ianlouisiana Review of The Comedy Man

The Comedy Man (1964)

As two great Industries battle,the "talent",falls between the cracks.

[8/10 · 12 March 2008]

For about ten years hypocrisy ran through the veins of British Showbiz. Among the best - known whose careers foundered were Macdonald Hobley,the first thinking woman's crumpet TV personality,Max Wall,one of our greatest - ever comedians and Kenneth More,an actor who had,more than any other,come to symbolise all that was decent and fair in the British psyche.All these men were ostracised for committing adultery,an event so commonplace by the end of the sixties that it was hardly worthy of comment,let alone disapproval. Fortunately for Mr More he had a very strong fan base who remained loyal and non - judgemental,and he was able to tough it out to the extent that in 1964 he starred in "The Comedy Man" along with Miss Angela Douglas,his partner - in - adultery;a slap in the face for his detractors and a welcome back into the fold for an actor who even today is remembered with great fondness by many of us old enough to qualify for the government's "Winter Warming" allowance. It was made at a time when the film industry considered itself at war with Television - the upstart entertainment medium that required no more effort from its audience than pushing a switch.Much as "the theatre" had thought movies to be inferior 40 years earlier,so the movies now looked down on TV and lost no opportunity to belittle it. This attitude might have been all right for the theatrical aristocracy but was always going to cause problems for the jobbing actor like Chick Byrd (Mr K.More)recently sacked from a Rep for sexual misconduct. He has "Principles" - professional ones at least - and holds out against TV's filthy lucre until he is down on his uppers and accepts a part in a commercial that unaccountably becomes very popular,making him a "success de cash" that causes him a certain amount of schadenfreunde. He lives in a seedy flat with a former colleague recently returned from Hollywood and no better for it(Mr E.Purdom in a role surely "hommaged" from Robert Maine in Robert Morley's "Goodness,how sad"). Mr Cecil Parker is nothing short of marvellous(as usual) as an old - school "Actor" and Dennis Price as Byrd's agent may well have taken George Sanders' in "All about Eve" as a role model. In the end Mr More reclaims his soul for the theatre and TV's villain is reduced to slinking away,face behind it's cloak,cursing. Only a man with the breezy innocence and basic good nature of More's screen image could have made it convincing. Now,with TV and the movies in each other's pocket it's hard to believe that once their rivalry was so deadly. "The Comedy Man" is a spot - on portrait of it's time,the movies tightening their belts,television's great gravy train slowly starting to move off,the "talent",mere grist to the mills of both.