The Green Man

Dir: Robert Day, Basil Dearden

1956

*****

1956’s classic British comedy The Green Man is the final version of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat’s long gestated play. The film was originally a stage play titled ‘The Body Was Well-Nourished’. The pair wrote it in 1937 but it didn’t reach the London stage until 1940 where it lasted just three weeks, not due to poor ticket sales but because it was during the height of the Blitz and it was just too dangerous to keep it going. The writing partners however were unhappy with the play and decided to rewrite it, revising and updating the characters before retitling it ‘Meet a Body’. The revised play then took to the stage in 1954 and was produced by none other than Laurence Olivier. However, Launder and Gilliat still weren’t happy with the story and went about improving it further before coming to the conclusion that it would work better as a film than a play. The original play had the story’s assassin as a supporting character, this was changed so that the great Alastair Sim could take on the roll and make him the integral part of the plot. Sim actually wanted to direct the film, he and debut director Robert Day had many disagreements on set and in those days Sim had quite a bit of influence, so he brought in Basil Dearden whom he’d worked with before, to direct a few extra scenes and indeed, Launder and Gilliat themselves got behind the camera at one time or another during production. It’s any wonder the film got completed at all, the fact that it is near perfect is testament to just how well written and beautifully performed it was. Alastair Sim is perfect in his devious but charming performance as an assassin for hire, brought out of retirement to bump off cabinet minister Sir Gregory Upshott (played by Raymond Huntley). Freelance assassin Hawkins is an explosives expert and the introduction to the film is a glorious recap of his criminal career complete with one of the most comically perfect narrations of all time. You couldn’t really ask for more than that but that is just the start. After Hawkins’ initial plan goes wrong, his next door neighbour Ann (played by Jill Adams) and a vacuum cleaner salesman called Blake (played by George Cole) become suspicious and, against the will of Ann’s BBC announcer fiancé (Colin Gordon), set about finding Hawkins and putting a stop to what he’s about to do. The site of the murder is to be the Green Man pub just outside of London, where Sir Gregory is spending an illicit weekend with one of his young typists (played by George Cole’s then wife Eileen Moore). Sir Gregory is then confused for Charles Boughtflower (played by Terry-Thomas) by Ann and Blake and the timing of the murder is confused by the landlord’s obsession of turning the clock forward by ten minutes. The physical comedy is brilliant and the script is sublime. Headliners Sim, Cole and Thomas are brilliant but the supporting acts are just as good, with Eileen Moore’s nervous typist, Raymond Huntley’s controlling Sir Gregory Upshott, Dora Bryan’s playful landlady, Colin Gordon’s arrogant Reginald Willoughby-Cruft, Richard Wattis’ bemused doctor and the three ladies who play music in the pub’s lounge making it a hilarious affair with absolutely no faults. It’s better than most of the Ealing Comedies in my opinion, is beautifully written with performances to die for. I loved seeing lots of old London locations too. The perfect classic British comedy.