A Stitch in Time

This one is above average, not Norman's best, but still good.

The scenes at the butchers are good, my wife could not stop laughing, , it was worth seeing it just for that.

This one has Jerry Desmonde and Herbert Chapman both supporting Norman and Jeanette Sterke is the pretty girl, Jeanette is one of the few from Norman's films who is still with us, now aged 87, she retired in 1986.

Lookout for Patsy Rowlands, Frank Williams (he did a few of Norman's films), Cyril Chamberlain and Pat Coombs.

The ending was a bit dramatic, but not too cheesy, it turned from a comedy to a social drama.

Even if the story is pretty standard and some parts get a little sentimental, A Stitch in Time is still a charming and funny slapstick comedy. A Stitch in Time is very well made, with nice cinematography and the film overall looks beautiful. The music by Phillip Green is beautiful as well, while there are some nice and funny touches in the screenplay. Not only that the set pieces are efficiently done and just add to the fun, with the slapstick very well timed. The pacing is just fine, the direction is good and the length I had no problem with either. And the acting is little to gripe about; Norman Wisdom is very winning in the title role, very innocent and likable, while Edward Chapman and Jerry Desmonde almost come close to stealing the film and Jeanette Sterke is really beautiful. Overall, classic slapstick comedy, that is very nice to watch while being funny as well. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I have a fairly pathological hatred of dentists, and I can't help but wonder whether screenings of this film on BBC2 in the early 1970s might have been the cause! Indeed, for a few scenes here Norman Wisdom manages to create a sense of peril that easily outdoes anything the horror genre can illicit! Add to that the fact that he works in a butcher's shop and, well, anyway... "Pitkin" is employed by the long-suffering "Mr. Grimsdale" (Edward Chapman) and it's an accident in that shop that sees them both in the hospital of the fastidious "Sir Hector" (Jerry Desmonde) and the altogether nicer nurse "Haskell" (Jeanette Sterke). Needless to say, everything he touches turns to chaos and he finds himself repeatedly chased from the premises, even barred, but he wants to return to help out the traumatised "Lindy" (Lucy Appleby) whose parents were killed in a plane crash and who hasn't uttered a word since! Of course the story is all predictable but as ever, Norman Wisdom made the slapstick comedy at which he excelled look effortless and natural. He easily puts the lutz into clutz as he skates around on the floor of the hospital ward, he clings for grim death to the roof of a speeding ambulance and he even has a go in a marching band playing in a key hitherto undiscovered - and all along he has the redoubtable Chapman to provide just enough of a foil to keep the pace racing along entertainingly for ninety minutes. It's also quite a charming little showcase of life in London in the early sixties with the fashions, the cars and some glass half full attitudes and I did quite enjoy it.

Very funny and surprisingly well made film. Norman Wisdom does not put a foot wrong, well he does but he's supposed to! What is particularly gratifying here is that whilst Wisdom is his brilliant self, everybody else puts in excellent and thoughtful performances. There is none of the 'prima donna' stuff we tend to get in the 'Carry On' films of the period and everybody is mainly interested in making themselves look good. Peter Jones, for instance puts in a magnificent performance as a St Johns Ambulance Brigade leader in a little scene that becomes central to the whole film. From the very beginning in the butcher's shop the slapstick is immaculate and typified by the hospital trolley race, Wisdom's tone is some magical mix of the male desire to prove himself and wanting to be a little boy again.

Once again, Norman Wisdom plays lovable klutz Norman Pitkin, raising Cain wherever he goes. In this case, he works for Mr. Grimsdale (Edward Chapman) in a meat store, when the place gets robbed. After a small snafu, Grimsdale gets sent to the hospital, and Pitkin accompanies him. In the hospital, Pitkin befriends orphan Lindy, but gets kicked out of the hospital.

Anyway, the whole movie has Pitkin getting himself into a series of loony situations, all the while getting on everyone's nerves. He's the very manifestation of the triumph of the underdog, how he inadvertently trashes the snobbish rich people's mores. In this case, he has a drag race on Grimsdale's bed, and later has to dress up as a nurse after a sticky situation (which was probably inserted to appeal to teenage boys). The movie culminates in a musical performance unlike any that you've ever seen.

All in all, it's something that you're sure to like. And some of those nurses were really hot!