[Afamilyatwar-list] The Wisdom of Comedy

[Veit, Richard]

For me, the film career of Norman Wisdom divides evenly into two halves. The peak is from 1953 though 1958 ("Trouble in Store" through "The Square Peg"), as directed by John Paddy Carstairs. The humour is low-key, subtle, and clever. But that all changed when Robert Asher took the reins in 1959 (from "Follow a Star" to "Press for Time"). Quite suddenly, the humour became more heavy-handed and obvious. In other words, the Carstairs years were breezy, whereas the Asher years were tedious. This is just my opinion, however, and I'm sure many people would disagree. Much like Jerry Lewis, Norman Wisdom's early films are his best.

Richard Veit

From: <afamilyatwar-list-bounces at baylor.edu> on behalf of AFAMILYATWAR-LIST <Afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>
Reply-To: AFAMILYATWAR-LIST <Afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>, Scott Filderman <scottfilderman at yahoo.com>
Date: Monday, March 26, 2018 at 1:01 PM
To: AFAMILYATWAR-LIST <Afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>, Bryan <bry at nhooton.plus.com>
Subject: [Afamilyatwar-list] The Wisdom of Comedy

Reading through these links suggested that I ask: just how popular IS Norman Wisdom these days? I know he was fabulously popular (otherwise how explain all the movies, etc), but my American radar can’t quite “get” him. He seems a combination Charlie Chaplin/Jerry Lewis (given sheer history, I’m guessing he was a huge influence on Jerry Lewis, who stole left and right). I love Buster Keaton; he never asked you to feel sorry for him. There is a quality of sentiment in Wisdom’s scrappy little guy that happens not to work for me. Oh, well, back to my chocolate ....

BTW, I am waiting for my purchase of The Spoils of War. I don’t think I can make it through Sam after a season of When the Boat Comes In. Maybe a Norman Wisdom film to break up the intensity?...


On Thursday, February 22, 2018, 4:35 PM, Bryan via Afamilyatwar-list <afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu> wrote:
Hello all
  Here is a link to today's edition of The Times which Tim mentioned.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/racist-70s-tv-falls-foul-of-censors-talking-pictures-tv-a-family-at-war-jlxt6ck5n<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetimes.co.uk%2Farticle%2Fracist-70s-tv-falls-foul-of-censors-talking-pictures-tv-a-family-at-war-jlxt6ck5n&data=01%7C01%7CRichard_Veit%40baylor.edu%7Cde6a1b8a0f3740c43f5508d593439dc1%7C22d2fb35256a459bbcf4dc23d42dc0a4%7C1&sdata=g5i5pMrizBv%2BNF0ZOa10%2BKjok1F%2Bk1cK2TuIOjX%2BwPw%3D&reserved=0>



Over the past 40 years there have been many excellent series on UK TV. Scott is obviously enjoying one of them - The Onedin Line. But I hope all members of our group have watched the two other series by John Finch, which were as popular as AFAW. For those who have missed them they are
SAM                               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_(1973_TV_series)<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSam_(1973_TV_series)&data=01%7C01%7CRichard_Veit%40baylor.edu%7Cde6a1b8a0f3740c43f5508d593439dc1%7C22d2fb35256a459bbcf4dc23d42dc0a4%7C1&sdata=JqL5WOQu%2Fq2CKmTwyLEqt9tMxY7L8ZOzyKWVHMUbeiM%3D&reserved=0>    and
THE SPOILS OF WAR http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373622/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt0373622%2Ffullcredits%3Fref_%3Dtt_ov_st_sm&data=01%7C01%7CRichard_Veit%40baylor.edu%7Cde6a1b8a0f3740c43f5508d593439dc1%7C22d2fb35256a459bbcf4dc23d42dc0a4%7C1&sdata=a6AolCmFiI2MMbqjYxazz%2F0kqIMZJTeyV8veNBekIhg%3D&reserved=0>

Both are really excellent, as is everything written by John Finch.

Happy viewing

Bryan
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