On the Fiddle (1961)
Directed by Cyril Frankel

Film Review

Exactly one year before he made his screen debut as agent 007 in Dr No (1962), the first of the James Bond movies, Sean Connery was already winning over British cinema audiences in a very different kind of role as the amiable stooge in this formulaic but highly entertaining comedy.  Adapted by the distinguished English novelist and playwright R. F. Delderfield from his novel Stop at a Winner, it feels like a retread of many previous wartime comedies, including Carry on Sergeant (1958), which also derived from an earlier Delderfield work.  The episodic plot races along at such a pace that there's little time for character development, just a rapid succession of recycled gags that are fired pretty haphazardly in the hope that some of them will hit their mark.  It's a pretty desperate strategy for making an audience laugh but it seems to work.  On the Fiddle is fun and feisty, one of the most enjoyable British comedies of its era.

The film owes its success to the unlikely lead double act formed by Alfred Lynch and Sean Connery, both actors appearing in their first substantial film role.  Whilst Connery's career would take off with a vengeance thanks to the Bond movies, Lynch's star appeal would soon wane and from the late 60s he would be almost exclusively a television actor.  As the cheeky cockney wide-boy (a proto Arthur Daley-cum-Del Boy), Lynch is inexplicably likeable and resembles a human dynamo, single-handedly keeping up the film's unrelenting screwball pace and never letting it stall for a moment.  Connery is almost the exact opposite, a goofy, laidback innocent whose main purpose is to serve as Lynch's comedy foil, a role that he fulfils admirably.

What makes the Connery-Lynch partnership so effective however is the dramatic role-reversal that comes at the end of the film, with Connery suddenly taking charge as Lynch is reduced to the status of a snivelling coward.  The actors have a genuine rapport throughout and this adds not only to their characters' credibility, but also to the sheer pleasure of watching them spar off one another.  Yes, the supporting cast offers a host of superb comic performers, from Cecil Parker and Stanley Holloway to John Le Mesurier and Barbara Windsor (some barely on screen for a few minutes), but it is Alfred Lynch and Sean Connery who bag almost all of the laughs.  Who knows, if Bond hadn't come along these two might well have gone on to form one of the most successful comedy double acts in British cinema.  As it was, they were reunited a few years later in an altogether different kind of war film, Sidney Lumet's The Hill (1965).

Film Synopsis

Incorrigible spiv Horace Pope is not one to let a small thing like World War II get in the way of his money making exploits.  Even when he is forced against his will into enlisting in the RAF he loses none of his entrepreneurial spirit.  Assisted by his loyal friend Pedlar Pascoe, Horace secures a tidy little income stream for himself by milking one scam after another, always taking care not to get himself sent to the battle front.  Horace believes he has hit the jackpot when he takes charge of a pub in Cornwall next to an American army base.  What should have been a sure-fire money spinner ends up being Horace's ticket to the front line.  Still, even in war-torn France there are money making opportunities to be had...