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Amazon.co.uk Review
The Green Man is a charming film that carries a wickedly subversive streak of black humour sqarely on the back of Alastair Simms' disgruntled criminal mastermind. Planning to assassinate a windbag MP, his dastardly plot is embroiled in a comedy of errors when George Cole's vacuum cleaning demonstration turns up a corpse in the piano at Simms' Windyridge cottage. Teaming up with the long-legged neighbour Cole tracks down the bomb to a secret hideaway for the MP--a pub called the Green Man. This is the sort of masterful comedy that deftly gets away with confusing the audience who are never sure whose side they should be cheering. When Simms' carefully timed explosive device threatens to decimate a lounge bar trip of old dears, it is hilarious fun to be manipulated into hoping he can speed up their performance enough to whisk them to the safety of a gin and tonic elsewhere. This is a gem in both British comedy and the great Alastair Simms treasury. --Paul Tonks
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Alistair Sim plays a mild, innocuous little watchmaker who spends his off-hours as a professional assassin. His present target is windbag cabinet member Raymond Huntley. After various misfire attempts, Sim plants a bomb in a small radio and waits for the tube to warm up--but the authorities by now are on to him. The Green Man has some excellent setpieces, notably a droll snatch of black humor involving a body stuffed in a piano. The film's only debit is that, in the play upon which it is based, Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's Meet the Body, Sim's character is secondary, almost peripheral. By reshaping the film into a star vehicle, much of the play's intimate (albeit ghoulish) charm is dissipated. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, ...The Green Man
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
63 of 64 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a marvellous black comedy that holds up to repeated viewings. Starring the great Alistair Sim but also featuring George Cole, Terry Thomas, Dora Bryan and a few other faces you will probably recognise. Sim plays Hawkins a clock-maker by trade but really a freelance assassin. Hawkins wants to kill, or is paid to kill, a pompous and boring man Sir Gregory Upshoot who is having a naughty weekend away at the Green Man.
Things go wrong right from the start. George Cole is a vacuum cleaner salesman who turns up unexpectedly resulting in series of brilliant scenes before the visit to the Green Man. You can tell when watching this that it was based on a play, but this doesn't detract from the clever script and high class performances. Perhaps best of all is the chess game that Hawkins plays with a local Policeman. As Hawkins, Alistair Sim is as always the master of telling you everything from a little contortion of his face, and the chess game scenes are the highlight for me.
Its also a chance to look back to a different age. There are a number of scenes (maybe shot in Surrey or somewhere like that) flmed outside a lovely detached house and the road is empty. Not a car to be seen, and when one does pull up it seems very odd, but in those days cars were comparitively rare.
This used to available as a double bill with School for Scoundrels (not the recent remake!). Now that was some double bill. However the film is worthy of an independent release. Buy now before it gets deleted again.
Things go wrong right from the start. George Cole is a vacuum cleaner salesman who turns up unexpectedly resulting in series of brilliant scenes before the visit to the Green Man. You can tell when watching this that it was based on a play, but this doesn't detract from the clever script and high class performances. Perhaps best of all is the chess game that Hawkins plays with a local Policeman. As Hawkins, Alistair Sim is as always the master of telling you everything from a little contortion of his face, and the chess game scenes are the highlight for me.
Its also a chance to look back to a different age. There are a number of scenes (maybe shot in Surrey or somewhere like that) flmed outside a lovely detached house and the road is empty. Not a car to be seen, and when one does pull up it seems very odd, but in those days cars were comparitively rare.
This used to available as a double bill with School for Scoundrels (not the recent remake!). Now that was some double bill. However the film is worthy of an independent release. Buy now before it gets deleted again.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
If you like Alistair Sim, arguably Britain's finest comedy actor, you'll love this. The range of facial expression he uses to convey his anguish at the thwarting of his plans by circumstances beyond his control is simply superb. Ably assisted by George Cole (as in so many of his films) this film is a gentle comic reminder of a time gone by.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a wonderful black comedy starring the incomparable Alastair Sim as a clockmaker, who is secretly one of the world's foremost assassins. He takes a pride in his work, is self-important, and not used to things going wrong. However, when George Cole comes on the scene as a bungling vacuum cleaner salesman, Sim's latest assassination plans begin to unravel. Lots of laughs in this film, which is also available as a double set with 'School for Scoundrels' (Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and Alastair Sim).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mr Sim
Dark subject matter about a professional killer and how his final case unwinds. A great addition to any viewers history of british cinema.
Published 4 months ago by Gerard McGrath
Classic comedy starring Alastair Sim!
After writing and directing a string of comedy hits starring Alastair Sim ("The Happiest days of your life", "The Belles of st. Trinians" e.t. Read more
Published 8 months ago by JAMES BOOK
The Green Man
This film starring George Cole and Alaistair Sim combines humour with the art of detection to culminate in the culprits being caught whilst trying to escape justice.
Published 9 months ago by Ms. Lorraine S. Webb
Basque in the radiance of this fabulous farce
This film has all the hallmarks of the classic farce, only the absence of the great Brian Rix kept it from ascending to the heights of those magnificent 'Whitehall Farces' (That's... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Captain Chaos (Semper Vigilans)
Fabulous fun
I really enjoyed watching this film. Quality DVD. Alistair Sim is brilliant. It's a farce that whips along at a furious pace.Very funny.
Published 12 months ago by Mrs. S. Partridge
Uniquely Enjoyable
I just sent this to someone for Christmas - it's stayed with me since I first watched it on DVD many years ago. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Bryan James
Brilliant, classic British black comedy
I fully agree with the glowing reviews published here and in Amazon US. I wish merely to emphasize the excellent performance of George Cole, whom I first encountered as Flash Harry... Read more
Published 21 months ago by L. E. Cantrell
Green Man Review
Good light hearted film....can tell it used to be a play !
I bought this film,having read on a locations website that it was filmed in Weybridge,Surrey. Hmm... Read more
I bought this film,having read on a locations website that it was filmed in Weybridge,Surrey. Hmm... Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2009 by Natalie Morgan
Green Man
The Green Man is a delightful old-fashioned British comedy typical of the 1950's and includes several excellent comedy actors of the era. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2009 by M. Simpson
charming but twee
It's a nice film but not one of the greats. Alistair Sim is - as always - magnificent. But George Cole and Jill Adams are increasingly irritating as the hapless couple at the... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2009 by classic 1965
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