The Sandwich Man

More 'travelogue' and a trip down memory lane than a comedy, this oddity from 1966 provided a starring vehicle for the ‘lost Goon’ Michael Bentine in the role of a sandwich-board man. Was there ever a film that featured quite this many British character actors in cameos - the list literally beggar's belief!

Bentine plays the lovable 'sandwich-board man' man in question by name Horace Quilby who also happens to be secretary of the Sandwich Men Brotherhood. Horace lives in an obscure terraced house in Silvertown of all places - way out in the East End of London (what was, at the time of filming, Victoria Docks – now completely altered in appearance). Horace's job (one that now appears to be obsolete) is to walk around the streets of London's West End with two boards back and front slung over his shoulders advertising for Finklebaum & O'Casey – dealers in misfit clothing. A man with a heart of platinum, Horace also has a great passion for racing pigeons, which he keeps in his backyard. One of them, Esmerelda, has been entered in a big race on the day in question. His next-door neighbour Mrs. DeVere (Dora Bryan doing her usual OTT character bit as a slightly frustrated widow) keeps him informed through his various daily contacts as to the bird's progress.

It was former P.M. Tony Blair who said one of things that put the great in London was its great cultural mix and no one doubts his sincerity. Here in 1966 was see the Eton educated Bentine a little ahead of his time in this respect. His immediate neighbours are two Sikh jazz musicians (giving us a nod to Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy), Fez wearing carpet salesman Abdul played by 'The Master' himself Roger Delgado and Burt Kwouk as a Chinese ice cream man. This, as mentioned before, may just wear a little thin - but one gets the impression that Bentine (who co-wrote the script with the director) meant well. We’re off for a day with our Horace and what a day it is… you just wouldn't believe all the people he meets: among the myriad we have Norman Wisdom as an Irish priest cum PE instructor running a boy's club down by St Paul's Cathedral - of course Norm gets up to all his old malarkey, a seemingly sober Ian Hendry as a belligerent motorcycle cop, Terry-Thomas as a vexed scoutmaster and Harry H. Corbett is up to his usual larks as an ancient stage-door keeper at the London Palladium (diabolla-olly-orical indeed!). Stereotypes abound everywhere. We even have the beetle-browed unfashionable Shakespearian legend Donald Wolfit turning up as an uppity high-brow car salesman. Wolfit even gets in a line from the bard himself “The rest is silence”.

I suppose we'll have to overlook Michael Medwin's odiferous sewage worker emerging from a hole in what may have been the middle of Fleet Street. When asking his mate (down the hole) what he'd like to eat he’s irked by his 'unmanly' request and simply replies: “You’ll have a hamburger and like it”. He then salivates down the hole before 'stinking' away the queue at the nearby cafe. These are all common occurrences in Horace's daily routine it would seem. Along the trail we also meet Diana Dors, Anna Quayle, Ron Moody, Warren Mitchell, Stanley Holloway, Earl Cameron as a bus conductor... the list goes on forever.
Throughout the film Horace acts as cupid for a couple of latter-day star-crossed lovers played by Suzy Kendall and David Buck. It must be borne in mind that this was 1966 and overall the film really has a fair bit going for it entertainment wise and offers a breath-taking view of yesteryear’s London - the entire film was made on location in the city. Some of jokes admittedly backfire but this is easily compensated by the ones that don't. It was a novel idea on Bentine's part and it does pay off.

The team of Peter Newbrook and Robert Hartford Davies are behind this and Newbrook (who does the extras commentary) has a veritable field day with the extensive locations - much of which looked pretty tricky. Manfred Mann group member Mike Vickers supplies a very apt score to boot. A whopping bunch of Extras make this restored Blu-ray release all the more worthwhile and yes indeed, who does remember human billboard Stanley Green - the Oxford Street ‘Protein Man’ (although it was actually a banner than Stanley carried and not a sandwich board).