The Square Peg (1959) - film review

During WWII, Norman Pitkin believes that he, a humble council employee, is making an invaluable contribution to the war effort, by digging up roads.  His superior, Mr Grimsdale, agrees and is infuriated when he learns that Norman’s efforts to dig a hole outside an army camp are being frustrated by the camp’s commanding officer.  But when Mr Grimsdale makes his complaint, the camp commander coerces the War Office into having him and Norman conscripted.   Having completed their basic training, Norman and Mr Grimsdale are parachuted into France to repair roads.   Unfortunately, they find themselves behind enemy lines and Mr Grimsdale is arrested, mistaken for the leader of the local French resistance.  He is interrogated by Otto Schreiber, a ruthless Nazi general who bears an almost perfect resemblance to Norman.  In the meantime, Norman meets up with the real resistance members, one of whom is Lesley Cartland, an attractive woman officer whom he took a shine to when he began his army training back in England.  When the resistance members are arrested by the Nazis, Norman digs his way into Schreiber’s chateau in an attempt to rescue them.  By impersonating the general, Norman manages to get his friends to safety, but before he too can escape he is captured and put before a firing squad...

The Square Peg marks the absolute highpoint of Norman Wisdom’s short but memorable film career, made at the time when the comedian was at the height of his popularity.  Although extremely successful in their day, Wisdom’s films are generally looked down upon today, owing to their slightly unpalatable mix of overly boisterous slapstick, unsophisticated storylines and heinous bouts of saccharine sentimentality.  The Square Peg has none of these deficiencies and is consequently one of the few Norman Wisdom films that have stood the test of time, a film that ought to be considered a classic of British comedy.  This was the last of six films that Wisdom made with director John Paddy Carstairs, who fell out with producer Hugh Stewart over the lead actor’s ability to play a dual role.

This is the film in which Edward Chapman first appears as Norman’s suffering sidekick Mr Grimsdale, although the two comic actors had previously worked together on Just My Luck (1957).  Honor Blackman gets to play a tough yet glamorous action woman that is virtually a dry run for Cathie Gale, the mould-breaking character she would later play in The Avengers (1962-4).  Watch very closely and you will catch a glimpse of Oliver Reed in one of his first screen appearances.  And as if that wasn’t enough star power to coerce you into watching the film, the wonderful Hattie Jacques appears as a German opera singer, stealing the show in the film’s most hilarious sequence, where she attempts a Wagnerian duet with Norman.

The film is significant in that Norman Wisdom gets to play two very different characters – his familiar gump character, Pitkin, and the sadistic German officer, Schreiber.  The skill with which Wisdom manages to delineate between these two very different characters is testament to his talent as a performer and confounded his detractors who were apt to paint him as a one trick pony.  In contrast to the instantly likeable Pitkin, Schreiber is a chilling portrayal of the Nazi Übermensch, even when he is spilling gallons of champagne down Hattie Jacques’s cleavage.  If there is one film that Norman Wisdom deserves to be remembered by, that film is surely The Square Peg, his magnificent pièce de resistance.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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