It's That Man Again

6/26/2022

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