ON THE BEAT (1962) ** Norman Wisdom really wants to be a police constable, like his dad, but he's too short. So he washes cars at Scotland Yard. From there you can probably figure if you like it, once you factor in that Norman also doubles as an extraordinarily effete Italian mobster hairdresser. Two characters, Wisdom plays two characters, it's not just the same character leading a double life. Or will it be? You know Norman isn't one to miss a trick. So it goes on with gags, and you either like 'em or you don't, or if you're like me you like some of 'em. Jennifer Jayne has this way of radiating but not monopolizing the limelight, which is good or the whole thing would have gone into eclipse the minute she went into her Anna Magnani imitation. Yeah, yeah, they're just doing archetypes, but Anna did it best, so it's-a hers, ok? Whatsa wrong with you!? Anyway, Ms Jayne does it good, too, quite credible volcanic Italian for a Yorkshire girl. And if you're willing to submit to the sense that Norman is a good guy, and you know that they're not real people anyway, so it's ok whatever happens to her, well you gotta make his dreams come true, don't you? Besides that, lots of gay camp with a thin veneer…either the moral crusaders were enjoying it all bit too much, or they really were as stupid as the libertines thought they were.
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