Norman Wisdom - golf sequence from "The Early Bird" - '65

[jojopaulkelly]

comedy is comedy...enough bitching about who is beneath who..

[mary31142]

norman was a legend his films make you laugh and laugh

[jonahdea]

The golf course is Flackwell Heath GC near High Wycombe.

They are playing from a built tee specially for the film on the 14th and playing to the 1st green.

Norman Wisdom a genius.

[tarz1978]

looks like epsom downs !!! he lived in epsom as he lived rd corner from me !! and he did all the milkman shots by the old cinema ( which r now flats) in Ewell !!

[talcumpowder1000]

My dad used to like him and used these same arguments but let's no lose focus. What have singing, dancing playing instruments and straight acting got to do with comedy? Could he also do interior decorating as well as this is just as relevant? As far as I'm concerned he had no gags and was 2 decades behind his time. George Formby was doing the same thing better in the 30s

[FyAthyRio69]

@talcumpowder1000 - Sadly no. I was only a kid at the time. I remember Chapman was on stage talking to the audience while Norman apparently wandered aimlessly around the right wings of the stage. He then wandered off and a few seconds later wandered aimlessly in from the LEFT wings. It got a big laugh. It was a brilliant piece of business, for which Norm had obviously had to SHOOT (noiselessly) across behind the back curtain. I tried the same thing later, in a school play - with the same result.

[FyAthyRio69]

@FyAthyRio69 - I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree about Norm's talent. I love him - but today, many seem to HATE him. I can't understand why. He was multi-talented. He sang, composed, wrote, did comedy, straight acting, played instruments and danced. Today's "superstars" can barely do ONE of those things. The bar was a lot higher in the old days.

[talcumpowder1000]

I agree. Jerry is excellent. Always was and is unduly neglected. However he has worked with alot of the greats: Sid Fields and Chaplin come to mind but Norman Wisdom is just beneath him. Why did he get involved in those films? The money? Jerry must have been about 57 when he made this so I suppose he is athletic but it's all strings; not believable

[FyAthyRio69]

@talcumpowder1000 - Sure - but it still needed a lot of athleticism. I saw the PREMIER of this film (the only one I've ever been to) and while Norm and old Grimsdale made it - sadly, Jerry did NOT (but he wasn't well at the time).

[talcumpowder1000]

Jerry Desmonde is excellent. Les Mesurier his usual dapper self but the one playing the vicar is just plain irritating. The comedy just doesn't work here because stalkers and vandals are simply not funny. Added to this the whole thing is a rip off of a much funnier Sid Fields sketch (Which also included Desmonde). I just spend this whole sketch feeling sorry for Jerry Desmonde. Had that been me I'd have punched Wisdom up after the first golf bag was vandalised. He doesn't deserve such treatment

[FyAthyRio69]

@talcumpowder1000 - LOL! Jerry is excellent though. And ATHLETIC for his age, in that tree!

[tapdance86]

Haha 2:08 who runs like that?

I think I figured out the gist of the storyline...but like with most screwball comedies, storyline doesn't matter nearly as much as seeing the comedians do their thing XD

[FyAthyRio69]

@tapdance86 - for the record, Norm is a milkman, whose tiny family milk business is being swamped by a big congromerate - run by Jerry.

Interesting that Michael Moore tried something similar on Roger - the then-boss of G.M. - in "Roger And Me" - MANY years after this.

I wonder if M.M. got the idea from THIS???