It's That Man Again

Lunatic British comedy about a small town mayor who finds himself the owner of a broken-down London theatre and acting school. Insanity run amok.

Based on Tommy Handley's long-running radio performances, this "ITMA" tells the story of the gambling-addict Mayor of "Foaming-as-the-Mouth" who has to engage in a whole range of convoluted antics to try and stay ahead of a young girls - and her friends and family - to whom he owes £8. Farcical humour has little staying power, and almost 80 years on the film struggles to engage - but put in the context of mid-WWII morale boosting silliness, and it has merit. Handley and some aptly named characters "Sam Scram", "Alley-oop" and "Mrs. Mopp" all present us with some slickly delivered set-piece sketches, with frequently decent one-liners that could only have raised a smile at the time. It can't have had much budget, nor resources, but they do what everyone else had to in 1943 - they made do. It's not a great film, possibly not even a very good one - but it's pretty much at the top end of the genre and though the jokes are laboured and squeezed dry, it's an interesting observation on what made many of our forebears laugh in times trouble.