The Sandwich Man ** (1966, Michael Bentine, Norman Wisdom, Diana Dors, Ron Moody, Harry H Corbett, Bernard Cribbins) – Classic Movie Review 11,832

Director Robert Hartford-Davis’s 1966 British comedy film The Sandwich Man stars Michael Bentine (who also co-wrote the virtually silent script with the director) is the eponymous hero, who meets almost every well-known 60s British character actor in the course of his daily journey through London.

Among the notable eccentrics passing by are Norman Wisdom, Diana Dors, Ron Moody, Harry H Corbett, Bernard Cribbins, Dora Bryan, Terry-Thomas, and Ian Hendry.

Bentine plays mild-mannered widower Horace Quilby, living in London’s Docklands, whose job as a sandwich-board man sees him walking round London wearing morning dress and carrying adverts, though his main interest is pigeon racing. While his pigeon Esmerelda is racing from Bordeaux to London, Quilby reunites young model Sue (Suzy Kendall) with her boyfriend Steven (David Buck).

The Sandwich Man is a mild British comedy of a type that no longer exists but can still provoke a smile and a wave of nostalgia with its Swinging Sixties London backdrop, and a surge of pleasure at encountering so many of Britain’s best-known comedy and character actors of the era.

The cast are Michael Bentine as Horace Quilby, Dora Bryan as Mrs. DeVere, Harry H. Corbett as Stage-Door Keeper, Bernard Cribbins as Photographer, Diana Dors as First Billingsgate Lady, Ian Hendry as Policeman on Motorbike, Stanley Holloway as Park Gardener, Wilfrid Hyde-White as Lord Uffingham, Michael Medwin as Sewer Man, Ron Moody as Rowing Coach, Anna Quayle as Second Billingsgate Lady, Terry-Thomas as Scoutmaster, Norman Wisdom as Boxing Vicar, Donald Wolfit as Car Salesman, Suzy Kendall as Sue, Alfie Bass as Model Yachtsman, Fred Emney as Sir Mervyn Moleskin, Sydney Tafler as First Fish Porter, Frank Finlay as Second Fish Porter, Warren Mitchell as Gypsy Sid, David Buck as Steven Mansfield, Tracey Crisp as Girl in the Black Plastic Mac,  Earl Cameron as Bus Conductor, Roger Delgado as carpet seller Abdul, Leon Thau as Ram, Hugh Futcher as Gogi, Ronnie Stevens as Drunk, Peter Jones as Escapologist, John Le Mesurier as Senior Sandwich Man, Max Bacon as Chef, John Junkin as Chauffeur, Gerald Campion as Sandwich Man in Suit of Armour, Burt Kwouk as Ice Cream Man, David Lodge as Charlie, Aubrey Morris as Cedric, Peter Arne as Gentleman in Rolls Royce, Jeremy Lloyd as Guardsman, Michael Trubshawe as Guardsman, Ewen Solon as Blind man, Michael John Chaplin as the pavement artist, Brian Cant Press photographer at East End street party, Nosher Powell as bus driver Nosher, Joe Gibbons as Man on Mowing Machine, Deborah Bishop as Woman.

The films of Robert Hartford-Davis: Crosstrap (1962), The Yellow Teddy Bears (1963), The Black Torment (1964), Saturday Night Out (1964), Gonks Go Beat (1965), The Sandwich Man (1966), Corruption (1967), The Smashing Bird I Used to Know (1969), Incense for the Damned (1970), Nobody Ordered Love (1972), The Fiend (1972), Black Gunn (1972) and The Take (1974).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,832

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