Postman's Knock (film)
Postman's Knock is a 1962 British comedy film directed by Robert Lynn starring Spike Milligan, Barbara Shelley, John Wood and Warren Mitchell.[1] The screenplay concerns a country postman who is transferred to London, where he manages to foil a major robbery.
| Postman's Knock | |
|---|---|
British quad poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Lynn |
| Written by | Additional dialogue by Spike Milligan and Ronald Kinnoch (as "George Barclay") |
| Based on | a story by Jack Trevor Story |
| Produced by | Ronald Kinnoch |
| Starring | Spike Milligan Barbara Shelley John Wood |
| Cinematography | Gerald Moss |
| Edited by | Geoffrey Foot |
| Music by | Ron Goodwin |
Production company | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (UK) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
According to MGM the film made a loss of $31,000.[2]
Plot
Harold Petts is a conscientious village postman who receives a promotion that takes him to London to be trained at London's busiest post office. However, after his first day in the big city, he is soon in trouble.
In the main sorting office, he succeeds in beating the new mail sorting machine at pigeonholing letters for delivery (the machine blows up in the process). As a result, he is placed safely out of the way in the parcels department, but sorts parcels at such speed that he puts everyone else in the department out of work.
This leads him to a meeting with the staff psychiatrist, and then to Jean, an ambitious art student, and the pair find themselves the main suspects in a mail theft ring, with the police and post office officials hot on their heels.
Cast
- Spike Milligan - Harold Petts
- Barbara Shelley - Jean
- John Wood - P.C. Woods
- Archie Duncan - Inspector
- Warren Mitchell - Rupert
- Lance Percival - Joe
- Arthur Mullard - Sam
- John Bennett - Pete
- Ronald Adam - Mr. Fordyce
- Miles Malleson - Psychiatrist
- Wilfrid Lawson - Postman
- Mario Fabrizi - Villager
- Bob Todd - District Superintendent
Critical reception
Britmovie noted "several promising satirical opportunities are sadly lost beneath a welter of frenetic slapstick";[3] while David McGillivray described the film in the Radio Times as "one of two comedies (the other is Invasion Quartet) created for Spike Milligan by John Briley and Jack Trevor Story, talented writers not noted for their eccentric humour (Briley went on to script Gandhi and Cry Freedom). Consequently the brilliant Goon flounders in the conventional, happy-go-lucky tale of a village postman who is transferred to London."[4]
References
- ^ . BFI. Archived from the original on 15 January 2009.
- ^ The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- ^ . britmovie.co.uk. Archived from the original on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
- ^ David McGillivray. "Postman's Knock". RadioTimes.
External links
- Postman's Knock at IMDb
- Postman's Knock at AllMovie
- Postman's Knock at the TCM Movie Database