That same Christmas it came out, Variety called it a 'documentary in drag,' and the trailer promises a laugh, 'a crazy cracking dizzy darling of a film' - "Sandwich Man" (1966) is all of these, not quite these at all, and something delightful in between. Written by Michael Bentine (Peruvian Briton, of the Goons!) and director Robert Hartford-Davis, it follows the delightfully/deceptively simple premise of following a very pleasant, very polite sandwich (advertisement board) man on his walk about contemporary/Swinging Sixties London, with only loosely tied plot lines bringing together sketches, some forgettable but most memorably hilarious. Promoting a men's tailors (with 'Never Mind the Quality' sorts of names), Horace Quilby (the very charming Bentine) happily wanders the city in his terribly smart top hat and tails taking in the sights and sounds for an honest day's pay, while waiting for his racing pigeon Esmeralda to come home, accompanied by a delightfully star-studded cast (including a shining list of beloved character actors if you're into that sort of thing, which I am).
It is also a non-judging, loving portrait of a bustling, changing, vibrant, multicultural city, as seen by these pictures from the opening scene - one of my favourites among many - featuring Hugo Fulcher and Leon Thau as the rhythm section of 'The Sikhers' (really, haha) trying to get on the bus and a magnificent if brief appearance of Earl Cameron (one of the UK's first black actors to break 'the colour bar') as the conductor. A nice bit of joyful dramatic brassy rock and Bentine's smiling, child-like witness pulls it all together to really become a 'dizzy darling of a film' Xo
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