Strictly for the Birds

Revue star Tony Tanner is forgotten today but starred in a handful of early sixties movies and in 1966 was entrusted with taking over the lead from Anthony Newley for the film version of 'Stop the World I Want to Get Off!'

It's easy to imagine Newley in this, although Tanner also rather resembles Norman Wisdom scurrying about Soho in this strange departure for director Vernon Sewell between thrillers which now seems as long ago as the Victorian era. However, one of the girls at the night club Tanner visits mentions getting home to see 'Coronation Street', which reminds us that it's all just within living memory.

Tony Tanner gets up and heads off to his new job, but it's too lucky a day for him. A penny he finds on the floor of a nightclub wins the fruit machine's jackpot; a tip from one-man-band Graham Stark turns that into twenty pounds at the betting shop. True, an old girl friend dumps a child on him, claiming he's the father, but the string of luck at betting doesn't even fray.

The problem is that it's not really a story in any sense of the word, but an anecdote, filled out with miscellaneous characters and some good-looking women. Joan Sims is a good-looking blonde he keeps running into, and if you look fast, you can spot Carol Cleveland. I'm not sure what point they're trying to make with this movie, but perhaps it lies in the name of Alan Baulch's character, the child Tanner is saddled with: Alfie.

This is really just a vehicle for small-time theatre star Tony Tanner, and it's doesn't really add up to much. He ("Terry") is having a good night having found a penny on the street and by one means or another turned it into a tidy twenty quid. There is soon quite a fly in his ointment, though, when an ex turns up and deposits "Alfie" (Alan Baulch) on him, claiming he is their son. What now ensues is a rather predictable series of scenarios that though occasionally lit up by Joan Simms as the landlady "Peggy", these recycle themselves a bit too often. Tanner has timing and some personality, but somehow this film just neuters that quite effectively with a really limiting stage-like production and some borderline inane dialogue. There is plenty of London photography, but after a few scenes that becomes unremarkable too. Saturday afternoon B-feature fodder, that's all, I'm afraid.

This film reminds me of The Small world of Sammy Lee only rather lighter. Tanner and Newly seem interchangeable.

The film starts out quite well but once the small boy is introduced it goes downhill rapidly. Furthermore both Tanner and Stark become extremely irritating.

The climax is rather a letdown.

It only got one star because of central London location shots of the early 60s. There is no plot, story or any meaningful acting in this hotpotch of an apology for a film. How much money was wasted in making this ? Was it someone's vanity project ?