Whenever I’m watching ‘The Phil Silvers Show,’ I always think that if I could write half a scene’s worth of stuff just like that, I’d proudly consider my life’s work practically done and start packing for the tropics. But just when you think you’re done marvelling at the story lines and dialogue so precisely assembled and delivered at the speed of lightning, you realise that you’re mostly laughing because of the unrestrained chaos natural to the Bilko universe, situational and character humour that bubbles up and bursts. Its play on incongruity turns each episode into a meditation on the word ‘comedy,’ and one of my favourite examples of this is ‘The Boxer.’ In this very early episode, featuring amateur actor/retired professional boxer Walter Cartier, Fort Baxter’s Master Sergeants are doing their best to win the base tournament. Everyone except Bilko, who has the misfortune of only having the pint-sized Papparelli (Billy Sands) enrol. What he lacks in size he more than makes up for in moxie though, and Sands bobs, weaves, and punches his way throughout the 20 minutes with hilariously ridiculous, earnest confidence. Bilko despairs of ever winning, until he discovers a pugilist on the post – nay, in his very own platoon: Private Claude Dillingham, a bashful, single-minded former Golden Gloves champion who’s more concerned about flowers and gardening than the Garden. Thus the gods grant Bilko his task: Remind milk-drinking Claude of all the violent glories of the uppercut and beat every other sucker in the tournament.
Cartier’s performance is fresh and un-self-conscious, the perfect ‘innocent’ unintentionally resisting Bilko’s frenzied schemes to get this man back in the ring (and keep Papparelli out). And if Phil Silvers’ laughter at the very end (a great ending!) is anything to go by, it is a beautiful testament to how the actors seemed to enjoy it all just as much as you enjoy beholding it Xo
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