Director: John Paddy Carstairs

Cast: Norman Wisdom, Joan Rice, Shirley Abicair

Synopsis: A promise that an orphan will receive a model car leads to zany adventures.

Returning to a childhood favourite after thirty-odd years is always something of a risk, but on this occasion the experience proved to be relatively painless. Norman Wisdom, adorned in his usual uniform of too- tight jacket and flat cap worn sideways on his head, plays to type as a lovable fool who undergoes a number of slapstick adventures as he endeavours to earn the mammoth sum of £12.00 to buy the miniature car he promised one of the wards at the orphanage at which he works. The story is just a loose framework upon which a number of comedy set-pieces are arranged: Norman loses his trousers on a train; Norman is mistaken for a famous conductor; Norman is hypnotised into taking part in a fairground boxing match, and so on. Some of these are funnier than others, but they’re all far superior to most of his later output.

(Reviewed 20th April 2012)