On the Fiddle

On the Fiddle
Original US film poster
Directed by	Cyril Frankel
Produced by	Benjamin Fisz
Written by	R.F. Delderfield (novel) Harold Buchman
Starring	Alfred Lynch Sean Connery Cecil Parker Stanley Holloway
Music by	Malcolm Arnold
Cinematography	Edward Scaife
Editing by	Peter Hunt
Distributed by	Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors
Release date(s)	10 October 1961
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

"Operation Snafu" redirects here. For the 1970 film starring Jason Robards and Peter Falk, see Rosolino Paternò soldato.

On the Fiddle is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Sean Connery, Alfred Lynch, Cecil Parker, Stanley Holloway, Eric Barker, Mike Sarne, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Kathleen Harrison, Victor Maddern and John Le Mesurier. It was based on the 1961 novel Stop at a Winner by R. F. Delderfield. It is about two British con men who join the RAF during World War II hoping to score money illegally: instead they are sent on a mission where they unexpectedly succeed with their offbeat actions.

The scenes of fighting is set in a woods in what is known as "The Sandpit", it is in Horsell Common near Woking Surrey, UK and is the area written about in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds.

It was not released in America until 1965 by American International Pictures where it was retitled "Operation Snafu" for cinema release and "Operation Warhead" and to play off Sean Connery's popularity at the time. Comedian Alan King filmed his sequences in one day and was mystified when friends told him he was starring in a movie with Sean Connery.

Critical reception

Reviewing the film following its 1965 release in the United States the New York Times described it as "familiar and trifling, but it's perky". It observed that "The wonder is that a picture with a story already done, gag by gag, a hundred times is so easy to take. It is, though — flip, friendly, brisk and a wee bit cynical in its take-it-or-leave-it jauntiness". It noted that the release in the United States was "an obvious cash-in" on Connery's subsequent popularity as James Bond.^[1]

Cast

• Alfred Lynch - Horace Pope
• Sean Connery - Pedlar Pascoe
• Cecil Parker - Group Captain Bascombe
• Stanley Holloway - Cooksley
• Alan King - Sergeant Buzzer
• Eric Barker - Doctor
• Wilfrid Hyde-White - Trowbridge
• Kathleen Harrison - Mrs Cooksley
• Eleanor Summerfield - Flora McNaughton
• Terence Longdon - Air Gunner
• Victor Maddern - First Airman
• Harry Locke - Huxtable
• John Le Mesurier - Hixton
• Viola Keats - Sister
• Peter Sinclair - Mr Pope
• Edna Morris - Lil
• Thomas Heathcote - Corporal
• Brian Weske - Sergeant
• Jack Lambert - Police Constable
• Cyril Smith - Ticket Collector
• Simon Lack - Flight Leuitenant Baldwin
• Graham Stark - Sergeant Ellis
• Jean Aubrey - WAAF Corporal
• Jack Smethurst - Dai Tovey
• Patsy Rowlands - Evie
• Bill Owen - Corporal Gittens
• Harold Goodwin - Corporal Reeves
• Barbara Windsor - Mavis

References

1. ^ http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A07E0D8123CE733A25751C2A9639C946491D6CF

External links

• On the Fiddle at the Internet Movie Database

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