Although I loved HHH in all its incarnations I have never paid much attention to Hancock's big screen efforts. This film tells me I didn't miss much. The movie just doesn't work, either as a comedy or a drama. Set in the typical fifties seaside resort of Piltdown Bay (pathetic!. A name like Sunnyhaven or Brighthampton would have been more convincing) Hancock, as the titular character, is at odds with the pompous, pretentious town council who want to see the back of him. However, the Punch and Judy Man is eminently unlikeable and Hancock seems intent on defining "lugubrious" in cinematic terms, simply wandering from scene to scene being disagreeable to everyone. Even his presentation of the Punch and Judy show appears unnecessarily vicious. Portraying murderous domestic violence as entertainment. Sylvia Syms as his social-climbing wife doesn't have much to do and, again falls between two stools in what are intended as comic scenarios. The opening scene at breakfast left me waiting for the payoff, but it went nowhere. Likewise, there seemed to be no point to the extended ice-cream eating race. This was in spite of a superb supporting cast which includes John Le Mesurier, Ronald Fraser, Hugh Lloyd, Mario Fabrizzi and a host of others right down to Norman Chappell. The comedy element did liven up towards the end when Barbara Murray, as civic reception guest of honour Lady Caterham, delivers a patronising, cliched speech which is punctuated in all the wrong places as she turns the pages of her notes. The word gags involving the flickering illuminated signs were also quite funny. But, it was all too little too late. I wonder whether our Tony was ever as good as he thought he was? And if his TV persona as the wannabe intellectual was in reality, his true self. Had I watched the film at the cinema I would probably have walked out before the end.
Review of The Punch and Judy Man
