The Green Man [Blu-ray]

Director: Robert Day, Basil Dearden Robert Day

Overview

Alistair Sim plays a mild, innocuous little watchmaker who spends his off-hours as a professional assassin. His present target is windbag cabinet member Raymond Huntley. After various misfire attempts, Sim plants a bomb in a small radio and waits for the tube to warm up--but the authorities by now are on to him. The Green Man has some excellent setpieces, notably a droll snatch of black humor involving a body stuffed in a piano. The film's only debit is that, in the play upon which it is based, Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's Meet the Body, Sim's character is secondary, almost peripheral. By reshaping the film into a star vehicle, much of the play's intimate (albeit ghoulish) charm is dissipated.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/01/2021
UPC:	0738329253400
Original Release:	1956
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:20:00
Sales rank:	32,065

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Alastair Sim	Hawkins
George Cole	William Blake
Jill Adams	Ann Vincent
Avril Angers	Marigold
Terry-Thomas	Boughtflower
John Chandos	McKecknie
Dora Bryan	Lily
Colin Gordon	Reginald
Eileen Moore	Joan Wood
Raymond Huntley	Sir Gregory Upshoot
Cyril Chamberlain	Sgt. Bassett
Doris Yorke	Mrs. Bostock
Arthur Brough	Landlord
Marie Burke	Felicity
Vivienne Wood	Annabel
Peter Bull	Gen. Niva
Terry Alexander	Actor,Man in Radio Studio
Willoughby Goddard	Statesman
Arthur Lowe	Radio salesman
Michael Ripper	Waiter
Leslie Weston	Porter
Lucy Griffiths	Annabel
Richard Wattis	Doctor
Alexander Gauge	Chairman
Raymond Dudley	Bit Part

Technical Credits

Sidney Gilliat

Robert Day	Director
Sidney Gilliat	Producer,Screenwriter
Frank Launder	Producer
Basil Dearden	Director
Buster Ambler	Sound Effects
John Glen	Sound Effects
Red Law	Sound Effects
John Aldred	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

Technically, The Green Man is just another '50s farce, with an elaborate plot line encompassing any number of silly complications, an overlay of sex (in the form of "naughty" jokes and shots of the heroine in a nightgown), and characters whose very names (Sir Gregory Upshoot and Charles Boughtflower) tell the audience all they need to know about them. If all it had was technique, The Green Man would be indistinguishable from any number of other similar films. Fortunately, it's informed with an irreverent black sense of humor which makes it stand somewhat apart from these other films. More importantly, Green has the droll, irreplaceable Alastair Sim on hand. If one is going to make a comedy about an assassin, it's an excellent idea to hire Sim to portray that assassin. Whether putting up with the mind-numbing conversations of hotel guests or dealing with a frustrating vacuum cleaner salesman, Sim is a joy and a delight. One is quite happy to overlook the fact that he is a cold-blooded killer. Next to Sim, the rest of the cast pales, Terry-Thomas excepted, but they're all quite capable and do more than hold up their end of the movie. If The Green Man finally falls a little short of being classic, it's only because the mechanics of the plot get a bit wearying at times; otherwise, it's a charmingly subversive little treat.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler