Man of the Moment

In his third film appearance as the lovable bumbling Norman, Norman Wisdom is a file clerk who becomes a delegate to a diplomatic conference, befriends the queen of a remote island, and winds up a knight. Wisdom's movie Norman became a knight nearly half a century before the Queen knighted Norman himself. "Man of the Moment" follows an episodic internal logic that provides Wisdom with ample opportunity to display his slapstick skills. Norman leaves rooms in shambles, tailors in shreds, and diplomats in bandages. His tea service at a government strategy meeting is hysterically priceless. Chased by gunmen, Norman runs through active TV studio sets and interrupts various programs and performances in progress; the results are inspired and funny. Meanwhile, Norman rarely looses his broad smile and cheerful demeanor.

A Tony nominee for his Broadway appearance in the musical "Walking Happy," Wisdom has a fine robust singing voice and delivers three pleasant songs herein. Despite a tedious extended bomb-in-suitcase sequence that is more scary than funny, the movie moves. Norman has two love interests, Sonia, the unattainable blonde goddess, and Penny, the down-to-earth girl that he initially annoys. "Man of the Moment" has all the essential ingredients for a pleasant 85 minutes of entertainment: music, love, comedy, and, above all, Norman Wisdom.

An absolute joy!

Norman Wisdom on top form, and reteamed with Jerry Desmonde and the lovely Lana Morris from 'Trouble in Store'.

There are very few weak moments in a comedy that still remains as funny as it was in 1955.

Norman, a well-intentioned but clumsy and simple filing clerk in the British Civil Service is taken to Geneva with the British delegation of an international conference. When one of the delegates falls ill, Norman stands in for him and accidentally vetos a British and US endorsed plan to set up an experimentation base near the unspoilt island of Tawaki. He is thrown off the delegation, but his move earns him the respect of the Queen of Tawaki, so when the British attempt to reopen negotiations with her, they must fawn over Norman in order to use him as an instrument of negotiation.

The first twenty minutes of this film are very funny - a mad mixture of misunderstandings, caricatures (including a camp photographer) and well executed visual humour. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is not as funny - once the delegation arrives in Geneva, the humour is subordinated to the plot. Nevertheless, the plot is sufficiently interesting and there are still enough jokes to make this film enjoyable throughout. The humour comes mostly from Norman's childishness and his tendency to cause disasters wherever he goes. It's good fun, even though most of the film is not laugh-out-loud funny. However, there are a few stand out scenes, including the very funny tailor scene. There are three songs in the film, which I thought were unnecessary.

Norman Wisdom gives a good performance as the naive simpleton Norman. It is his performance that makes the film - none of the other cast members particularly impressed me (perhaps because I'm not familiar with many of them.) They were all good nevertheless, but Wisdom is the definite star of this film. Charles Hawtrey's role is sadly only a cameo and isn't particularly funny. A highly entertaining film which ought to be more famous.

This is one of those films that harks back to the days when people KNEW how to make entertaining comedy as opposed to the sophisticated, bitter and indigestible bilge turned out nowadays ! I have it on DVD and have watched it countless times. It is a cute and feel good film, with a touch of romance. Norman Wisdom is an exceedingly nice person and his "fraîcheur de vivre" is clearly evident in these, his early works.

Humour is obviously a very subjective thing and today's audience, or part of them at least, supposedly sophisticated, but in reality cynical ,bitter, lost and searching for a meaning and a direction to their life will no doubt tax Norman Wisdom as pathetic, silly, childish, heavy-handed, over the top .......the terms abound nowadays ! But that is their sad loss !! I for one, love this stuff and lap it up like a thirsty dog. And why not indeed ! When I am feeling miserable or down in the dumps, I put one of these on and .......Hop ! tout va bien ! ( pardon my French ).

That said, Man of The Moment is one of his better films plot wise and the dose of gestural humour, plot inventiveness, romance and action is just right for the spectator. Really enjoyable. When I see a film like this, I think "Thank God for British Cinema of the Fifties" for I don't know whether I'll still be alive if and when a renaissance of this genre comes !

A mostly pleasing star farce in which Norman Wisdom - who's so modest that his greatest ambition in life is to become chief filing clerk in a Ministry! - unwittingly tries his hand at international intrigue, as he gets to replace an indisposed British diplomat at a Geneva conference and causes no end of havoc!! There are some nice moments along the way (though there's an overabundance of songs), particularly during the flight to Switzerland, the initial business at the hotel and the climax in a TV studio (notably a running gag involving a French chef), but the subplot involving conflicts over a South Seas island (which Norman somehow ends up representing to the chagrin of his fellow delegates) is rather dreary.

At least, the return of his co-stars from 1953's TROUBLE IN STORE (leading lady Lana Morris and comic foil Jerry Desmonde) elevate this to above medium grade. Belinda Lee also appears as a movie siren, Norman's dream-girl, who also turns up in Geneva but is exposed as a femme fatale involved in the plotting! The bumbling diplomat plot was reprised several times by other film comics, notably Danny Kaye in THE INSPECTOR GENERAL (1949), Terry-Thomas in CARLTON BROWNE OF THE F.O. (1958; co-starring Peter Sellers and also dealing with the fate of an island in the Pacific), etc.