4 Star

The Who’s Who of 60s Comedy.

The Sandwich man is a comedy classic with a writing collaboration between Michael Bentine (Potty Time (TV Series), Forces’ Sweetheart) and Robert Hartford-Davis (Gonks Go Beat, The Smashing Bird I Used to Know), and with Bentine taking the leading role of the lovable pigeon-fancier and the advertising face of the centre of London. The Sandwich Man is a series of skits that brings in all the sites of London and every popular comedy actor of the day, great fun.

The Sandwich Man was filmed at a time when attitudes were very different to today’s views.

Horace Quilby (Michael Bentine) lives on Evelyn Street in London, and before he sets off for the centre of the ‘Big Smoke’ he checks his pigeon coop, to see if his beloved ‘Esmeralda’ has made it back from her race from Bordeaux. She isn’t back yet so, he has to rely on his neighbour the widowed Mrs De Vere (Dora Bryan, The Cockleshell Heroes, Carry on Sergeant) a woman with a twinkle in her eyes whenever she is around Horace. As he advertises for ‘Finklebaum and O’Casey’, Gent’s Bespoke Overcoats and West End Suits, he has to dress in a morning suit as he does his rounds, later on we find out that other sandwich men also have to dress appropriately for their advertisers. But first he must catch the bus to get to work.

On the way, he sees his neighbours Gogi (Hugh Futcher, Farewell Performance, Quatermass and the Pit) and Ram (Leon Thau, The Great St. Trinian’s Train Robbery, Carry on Up the Khyber), and a Chinese, Italian Ice Cream salesman (Burt Kwouk, Goldfinger, The Return of the Pink Panther), as well as Abdul (Roger Delgado, Doctor Who (TV Series), Antony and Cleopatra) the carpet salesman. At the bus stop he meets Sue (Suzy Kendall, To Sir, with Love, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) (the thread for Horace’s story) and as they chat her boyfriend Steven (David Buck, The Mummy’s Shroud, Cry Freedom!) pulls up in a car, immediately the air turns frosty as the young couple are hitting a rough patch in their relationship.

As Horace travels around London, he comes across many a colourful character, he visits his local haunts to check in to see if Esmeralda has made it home. Will he keep the ever jealous Steven at bay as Sue tries to make a career in modelling, with the help of photographer Harold (Bernard Cribbins, Doctor Who (TV Series), The Railway Children)?

The Sandwich Man is a unique film that only Michael Bentine could have made, then or now. Just take into consideration when it was made, as it may offend modern ideologies.

The Sandwich Man is Available on DVD and Blu-ray from Network on Air