User reviews

A sly cockney (Alfred Lynch) and a rather dim gypsy (Sean Connery) team up during World War II to turn events to their own financial advantage. Note for pub quiz players. Sean Connery's last role before playing James Bond was this one: playing a thick-as-short-planks Gypsy! Whether the casting people saw this before they gave him the role is open to doubt, but I believe that he plays stupid better than he plays clever. Do you believe that Connery really had a double first and could speak fluent Japanese? Well that is what 007 is supposed to be! But I digress. This is what I actually like in a cheap and cheerful film. Give us a bit of everything from comedy to drama and keep it rolling along before we get bored. They are not really con men, but fly-by-nights that want to turn everything to their own advantage. Laughable small timers really. The film changes tone at the end from comedic to dramatic as the twosome have to do a bit of real fighting instead of skiving. Looks a bit out of place, but brings in the twist that was sure to be coming. Not that great a movie, but star power and character acting keep us involved to the finish. If you give this movie a chance you will probably find that you are in it for the full term. Lots of fun - but only B movie candy floss.

'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.

This is a perfectly charming little service comedy, with the added bonus of co-starring Sean Connery just before he attained fame in the role of James Bond. Even better, Connery plays totally against type, as a low-key version of Gomer Pyle -- an ingenuous, somewhat stupid-but-likeable serviceman. Alfred Lynch is the real star, though, playing a weasel-y British version of Sgt. Bilko, running numerous scams with his dim-witted buddy Connery. It's funny. Imagine American service sitcoms such as "McHale's Navy" and "Sgt. Bilko" crossed with the gently loopy charms of Ealing Comedies, and you'll get an idea of the tone of this film.

"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.

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 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.

Sean, you know I think that you are absolutely the greatest actor in the world, but I can't commend you for this. Comedy just isn't your strong suit.

However, it wasn't all your fault. Some of the stuff was just too hard to understand. Alfred Lynch did a decent job, but you gotta wonder where the lines came from from the beginning.

Once again, Sean... I apologize.

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.

When he is pulled up in court for selling stuff on the street, Horace Pope says he was only doing it while waiting to enlist. The judge calls his bluff and forces him to sign up. Pope makes friends with the easy going but loyal Pedlar Pascoe, who happily goes along with all of his scams in an effort to avoid the front lines and make a bit on the side. However, his scams cause trouble where he goes and there are only so many places he can go before France beckons.

I watched this film recently in a sort of tribute to it's main star Alfred Lynch, who sadly died over the Christmas holiday 2003. I had never seen this film of his before and didn't even know when it was made. The reason I mention that is because this film feels like one of those Norman Wisdom films where the English cheeky chappy unwittingly does heroics in the war, all with a `blimey gov'ner' and so on. Instead this was made in the 1960's, although I can't think why. The basic plot sets up a series of little amusing scams before the sudden heroics that we all know will come sooner or later. While it is rarely hilarious, it is amusing at turns and is worth watching as long as you don't expect too much of it.

Lynch plays a character that wouldn't have really worked in the 1940's as, regardless of his later heroics, he is really far too cowardly and weasely to be a wartime hero - but 15 years later it can be overlooked. He does OK and is a standard cockney type - although it is strange seeing him taking the lead role over Connery. Connery was only a year away from being the legend he now is with Bond and plays totally against what would now be considered type. He is a little bit simple but good hearted; while the role is hard to swallow now, he does play it well. The support cast is surprisingly deep considering the material; Parker, Le Mesurier, Owen and Windsor are among the famous faces.

Overall this is an enjoyable film that is never hilarious but has the amusing, music hall air of a propaganda movie from 15 years older. I wonder how this film was received as it must have seemed outdated even the day it was released - watching it now is probably better cause it is just an `old' film. It's not great but the cast is famous and the comedy is gentle and old fashioned - an average film but still worth seeing.

I always find myself watching this film when it comes on the television. It is a comedy with a little bit of suspense and action towards the end when Alfred Lynch and Sean Connery become involved in the Battle of the Ardenne, which they had not bargained for.

This film was made before Sean Connery became famous. Who would have thought in 1961 that this good natured, comical gypsy character would suddenly transform himself into the suave, smooth, and debonair secret agent, James Bond - licensed to kill, with an envied charm for the ladies?

I do not know what always attracts me to this film. I first saw it at the cinema when it first came out in 1961. I was only 10 years old at the time and my childish naivety did not really understand a lot of it, but every time I re-watch it, a little bit more falls into place. I think the film was on with "Master of the World", starring Vincent Price and Charles Bronson, but I'm not quite sure which was the second feature, as both films stood out on their own merits.

I think the reason why I enjoy this film so much is due to the lovely array of stars and British character actors who seem to keep popping up in small parts. Reliable personalities like Stanley Holloway, Kathleen Harrison, John Le Mesurier, and not forgetting the great Cecil Parker, always add a bit of class to a good film.

There are a lot of noticeable 'goofs' and anachronisms in the film - like all the barmaids wearing 1960s blouses, skirts and dresses - but who cares - it was a great film

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).

Stacked full of stars that made it.

Sean obviously kicked on but then so did so many: Wilfred Hyde "only the poor pay taxes" White, Dame Barbara "What a Carry on" Windsor, Victor "The Face of the Squaddy" Maddern, John "Sgt Wilson" Le Mesurier, Cecil "The Ubiquitous": Parker, and even Kathleen "Sam Kidd's female persona" Harrison, so many others in fact the only Brit MIA is Sam K himself - he must have been seen as typecast!

The script actually works and direction and editing make this watchable. I really didn't want to like this but I do. Sean's role is significant as it apparently provided the platform to kick on? (Towards the end he is seen fighting in the woods and directing his mate in the art of warfare, perhaps that made up Cubby's mind?)

A poignant scene between Horace and peddler towards the end, when they fear getting run over by, "Hitler's flipping' staff car" made it for me. Cue the pathos.

I judge without the grey these days, so I score 1/10 or 10/10. So this hits 10/10 for the reasons described. But colour would have been good when exporting this to the USA. Such a con played on those abroad wanting more SC in a Bond-esque rôle who would have been found asking for their money back I suspect! A film about conmen and yet the film provides its biggest sting!

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.