There Was a Crooked Man

I was never a fan of Norman Wisdom. I found that the plots were very simple,unfunny,with a tendency towards mawkishness.

So I was surprised by the first hour of this film which was actually watchable,but even funny in places.

Alas after an hour it goes very much downhill. Wisdom decides he could do an American accent,for some reason. The plot changes course and becomes a bore. At one hour forty seven minutes this is about thirty minutes too long.

The supporting cast is fine. Debutant Susannah York, with a brunette hair do,shows some early promise. Reginald Beckwith was always a favourite of mine and he is always reliable.

It's a shame the writer couldn't have come up with a funnier last act.

Seeing a film which has been unseen in decades and to all intents and purposes "lost" is a real privilege. Although you're viewing something by today's standards and eyes. It almost needs two scores: with those factors included and discounted. I'd heard about this film 10 years ago. It was shown in Darwen, where it was filmed. The print being owned by a private collector. It was frustrating it wasn't given a DVD release. Periodically I checked online for any word on the film and that remained the case until 2017. When my search result revealed it was being released. Fantastic news! I don't know what the obstacle was. Whether it was rights issues or the owner didn't want to sell or even if the release was his print. But that's history now. Overall I'd give this an 8. The plot meanders a bit in the middle and watching it with any logical scrutiny is perhaps not the best idea (it's a 1960 Norman Wisdom comedy!) But it is very enjoyable and Norman gives an excellent performance. Many people stress in this film he tried to move away from his famous "gump" character. He does and it makes a welcome change. And shows he had greater range. That said he's not so hugely different to not appeal to those who like the Gump. The ending is quite something. I'm slightly sad that over the past decades, this film hasn't been known or seen widely, as with his other films. Although this is the future- today we see less and less repeats of the greats on the main national broadcasters. Such as Laurel and Hardy. Overall, thoroughly recommend.

While there are those who are left cold by Norman Wisdom, I am not one of those people. In fact, I am quite fond of him. There Was a Crooked Man is my favourite film of his, and he couldn't have been more perfect here in his role as he teams up with crooks to outwit the mayor of a northern town. His role here allows him to maintain his poor but honest persona and his wide eyed innocence that makes him so endearing to me, but it is probably the most versatile of his roles as well. There Was a Crooked Man benefits further from striking filming, quirky music, fun direction and sparkling dialogue. In terms of performances, Wisdom makes the film for me, but he has some excellent foils also in the form of Alfred Marks and Andrew Cruishank. Then there is the comedy, There Was a Crooked Man in my opinion contains some of the best things Wisdom ever did. The bank robbery, the battle with the factory machinery and Brian Oulton taking a shower unaware that Wisdom is in the stall with him particularly stand out. In conclusion, a divine comedy and my favourite of a talented performer. 10/10 Bethany Cox

You might have thought that every single film Norman Wisdom ever made had been on TV at least twenty times in the past five years. But this - his personal favourite - has been unseen on British television for over half a century (although it is thankfully now available on YouTube and DVD).

Chafing at the restrictions imposed by Rank, Wisdom made two independent productions (the second being a version of Wodehouses's 'The Girl on the Boat') described by Robert Murphy as "refreshingly unusual" released through United Artists for a company that promptly went bust (the former having already been swiftly withdrawn from cinemas following protests from the Americans at the way they were caricatured in it); leaving them in a rights limbo that has kept both off television for a generation while his Rank productions are on all the time.

Based on James Bridie's 1949 play 'The Golden Legend of Shults', directed largely on location at Darwen in Lancashire serving as mill town Sleeth-on-Sea by theatre director Stuart Burge; further enhanced by terrific photography by Arthur Ibbetson fresh from 'The League of Gentlemen' and slick editing by future James Bond director James Hunt it all builds to a memorably explosive conclusion.

An excellent supporting cast (with venal authority embodied by Andrew Cruickshank rather than Jerry Desmonde) includes blonde bad girl Jean Clarke, little seen thereafter, and - in only her second film - an appealing young brunette named Susannah York, much seen thereafter.

What a surprise to find this film available from Network on Air via Amazon. Norman plays a much calmer role than his usual Gimp character, and so shows a completely different side to his acting. and I must say what a wonderful script for this film as it was a joy from start to finish with some real twist and turns, Wisdom still had the chance to do some of his slap stick which he seemed to do the stunts himself. Picture quality of the new DVD was a mostly very good and was in full widescreen, although I would also love to see this released on Blu-ray as it must be one of Normans greatest achievements, I worked with the great man on a charity film "Cosmic Brain suckers" and had the chance to spend many hours chatting to him over the shoot, I found him to be a most charming man with immense talent but also for his ability to play many musical instruments and through one of his later TV performances in Going Gently about a man dying of cancer. a great and powerful performance in a strait acting role. Thanks so much Network for releasing this great film so we can all enjoy it after not being seen for more than 50 years.