On the Fiddle (1961)

To me, this movie is perfection.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

ON THE FIDDLE is a WW2-era comedy starring the long-forgotten Alfred Lynch as a spiv who finds himself enrolled in the army and sent to France to fight, against his best intentions. The problem is that Lynch is a bit of coward and a man who's more interested in making money through his black market dealings than actual fighting.This quaint and genteel comedy has dated, particularly in comparison to the early black-and-white CARRY ON films which were coming out at the same time and which feel almost highbrow in comparison. The main problem for me is Lynch's character: he plays an arrogant and cocky so-and-so who's impossible to like and I ended up waiting for him to get his just desserts, but sadly that never happened. Some might call him irrepressible, I just call him irritating.Still, fans of the era will find much to enjoy in the presence of a number of notable British names in the supporting cast. Not least of these is Sean Connery, second-billed and playing Lynch's army buddy. In the USA, the film was retitled OPERATION SNAFU and the poster figured Connery's name predominantly to cash in on his new-found fame as Bond (DR NO was his next film after this) but I'd argue that his performance in this, as the slow-witted but lovable rogue, is actually better than his Bond. Others may disagree.Meanwhile, there's a full parade of familiar faces who usually pop up in one-scene roles. Watch out for Stanley Holloway, John Le Mesurier, Eric Barker, Victor Maddern, Patsy Rowlands, Bill Owen, Wilfrid Hyde-White and last but not least Barbara Windsor in one of her earliest screen roles. These actors - who feel like old friends to any fan of British cinema - certainly keep you watching and take your mind off the weak jokes and otherwise episodic feel of the storyline.

You could never have made a service comedy like On The Fiddle during the World War II years in the United Kingdom. When the UK was fighting for its very life with Hitler only hours away by air, a film with the central character of a conman slacker like Alfred Lynch would have gone over like a lead dirigible. You could do it the USA with us thousands of miles away, but not then in the UK.Lynch is a fabulous character though, a cockney conman who gets pinched peddling his wares at a recruitment station line and then has to enlist to prove those were his intentions being there. But once in the service he sees Ferengi like lucrative opportunities to make business killings. His best friend turns out to be an amiable and diffident Sean Connery who just cheerfully accepts life as it comes. He and Lynch become quite a team in their business enterprises and in their skillful avoidance of where the fighting is until almost the end of the war.The film also has in it the presence of American comedian Alan King of our Army Airs Corps who is as skilled an operator for the Yanks as Lynch and Connery are for their king and country. King was a rising star at the time, Ed Sullivan always had him on his variety show several times a year and no doubt his presence helped sell the film on this side of the pond.Two great British character actors are here as well. Cecil Parker playing a most pompous air marshal who just can't quite put these guys out of business. Their enterprises do come to his attention. And Stanley Holloway plays a butcher with whom they go into profit selling black market beef from the RAF Commissary. And to hear them tell it, Lynch and Connery are doing a patriotic service as well as making a few bucks on the side.It's been said that Sean Connery shows no gift for comedy. If you saw A Fine Madness you might have some grounds for saying that, but in On The Fiddle, he's quite droll in some of the lines he drops. Anyway his fans will not be disappointed.

This is a perfectly charming little service comedy, with the added bonus of co-starring Sean Connery just before he attained fame in the role of James Bond. Even better, Connery plays totally against type, as a low-key version of Gomer Pyle -- an ingenuous, somewhat stupid-but-likeable serviceman. Alfred Lynch is the real star, though, playing a weasel-y British version of Sgt. Bilko, running numerous scams with his dim-witted buddy Connery. It's funny. Imagine American service sitcoms such as "McHale's Navy" and "Sgt. Bilko" crossed with the gently loopy charms of Ealing Comedies, and you'll get an idea of the tone of this film.

Sean, you know I think that you are absolutely the greatest actor in the world, but I can't commend you for this. Comedy just isn't your strong suit.However, it wasn't all your fault. Some of the stuff was just too hard to understand. Alfred Lynch did a decent job, but you gotta wonder where the lines came from from the beginning.Once again, Sean... I apologize.