A Stitch in Time * (1963, Norman Wisdom, Edward Chapman, Jeanette Sterke, Jerry Desmond, Jill Melford, Glyn Houston, Vera Day) – Classic Movie Review 10,379

Director Robert Asher’s 1963 comedy A Stitch in Time stars Norman Wisdom as Norman Pitkin, a gormless butcher’s shop lad who falls in love with a nurse in the hospital where he has gone to visit his boss Mr Grimsdale (Edward Chapman), recovering after a robbery, and where he also befriends and helps lonely little Lindy (Lucy Appleby), a girl whose parents were killed in a plane accident and has not spoken or smiled since.

Wisdom’s tomfoolery is strained in this limp, weary and sentimental comedy that is not one of his better vehicles. He ends up in a nurse’s uniform – typical of the tired farces of the time.

The British Jerry Lewis was just as popular as his American counterpart, and as talented as a physical comedian, though just as off-putting for his non-fans, but there is a vintage Brit comedy support cast to look to for comfort, notably Edward Chapman as Mr Grimsdale, Jerry Desmond as Sir Hector and Ernest Clark as Professor Crankshaw, all three very skilled.

Also in the cast are Jill Melford, Glyn Houston, Jeanette Sterke, Hazel Hughes, Patsy Rowlands, Peter Jones, Lucy Appleby, Vera Day, Frank Williams, Penny Morell, Patrick Cargill, Francis Matthews, Danny Green, Johnny Briggs and John Blythe.

It was apparently Wisdom’s favourite of his films.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,379

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com