User reviews

Great Ealing farce in the Kind Hearts and Coronets murder-comedy stylee, revolving around Sim's hitman (specialising in slapstick bomb-hits) plotting the death of a prominent businessman, and George Cole's vacuum cleaner salesman, out to thwart the killer...Room for plenty of comedy shenanigans as the top cast blunder around leaving clues and confusing each other, building to a climax at the country inn of the title. Thoroughly enjoyable for fans of the genre, with just a little bit of Terry-Thomas thrown in near the end to add his unique suave zest to a very appealing mix. Expect the thrills to come from Sim's eyebrows and laid-back attitude, and Terry-Thomas' 'tache, rather than the plot.

Mr Sim is ideally cast as a seemingly mild but actually ruthless assassin. His perfect comic timing, expressive features and ability to switch on a sense of genuine menace are well used in this sprightly farce. George Cole is admirable as the well meaning young hero while Jill Adams is a radiantly beautiful and desirable heroine. As indisputably English as Wimbledon but much more fun!

Utterly hilarious from the first montage of droll assassinations (not really funny in news-horror 2006) but hilarious in it's clunky 50s tone set by Alistair Sim, THE GREEN MAN is a situation comedy of mistaken identity (including the title) that is as sharp now as 50 years ago. From clumsy George Cole and his vacuum cleaner salesman antics at the wrong house (Windybanks? anyone?) to Terry Thomas' leering spluttering "Basil Brush" type pub skirt-chasing THE GREEN MAN lurches hilariously from one weird character and place to screamingly funny suspense with the radio on the wrong station at the pub of the title. This is one of the most unappreciated and funniest Brit pix of the 50s and I implore you to get a copy any way you can. It should be up there with THE LADYKILLERS or SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH in beloved UK comedies...it even has Richard Wattis! Delight! And Alistair Sim...a sublime dry performance of apt face contortions ...his look of disgust alone had me laughing for days.

The Green Man is one of those movies that used to get a good deal of play on PBS stations but now seems to have disappeared. Too bad. It's a very funny example of wicked British black humor. The always excellent Alastair Sim plays an assassin attempting to blow up a fatuous politician who has found a hide-away for a tryst with his timid secretary. Raymond Huntley (perhaps best known as the family lawyer in "Upstairs, Downstairs") delivers the most hilarious soliloquy ever heard on the practices of English gastronomy in general and chopped toad as a delicacy in particular. Colin Gordon, familiar as one of the few actors to appear twice as Number Two in The Prisoner, does a send up of a rather precious poet who resembles T. S. Eliot. Wish this would appear on DVD.

The Green Man (1956) : Brief Review -

A true blue black-comedy led by a true green entertainer, Alastair Sim. The film is based on "Meet a Body" by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, who wrote the screenplay and called it an "okay" film. There has to be something about British cinema of the 50s when it comes to black comedies, as they were too good with humour and situations. The Green Man is 80 minutes long, but it has more content than any two-hour or two-and-a half hour comedy you remember from the 1950s. The situation keeps changing every 5-10 minutes, and funnily enough, the story also moves to different places every 5-10 minutes. From the beginning, it constantly displaces itself from one point to another, just to make our viewing experience more crisp. The film is about a hired assassin who hasn't failed a job yet. He gets the most incredible case of his life, which is resisted by a vacuum cleaner who accidentally gets involved in the murder conspiracy. From the house board's changing to the hotel, the clock, the radio-everything is so well-written. You have fun, but at the same time you think about the situation, being so smart and reliable. The comedy factors aren't too high, but fairly enough. The screenplay is fast, the cinematography is fine, and the direction is very good. What works in the film's favour are humour, black comedy, an interesting story, and an engaging screenplay. The performances are top-notch by everyone, but the real star is Alastair Sim. How he does it and manages it, I don't know. I just love him doing all those things. He plays those smart and somewhat confused characters with ease, and I feel like he is living the character. His expressions, body language, his accent, and his acting skills-I'm really a big fan. As a whole, The Green Man is a sweet little entertainer with a big dose of black comedy that's too difficult to handle.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Great performance from Alistair Sim surely Britains greatest actor (well I think so), with good performances from the rest of the cast, especially Terry Thomas a top hoe old boy performance. The film is farcical in the best tradition of British farce, man caught in compromising position with another man's fiancée under a bed, man caught in compromising position with same fiancée in her under garments, a murder,a missing body, plus confusion and misunderstanding, but all good clean innocent fun, maybe the plot does contain more holes than a swiss cheese.....is that not what farce is meant to be, the audience see the outrageousness and implausibility of the situation while the characters think it's all perfectly normal and explainable, but above all the film is truly funny and it contains one of the funniest lines in British film comedy, when the character Reginald Willoughby-Cruft (Colin Gordon) confronts William Blake (George Cole) and says, "by heaven I'd thrash the life out of you, if I didn't have to read the 9 o'clock news." How much more British can you get!!

The Green Man is a farce and black comedy by writers Gilliat and Launder.

Harry Hawkins (Alastair Sim) is a timid watchmaker and also a professional assassin. His targets are pompous windbags and petty dictators who get blown up by his devices.

Hawkins latest target is self important businessman Sir Gregory Upshott. However for his latest job things do not go like clockwork for Hawkins.

Upshott's spinster secretary that Hawkins has charmed for information has to be bumped off for knowing too much.

Then William Blake (George Cole) a vacuum cleaner salesman interrupts Hawkin's assistant and Blake finds bloodstains on the carpet.

Blake tries to alert pretty Ann Vincent whose house the murder might had taken place in. Her fiance Reginald Willoughby-Cruft is far from pleased to see her cavorting with Blake.

Both Blake and Ann discover the plot to kill Upshott at the Green Man pub where he plans to stay the night.

There is a touch of the Ealing comedy about this movie but even with its short running time it just cannot sustain all the goings on. It just gets a little tired too quickly although it takes a few well aimed potshots at middle England.

Sim is a hoot as the dastardly charmer. Cole is the naive nincompoop who tries to do the right thing and Vincent is feisty who realises that her fiance might not be right for her.

As always Alistair Sim brings his genius for comedy to a great British farce from the fifties. He seems to give an effortless performance as ever, making today's so called "comic" actors a lesson on how to do it. Even Peter Sellers, good as he was, could not approach this guy. Unjustly underrated by the British Establishment (all too keen to shower knighthoods etc. on lesser talents)Sim can elicit mirth from the slightest gesture or subtle change of expression. And that voice!! Incredibly mellifluous and characterful, he delivers lines like no-one else can ,apart from , perhaps, Kelsey Grammar in "Frasier". Try to see all his movies and you will not regret it - when the movies are not so great he always is. Just because the films are old does not render them uninteresting or unwatchable. A pity younger movie buffs do not study actors like Sim any more.

'The Green Man (1956)' is interesting because its initial protagonist is a straight-up villain, an assassin who uses bespoke bombs to eliminate his targets. The picture eventually introduces a would-be vacuum salesman to act as his foil, but even then it's arguable that this do-gooder is actually the antagonist since he stands in the way of the killer's goal. The film is a dark comedy of errors that goes to some unexpected places and maintains a persistent pace across its relatively short runtime. Adapted from a play that was shut down due to World War II, the flick finds most of its success in the witty banter between its ever-so-slightly wacky characters. Alistair Sim's sinister bomber is a delightfully devilish character, capable of switching on the charm when needed but often dropping his friendly facade in favour of a cold and calculating demeanour. It's a great performance, actually. The other actors all do well with the high-energy material, which ratchets up the tension by including a number of frustrating misunderstandings as it makes its way towards its explosive finish. It isn't hilarious but it's often humorous. It also moves at a clip and keeps things fresh. It has a few flaws and is only ever so compelling, but it's a solid slice of cinema that should put a smile on your face more than once.

A look at the cast should be enough to make anyone want to watch this film but with a beautifully complicated farcical plot and the best performance on screen of Alistair Sim, no-one should fail to enjoy its black humour. Even in a not-quite-top-drawer film, Mr Sim's acting would pull it out of the mire, but in this case everything is the tops. His expressive face is used to full effect throughout the film, nonce more so than his re-action to the lovely trio's rendering of Brahm's Hungarian Rhapsody. The initial re-action to the opening notes is funny enough but as the music progresses Sim's face and body movements are priceless. It's good too to see such luminaries as Arthur Lowe behind the counter in the electrical shop (instead of managing the bank in Walmington-on-Sea) and Arthur Borough (Glass of water for Mr Grainger) in early roles. A lovely performance too from a young Dora Bryan as Terry-Thomas's extra-marital acquaintance willing to perjure herself for the beautiful Jill Adams when she thinks her father has traced her to "The Green Man". All in all an hour and a quarter's really good fun.

This film deserves to be regarded as one of the gems of British comedy of the '50's and '60's and stars three of its most superb and inimitable performers, Alistair Sim, Terr-Thomas, and George Cole. The plot is generally this: Sim is an antique clock repairer who is induced to resume his erstwhile profession, that of assassin, and to do in a British diplomat headed for the Middle East. His plans, of course, go awry when he must silence the diplomat's secretary whom he has been pumping for information, but has now found him out. The woman is lured to the adjacent, unoccupied house, but Sims' assistant batches the job. The fiancée of a BBC broadcaster who owns the house and a vacuum cleaner salesman who happens to be there, catch on and are determined to thwart the assassination, which is to take place at a seaside inn called The Green Man.

The comedy, literate, sophisticated, and droll, is effortless and uncontrived, with a bit of social comment subtly thrown in. The film is briskly paced and a delight from beginning to end. Alistair Sim, an eccentric Scot who turned down a knighthood, was a master of drama (his Scrooge is impeccable), but it was at comedy that he most often worked, and with his expressive voice and face, his performances were sublime. George Cole, who plays the vacuum cleaner salesman, was adept at playing befuddled innocents and is perfect. (He was often teamed with Sim and was in fact his adopted son. Cole's wife, Eileen Moore, is also in the cast.) Many other Brit film faves such as Raymond Huntley, Dora Bryan, and Colin Gordon are featured as well, and of course there is the irrepressible Terry-Thomas, who is always a kick. Jill Adams, as the girl, should also be mentioned; she was very engaging and deserved more parts.

The film leaves the viewer wanting for nothing and is a masterpiece of incidental comedy. Anyone enjoying films such as The Naked Truth, Laughter in Paradise, or The Lavendar Hill Mob will love The Green Man.

A top cast starting with Alastir Sim, George Cole and Terry Thomas. Sim plays the pretty evil hitman, Harry Hawkins who is foiled in his quest to blow up a politician by vacuum cleaner salesman William Blake (George Cole). The plot twists and turns to such an extent that it's quite hard to follow, but brilliant all the same. Terry Thomas appears for only about 20 minutes, but adds a hint of magic to the whole film. As always Sim and Cole work together brilliantly on screen and it's just a funny, quite creepy, good film.

A murder, a deliberate mix-up with house numbers, a vacuum-cleaner salesman and a young bride-to-be in a compromising position. Oh, and a pompous politician about to be blown up by an assassin with a bomb in a wireless. It gets even better when these people are played by George Cole, Jill Adams, Raymond Huntley and of course the great Alastair Sim. This is a farce in the true British sense, with lots of running about, hiding of bodies and misunderstandings. Add to the mix Terry-Thomas making the most of his modest role and the much underrated Colin Gordon playing a stiff BBC announcer on the edge of a nervous breakdown and we have the recipe for a wonderful Sunday afternoon film. Britain made this type of film with great aplomb in the 50's, perhaps because our National Character was so 'send-upable' at the time and we didn't mind laughing at ourselves. We don't make them now, which is why we go out and buy DVD's of 50-year-old comedies that have no equal. Superb.

THE GREEN MAN is one of the funniest black comedies ever made, but it has been hidden from most movie fans because it came in a period of many films from Britain of equal value and with higher star quality (i.e., Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers as the star, rather than Alistair Sim, their equal in British cinema). Sim influence Guiness (who copied him in appearance in THE LADYKILLERS) and he appeared to better effect in film with Sellers (THE MILLIONAIRESS), but he never accepted knighthood or got the Oscar like Guiness did (nor did he get nominated for an Oscar like Sellers did on several occasions). So he gets an unfair short shrift, although there is considerable evidence that he was their total equal as an actor...certainly as a comic actor.

Sim is a professional assassin, who blows up his targets. However, he insists on agreeing to destroy the men he is hired to kill only if they happen to be rather pompous as well as politically objectionable. At the start of the film one sees him blow up a Latin American dictator with a bomb in a soccer ball. He also blows up a self-important millionaire with an exploding hammer (used to call a stockholders meeting to order). His target in the film is a rising, self-satisfied politician...and who can better personify smug self-satisfaction in British comedy than Raymond Huntley. Sim plans to hoist Huntley with his own petard - a recording of his normal, boring speech, set to blow up at a particular moment of dullness. Huntley is going to a seaside resort for the weekend, and Sim plans to go after him.

Unfortunately for the normally careful Sim, a cleaning lady stumbles on his plot, and he has to tie her up. But she manages to get the attention of vacuum cleaner salesman George Cole, who slowly realizes that the "helpful" Sim is not so helpful. Sim manages to get to the hotel, but Cole soon follows him.

Huntley is there, but his weekend is not so clean - he has a young lady there for some non-political activity. Also at the hotel (which is called "The Green Man") is Terry-Thomas, also there for the weekend, and hoping to become lucky. There is also the normal set of normal eccentrics that people British farces like this.

So the last half of the film is following the following points: Will Sim manage to avoid Cole, and get at Huntley? Will Cole find Sim, and save Huntley, without getting Terry-Thomas sufficiently angry at him for spoiling all of his attempts at picking up ladies? And will Huntley have his improper weekend, and enjoy hearing his own speech? Sim's bomb plot against Huntley hits one snag which for sheer unexpected effrontery is hard to top - he sets it in motion, only to find he has not counted on an active critic. It is only a ten second bit in the film, but it is a hoot!

Hawkins is a timid watchmaker, he also has a part time job as an assassin!, his targets are always the people we all love to hate. He is called out of retirement to do one last job, rid the world of grumpy MP, Sir Gregory Upshott, but a number of things {and people} are getting in his way. He eventually tracks Upshott to a seaside hotel called The Green Man, here he hopes to finally enact the assassination, but things are only just starting to get interesting.

The Green Man is a fantastically enjoyable romp that crams as many genre staples in as it can, mistaken identities, farcical situations, and out right panic all come together to play out 80 minutes of pure joy. Alastair Sim plays Hawkins and he's a total delight, his scenes in the hotel, particularly when engaging the resident dowagers, are wonderful, a lesson in facial comedy. Back up comes from a youthful George Cole, a pretty Jill Adams and that always excellent rapscallion, Terry-Thomas. Produced by the dynamite team of Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, The Green Man is a British treasure, highly recommended for anyone who needs a pick me up, 9/10.

This little gem ranks with MONSIEUR VERDOUX and THE LADYKILLERS as the best black comedies.

The hilarious Alastair Sim stars as Hawkins, a freelance assassin who merrily goes round the world blowing up pompous twits. He runs into trouble, however, when he writes some notes on his girl friend's (Avril Angers) desk, not knowing there is carbon paper underneath. His notes about her boss' (Raymond Huntley) stay at an inn called The Green Man arouse her suspicions.

She investigates but goes to the wrong (and vacant) house runs gets bumped off by Hawkins' associate who then and runs into a pushy vacuum cleaner salesman (George Cole). When the new owner (Jill Adams) suddenly appears, the two begin a hilarious chase to tracks down Hawkins at The Green Man and stop the assassination.

Of course they have no idea who Hawkins is and Huntley registers under an assumed name. They assume that a guest (Terry-Thomas) is the intended victim and turn the inn into a mad house.

Sim, Cole, and Thomas are hilarious, each playing his patented British eccentric. Adams is very pretty. Good support from Angers and Huntley. Also good are the inn keepers (Arthur Brough and Dora Bryan), the associate (John Chandos), Colin Gordon as the fiancé, and the boozy music trio (Marie Burke, Lucy Griffiths, and Vivien Wood).

Interesting to see Brough (Mr. Granger on ARE YOU BEING SERVED?) years before his television stardom.

The wonderful thing about this film is that the screenplay and the cast fit together like hand in glove. Raymond Huntley unsurpassable in his stock role as the pompous but devious politician, Terry Thomas in the car dealer/lothario role that so suits him, George Cole as the puppyishly eager but naive and accident prone vacuum cleaner salesman, Colin Gordon as the uptight BBC newsreader, Arthur Borough as the irascible hotel landlord, Dora Bryan as the helpful and slightly saucy barmaid, and above all Alastair Sim giving full range to all his facial and vocal capabilities, sinister and menacing one moment, joyous and charming the next. And they are all believable, not caricatures - we have all come across similar people in real life. The lovely Jill Adams provides the romantic interest. The plot is of course extremely contrived, and the settings rather stagey (it was originally a stage play), but this is pure British 50s comedy, not Carry on slapstick. One to cherish.

Have always been a big fan of old British comedy, you don't get much better than the best of Ealing Studios (i.e. 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'), do know 'The Green Man' is not from Ealing but just wanted to briefly mention. To me, if there is a strong contender for the best British comedian in sound-era films, Alastair Sim would be it while Alec Guinness would be another strong contender.

'The Green Man' is a real gem. Not quite perfect (not many films are, like trying to see the good in bad or terrible films also equally try to see any improvements in decent to fantastic films), but close. Only saw it recently after it being strongly recommended by friends who are fellow fans of older comedy British or not. If one wants a film that mixes never-less-than-very-funny laughs with edge-of-the-seat suspsense adeptly, it doesn't get much better than 'The Green Man'.

Maybe the story gets a little over-complicated in spots when it gets busier and it occasionally gets slightly stagy.

Although George Cole was clearly having great fun with his role, a type of role that he does generally here do very well in, and the viewer has fun watching him, the bumbling occasionally is overdone.

On the other hand, Sim's performance is pure genius, one of his best in my opinion. His comic timing is as ever impeccable and he proves that he can also be serious too, showing that he is much more than a comedian. Raymond Huntley is also deliciously pompous and Terry Thomas does the most with his far too short screen time. Jill Adams radiates whenever she appears. Robert Day keeps everything moving along at a cracking pace and doesn't make it too silly or too serious. The production values have a nice atmosphere and the music just about doesn't fall into either extreme of being bombastic or too low-key.

Furthermore, the script is peppered with entertaining lines that never get too broad or juvenile, the 9'o clock news line is agreed one of British comedy's funniest lines ever. Much of 'The Green Man' ranges from very funny to hilarious in the humour, with a riot of a climax and the three ladies/recital/radio bomb scene is farce at its most delicious. The story is never less than engaging, with some wonderfully kooky characters, brilliantly timed comedy, unpredictable twists and turns and the right amount of suspense. It just needed to do a little bit less later on.

Summarising, terrific fun and a must if you love British comedy (or comedy in general) and/or of Sim. 8.5/10

Alastair Sim is a hired killer in this hilarious black comedy from the 50s. Mr. Sim's facial expressions alone make this movie worth repeated viewings. After a brief review of his life as a professional killer--narrated by Sim--we are treated to his attempt on the life of a British government official at a bed & breakfast called The Green Man. Alastair Sim is a favorite of mine. He's the best Scrooge ever, and his stint in the St. Trinian movies shouldn't be missed. But I laughed at him more in this film than in any other. And he's not all there is to this film. The script is nicely done with none of the padding such a story would get today. And despite this being an inexpensively done 50s British comedy it is amazing how the movie doesn't seem dated in the true sense of that term.