philip hindley

Looking for this as well Ronald Shiner.

Dave J.L

I too have been looking for this film for years with stars Ronald Shiner,Garry Marsh,Diana Dors,Bruce Seaton,does anyone if a copy exists or is it another lost treasure,regards Dave

marker

I have also been looking for this film

Cheers Marker

smudge

Ronald Shiner was one of the biggest comics of his day - if not the biggest. So what are the thoughts on him looking from the 21st Century?

In general I find him palatable, but he sometimes struggles to deliver more than a one-note performance; formed, I'm sure, from the popularity of his spiv-type persona. How does he rate against the rest to all you Britmovie folks out there?

This is something I've been curious about for a while. Please pardon my slight diversion of the topic in asking the question...

Smudge

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Windthrop

His career basically dvides into two halves -

Pre-WEV and Post-WEV

Pre he was a useful character actor and on stage a Max Millerish stand up

After his big west end hit WEV he became a lead in british comedy films for the bulk of the 50s. Top of the Form is remake of Good Morning Boys. He was more popular than Wisdom at the start in the early 50s but Wisdom quickly took the lead partly because Wisdom was with Rank and Shiner Associated British a smaller company with a lesser chain of cinemas. Richard Todd to some extent made a mistake siding with the dairy people rather than the grain merchants but I'm digressing. Wisdom also had his vehicles tailored to his talents whereas Shiner's films are usually west end farces with Shiner 'shoehorned' into the plots - See How They Run for example.

As for talent - he is effective in an unsubtle way. As I have mentioned alot of his films were ex west end and often in those (Dry Rot et al) he is the best thing in them as he sledgehammers his way through the material. Others like Brian Rix tend to come off poorly by comparison, never really coming across well on film.

He does seem to be relagated to support roles increasingly in the later 50s and eventually retired due to poor health. Not a great star but almost the bridging gap between Will Hay/George Formby and Norman Wisdom britain's last major comedy film star.

By the way - has anyone out there seen See How They Run. Its one of those old farces which never quite die out - was in the west end again recently.

smudge

Thanks for that Windthrop - nice summary. Yes, he does rather seem to steamroller his way through quite often.

Smudge

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