The Rebel (1961)

Director:

Robert Day

Writers:

Ray Galton (writer)
Tony Hancock (writer)

Release Date:

26 December 1962 (Denmark)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Anthony Hancock gives up his office job to become an abstract artist. He has a lot of enthusiasm, but little talent...

Plot Keywords:

Art | Satire | Reference To Laurel And Hardy | Independent Film

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

Tony Hancock	...	Anthony Hancock
George Sanders	...	Sir Charles Broward
Paul Massie	...	Paul
Margit Saad	...	Margot
Grégoire Aslan	...	Carreras
Dennis Price	...	Jim Smith
Irene Handl	...	Mrs. Crevatte
John Le Mesurier	...	Office manager
Liz Fraser	...	Waitress
Mervyn Johns	...	Manager of Art Gallery, London
Peter Bull	...	Manager of Art Gallery, Paris
Nanette Newman	...	Josey
Marie Burke	...	Madame Laurent
Bernard Rebel	...	Art Dealer
Sandor Elès	...	Artist

Also Known As:

Call Me Genius (USA)

Runtime:

USA:105 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:U

Company:

Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC)

Quotes:

Jim Smith: English names are so mysterious, don't you think?
Hancock: Oh, yes. I knew an 'Arry Trubshawe and a Bert 'Iggins once. Dead mysterious they were.

Hilarious Hancock

I am 57 now and was weaned when I was a lad on the various BBC tv series of "Hancock's Half Hour in the 1950's.I became an addict there and then.In later life I carefully recorded the repeats on my vcr (not invented when I was a lad), and purchased cassettes of Tony's earlier radio shows whenever a new volume was available for sale.I have read his biography (1924 - his suicide in Australia in 1968), so he was only 44 when he died.Forget he had a drink problem and could be violent.

Yes, he considered he had outgrown his tv series with Sid James (and Kenneth Williams earlier) and even his later solo "Hancock" tv series from 1959 onwards.As a previous literate reviewer has rightly remarked, he hankered after a wider international audience for his comic abilities and appeared in later films like "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" even trying his hand in Hollywood with Walt Disney but I consider "The Rebel" from 1961 as his funniest film.It incorporates many characters like the existentialist lady on the big screen who have been heard before, e.g. Fenella Fielding in the radio show "The East Cheam Poetry Festival" from 1954.John le Mesurier often played "establishment" figures in his half hour shows and was a personal friend and here he plays Hancock's authoritarian boss in the dreary office where we first see him in an almost synchronised early scene where the clerks all do a similar computation function simultaneously.How we office workers with aspirations of individual creativity empathise with him in his rebellious behaviour!!

A new "Mrs Cravatte" in the shape of Irene Handle (not Patricia Hayes who was merely a char lady in the tv series), provides a female comic foil as Tony's landlady.It is interesting he retains his real name in this feature film, presumably he considered he could effectivly develop his bohemian character from the tv onto the broader canvas.I revisited this film after 20 years or so and laughed out loud in several places.The point already made that American/overseas viewers may be perplexed with his humour is easy to understand and our current UK generation may be left cold by it.My generation however which was reared on a diet of post war food rationing, spivs, watching wealthy Americans in the media, the McMillan type establishment figures in politics and industry, trends in fashion, pop music etc; can so empathise with his humour.I gave it 7/10.