The Square Peg ** (1958, Norman Wisdom, Honor Blackman, Edward Chapman) – Classic Movie Review 11,431

Director John Paddy Carstairs’s 1958 British Rank Organisation black and white war comedy film The Square Peg stars Norman Wisdom, Edward Chapman and Honor Blackman.

In the original screenplay by Jack Davies, Henry Blyth, Eddie Leslie and Norman Wisdom, an enlisted English street-mender with the St Godric’s Borough Council called Norman Pitkin (Wisdom) and engineer named Mr Grimsdale (Chapman) are mistaken for paratroopers and airlifted into Nazi occupied France, where Pitkin bears a remarkable resemblance to the local German commandant, so he impersonates him and eventually returns home a hero.

The Square Peg is one of the best, though not the most typical, of Wisdom’s comedies: the World War Two war situation and his impersonation of the Nazi General add a hint of drama to the silly knockabout sequences. Wisdom goes into overdrive to spice up a flagging plot, and also enjoys playing the Nazi general. Blackman provides intrigue and glamour as the beautiful ATS officer Lesley Cartland for whom Pitkin falls; Hattie Jacques pops up as an ample German damsel called Gretchen; Oliver Reed puts in an early (uncredited) appearance; and Frank Williams plays Captain Ford.

It is briskly and capably directed by comedy specialist Carstairs.

Its London premiere was 4 December 1958 and it went on to do well as the seventh most popular movie at the British box office in 1959.

The main cast are Norman Wisdom as Norman Pitkin/ General Schreiber, Honor Blackman as Lesley Cartland, Edward Chapman as Mr Grimsdale, Campbell Singer as Sergeant Loder, Hattie Jacques as Gretchen, Brian Worth as  local resistance leader Henri Le Blanc, Terence Alexander as Captain Wharton, John Warwick as Colonel Layton, Arnold Bell as General Hunt, André Maranne as Jean-Claude, Victor Beaumont as Jogenkraut, Frank Williams as Captain Ford, Eddie Leslie as Medical Officer, Harold Goodwin, Victor Beaumont, Martin Boddey and Oliver Reed (uncredited).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,431

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