This superb film features Tony Hancock quitting his boring office job for the artist's life in Paris. Despite the fact that he can't paint or sculpt (his 'Aphrodite At The Waterhole' is excrutiatingly awful) he thinks he is a genius and soon gets a reputation as such. He wins fame and fortune with the paintings of Paul Massie who had given up art and moved back to England for a boring office job. The early part of the film features a cameo by Oliver Reed as one of a group of artists arguing drunkenly about what is art in a Parisien cafe. The script was written by Galton & Simpson and draws heavily on some of the excellent Hancock's Half Hour radio series (particularly the Poetry Society) which they wrote. Irene Handl is superb as Mrs Crevatte, Hancock's London landlady (also Paul's when he leaves Paris) and the film is full of some of the best British actors of the day (George Sanders, Peter Bull, John Le Mesurier, Dennis Price etc.). This is one film I was itching to see come out on DVD and it has, paired with The Punch & Judy Man. Wonderful stuff indeed.
Review of Call Me Genius
