upshoot who is having a naughty weekend away at the Green Man.

Things go wrong right from the start. George Cole is a vacuum cleaner salesman who turns up unexpectedly resulting in series of brilliant scenes before the visit to the Green Man. You can tell when watching this that it was based on a play, but this doesn't detract from the clever script and high class performances. Perhaps best of all is the chess game that Hawkins plays with a local Policeman. As Hawkins, Alistair Sim is as always the master of telling you everything from a little contortion of his face, and the chess game scenes are the highlight for me.

Its also a chance to look back to a different age. There are a number of scenes (maybe shot in Surrey or somewhere like that) flmed outside a lovely detached house and the road is empty. Not a car to be seen, and when one does pull up it seems very odd, but in those days cars were comparitively rare.

This used to available as a double bill with School for Scoundrels (not the recent remake!). Now that was some double bill. However the film is worthy of an independent release. Buy now before it gets deleted again.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
George Cole
Jill Adams
Terry-Thomas
Alastair Sim
Raymond Huntley

Creators:
Alastair Sim (Primary Contributor)
George Cole (Primary Contributor)
Gerald Gibbs (Cinematographer)
Frank Launder (Producer)
Frank Launder (Writer)
Leslie Gilliat (Producer)
Sidney Gilliat (Producer)
Sidney Gilliat (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Optimum Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Optimum Home Entertainment
EAN: 5060034577119
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2006-10-30
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 76 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1956
Language: English (Original Language)

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