Man of the Moment ** (1955, Norman Wisdom, Lana Morris, Belinda Lee, Jerry Desmond, Karel Stepanek, Garry Marsh) – Classic Movie Review 13,400

The silly 1955 British black and white slapstick comedy film Man of the Moment stars Norman Wisdom as a file clerk turned British delegate in Geneva targeted for killing by foreign agents.

Director John Paddy Carstairs’s silly 1955 British black and white slapstick comedy film Man of the Moment stars Norman Wisdom, Lana Morris, Belinda Lee, Jerry Desmond, Karel Stepanek, and Garry Marsh.

Norman Wisdom’s amusing third starring comedy bolsters its slapstick and sentimentality with a reasonably ingenious story by Maurice Cowan, in which UK government ministry minor cog Norman becomes a big wheel in foreign politics.

Wisdom plays a file clerk in the British Ministry of Overseas Affairs who becomes a British delegate to a United Nations diplomatic conference in Geneva. Accidentally voting against foreign intervention, he becomes the favourite of the ruling Queen of the peaceful Pacific island nation of Tawaki, and is then targeted for killing by foreign agents.

Man of the Moment is unsophisticated but worthwhile if you like Wisdom and his popular brand of comedy, thanks to a relatively inventive script (by Vernon Sylvaine and John Paddy Carstairs) and expert comedy performing skills that aim for laughs in unlikely places like tea trollies and plane seats. The long-suffering Jerry Desmonde supports Wisdom loyally as Jackson.

It is fleshed out with famed TV stars of the day (Macdonald Hobley, Philip Harben, Ronnie Waldman, Bruce Seton, Ruth Dunning) and, gasp!, songs sung by the Beverley Sisters, including ‘Man of the Moment’ (by Jack Fishman). And Wisdom performs ‘Yodelee Yodelay’ (by Jack Fishman), ‘Dream for Sale” (by Arthur Groves and Peter Carroll), and ‘Beware’ (by Norman Wisdom).

When Wisdom chases thugs who kidnap Penny (Lana Morris), he interrupts various live shows in a BBC TV studio: a cookery session by cook Philip Harben, whose soufflé is destroyed; the sitcom The Grove Family as Granny Grove trips up the thugs; the cop show Fabian of the Yard, in which Fabian (Bruce Seton) attempts to arrest them; and a Greek drama scene is disrupted.

Release date: 24 November 1955 (UK).

It follows Trouble in Store, One Good Turn and an uncredited cameo Appearance in As Long as They’re Happy, all directed by John Paddy Carstairs.

It is the first in a series of films that Hugh Stewart produced for Wisdom, up to The Early Bird (1965).

The cast

The cast are Norman Wisdom as Norman, Lana Morris as Penny, Belinda Lee as Sonia, Jerry Desmonde as Jackson, Karel Štěpánek as Lom, Garry Marsh as British delegate, Inia Te Wiata as King of Tawaki, Evelyn Roberts as Sir Horace, Violet Farebrother as Queen of Tawaki, Martin Miller as Swiss tailor, Eugene Deckers as day lift man, Hugh Morton as Mitchell, Cyril Chamberlain as British delegate, Lisa Gastoni as chambermaid, Harold Kasket as Enrico, Beverley Brooks as air hostess, Michael Ward as photographer, Derek Sydney as Lesnevitch, Peter Taylor as Gritter, Josef Behrmann as Rietz, and Charles Hawtrey as play director.

Man of the Moment is directed by John Paddy Carstairs, runs 88 minutes, is made by Group Film Productions and The Rank Organisation, is released by Rank Film Distributors, is written by Vernon Sylvaine and John Paddy Carstairs, based on a story by Maurice Cowan, is shot by Jack E Cox, is produced by Hugh Stewart and Earl St John (executive), and is scored by Philip Green.

Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom OBE (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010)

Norman Wisdom won the 1953 BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles after his first film in a lead role, Trouble in Store. His series of comedy films from 1953 to Press for Time in 1966 (in which he plays Norman Shields) often featured him as a hapless character called Norman Pitkin.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,400

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