Will Any Gentleman...?

With a strong cast of well known character actors, I expected a much more entertaining film. George Cole, plays the upright and meek, bank employee Henry Sterling, who suffers from sudden temporary fits of 'womanising' and playing the 'cad' which land him in all all sorts of marital and work problems. His 'Jekyll and Hyde' shenanigans is made worse by his scatty brother, played by Jon Pertwee. Enter all sorts of idiosyncratic characters, such as James Hayter playing a 'mad hatter' doctor, as Henry's lothario habits and misunderstandings land him in one crisis after another. Although the pace is fast and furious, the storyline borders on the absurd and infantile, and long before the end, the scenes showing Henry, morphing into a sort of 'Brian Rix' become too much! I found the character of George Cole annoying and frankly irritating! He was never a photogenic male lead and the idea that eligible young woman would swoon over him, seemed faintly ridiculous. A tedious film with too many cringeworthy scenes.

Story of what can happen when hypnosis goes all wrong. Timid bank clerk henry sterling ends up on stage, gets hypnotized, and has no memory of flirting with angel, the hypnotist's assistant. Apparently, he was never brought out of the hypnosis. And now he doesn't even want to go to work. Pretty similar story to office space, from 1999. This one stars george cole, jon pertwee, veronica hurst. It's okay. The first twenty minutes are actually a bit annoying. All running around, no-one really listens to anyone. No likeable characters. The incompetent doctor, flitting about. But it calms down, and comes to a happy place. It's okay. An old fashioned farce. Nobody wakes up dead! Office space did a much better job with it. This story started as a play. The film directed by michael anderson... he was nominated for around the world in eighty days. Based on the play by vernon sylvaine.

If you like classic British comedy's this could be for you a great cast with George Cole as a mild mannered henpecked man who get hypnotised which completely changes his character. Two future Doctor Who actors Jon Pertwee & William Hartnell appear together on screen with support from Joan Sims.

While this film version of a then popular stage show never quite gathers the momentum to be a full success, it's likable and fitfully amusing.

The biggest weakness is how the key plot function of George Cole's character turns from a meek bank clerk to an unstoppable force of nature in an instant. There's no trigger for this to occur so it seems like it only exists when it's convenient for the plot and therefore feels contrived and forced. As a lot of humour and narrative is reliant on this, it's a significant problem for the film.

Still, after a slow start the film becomes increasingly fun. This is mainly due to an excellent cast. Cole is good, but some of the supporting performances are even better. Joan Sims is a delight as Cole's maid and Alan Badel - completely unrecognisable from his usual upper- class persona - is a delight as the hypnotist who begins all of Cole's problems.

Worth a look.

A romping Technicolor farce vaguely indebted to Jeckyll & Hyde adapted by Vernon Sylvaine from his own West End hit of 1950, that basically extends to feature length the section in 'Laughter in Paradise' in which George Cole is forced to publicly make a fool of himself.

A once-in-a-lifetime supporting cast ranges from Alan Badel to Richard Massingham (and two future Doctor Whos); and there are some quite naughty jokes like the provenance of the paper used to replace the banknotes (while what George Cole does to Joan Sims, in her film debut, would get him fired and ostracised today...)!