The Early Bird

Milkman Pitkin (Wisdom) and his employer, Mr Grimsdale (Chapman), pit their small, archaic dairy against a conglomerate, hell bent on taking their business by fair means or foul. This film is largely innocent and boisterous fun, slapstick and so forth. Even in its day it was hardly considered cutting edge, so it may be of limited appeal to folk who know not of Norman Wisdom and his earlier outings. This is the first Norman Wisdom film in colour and the last to feature regulars Wisdom, Chapman and Desmonde together. Wisdom we expect to fall about, but others didn't have it easy either; Desmonde passed away two years after this film was made and was in his late fifties (and possibly in poor health) during shooting; he must have been game though; he variously gets sprayed with foam, falls out of a building, drenched with a fire hose, dragged by a runaway lawnmower and hangs from a tree, all whilst doing his trademark 'outraged patrician type' act. Good stuff. Supporting roles from John Le Mesurier, Richard Vernon, Frank Thornton, Peter Jeffrey, and Brian Pringle (as Machiavellian milkman Austin) are well done. Honourable mention goes to Nellie the horse too. Some of the scenes in this film are quite memorable; the horse tranquilliser's effects on Pitkin and Grimsdale are a nod to the upcoming era of psychedelia. Yes this is mostly hackneyed, old fashioned, and so forth, but that was really the point; open up a Norman Wisdom film and inside you will find mostly harmless fun, occasionally with a little pathos thrown in. This is a pretty fair example of a Norman Wisdom film; simply being in colour means it is more likely to get watched by some modern audiences.

source: The Early Bird

This movie i watched at the age of 8, i still remember it after 25 years by name because nothing made me laugh so hard.

Mention the name Norman Wisdom to many and the chances are the first thing they think of is of him in that ill-fitting 'gump' suit, mugging frantically, falling over to the strangulated cry of 'Mr.Grimsdale!'. Comedy film fans may make the sign of the cross at his name, but the fact is he was the No.1 British box office star for well over a decade. There is nothing pretentious about him or his films. You do not need to be 'in' on the joke because there is nothing to be in on. Now it is very different - unfunny material can make millions for its creators as long as it is perceived to be 'cutting-edge'. Norman's brand of knockout comedy was old hat even in his hey-day, owing a debt to silent era comics such as Chaplin and Keaton. But he soon put on his own stamp on the genre, finding out what worked for him and what did not. His regular 'stooges' were Edward Chapman as his boss, the aforementioned 'Mr.Grimsdale', and long-faced Jerry Desmonde as the pompous authority figure whose side Norman becomes a thorn in. 'The Early Bird' was the last time all three appeared together. It came along at a time when British film comedy was becoming less and less family oriented ( look at 1966's 'Doctor In Clover' and compare it with the earlier Dirk Bogarde ones ). Norman tried to move with the times by going into colour, and then parted company with his producer Hugh Stewart, who went on to make three pictures with Morecambe and Wise. Norman once more is 'Pitkin', this time a milkman for Grimsdale's Dairies, a small-town firm under threat from the much-bigger 'Consolidated Dairies'. When he finds broken bottles on his round, it amounts to a declaration of war. Consolidated Dairies's top milkman is 'Austin' ( Brian Pringle ), and when they confront one another in a deserted street it is like 'High Noon' all over again. "Little men like you do not stand a chance!", sneers Austin, before landing a nasty-looking punch to Pitkin's jaw. But when the 'little man' is Norman, he is in with more than just a chance. Right, that's the premise established. What about the slapstick? Well, Norman is dragged through Desmonde's garden on an out of control lawnmower, disguises himself as a vicar to gatecrash Desmonde's game of golf with 'The Colonel' ( John Le Mesurier ), eats doped apples intended for his horse Nellie ( a sequence more disturbing than all 75 minutes of Roger Corman's 'The Trip' ), falls downstairs goodness knows how many times, and manages to nearly demolish Consolidated Dairies's H.Q. No wonder Norman was offered the role of 'Frank Spencer' before Michael Crawford. Corny? Yes. But there's nothing wrong with corn. Despite the many fun moments, Norman's popularity was in rapid decline. His next picture - 'Press For Time' - combined the knockabout stuff with a half-hearted attempt at political satire, and his 1969 offering 'What's Good For The Goose' saw him shedding the cloth-cap ( along with everything else ) by jumping into bed with Sally Geeson of 'Bless This House'. Whether you like 'The Early Bird' depends on whether you like Norman, and to many he is simply is not funny. But he gave a lot of pleasure to an awful of people - including the entire population of Albania - and I suspect his cheap and cheerful movies will still be gracing Saturday afternoons long after the 'cutting-edge' stuff has been forgotten.

This is the best film by Norman, his battle against the giant dairy, the opening 10 mins of silent comedy (but in colour and did have sound, but no one spoke) was brilliant, physical comedy at its best. Both Edward Chapman and Jerry Desmonde were supporting well, with a good performance by Bryan Pringle as Austin his rival milkman, it also features John Le Mesurier and David Lodge. This was Jerry Desmonde's last film, sadly he committed suicide less than two years later, aged 58, he was depressed after his wife died the previous year. It was also Herbert Chapman's last film, but he lasted a bit longer, doing a good bit of TV work until retiring in 1972, he passed away in 1977 aged 75. This film is how physical comedy should be performed, it is rarely tried like this these days, the young ones tried but did not get near.

Not the worst of Wisdom but generally malicious and cruel and in need of some good jokes. The garish colour also highlights this 'comedian's' advancing age. The opening routine is innocent and funny but you ultimately end up hating Wisdom and feeling sympathy for Jery Desmonde, presumably the producer's had the opposite intention.

"The Early Bird" has a lot of slapstick. Slapstick is very funny. But it's humor is just as with any funny line of dialog or joke. Once told or seen, it's very funny. Twice seen may get a chuckle. But three times and the punch is gone. So, the opening scenario that one person found very funny, quickly became monotonous to me. The wake-up routine was novel and somewhat funny, But Norman Pitkin (played by Norman Wisdom) and Mr. Grimsdale (Edward Chapman) go through the identical mishaps (PJs caught on the banister knob, etc.) one after the other. After the third one I came to expect it so this pattern quickly lost its humor. The plot for this film wasn't that good. The subplot of Mr. Grimsdale trying to romance his landlady is an unnecessary distraction. The milk delivery competition is a series of time-consuming scenes with little or no humor. The film seems to be a collection of vignettes tided together around the milk delivery business and competition. Norman goes in disguise, his milk wagon floods a woman's flat, he has shenanigans on the golf course, and his horse gets sick. It loses many laughs with this broken thread of a plot. After the third "Mr. Grimsdale!" that line of dialog was humorless. Yet it repeated a number of times more. It's an OK film at best, mostly for Wisdom's versatility and antics and for funny and good roles by Bryan Pringle as Austin and John Le Mesurier as Colonel Foster. All of the reviewers who think this is a great film or one of Norman Wisdom's best are from the early years of the turn of the 21st century. I have seen several of his films, and agree with a couple later reviewers who think this definitely is not one of his best. One reviewer noted that it's too bad for such praise with few contrary views because that may discourage first time viewers of a Wisdom film from watching any more. They would miss some real gems. Among them are "A Stitch in Time," "The Square Peg," "The Bulldog Breed," and "On the Beat."

This is a great film, one of the very best Norman Wisdom films, the opening 10 minutes fantastic, how he makes a scene with no speech so funny, it takes a lot of work to make a scene like that funny if there is no speech but he does it so naturally, the falling down the stairs with the cup of tea and still having a full cup at the bottom, marvellous truly marvellous. Norman Wisdom is fantastic at physical comedy, the way he falls about, and still does it now in his 90's, thats a real comedy genius. He is one of my favourite comedy actors, i love him and think that he is truly a comedy great. The whole collection of Wisdoms films are brilliant but this one for me because of the fantastic clown mime sequence at the beginning of the film comes top.

The Early Bird is the one where Norman Wisdom plays a Milkman. I found this quite funny. Wisdom works for the Grimsdale Dairy, a small family run concern. He uses a horse and cart as his float. A large modern dairy then opens up and its milkmen start taking the same round as Grimsdale's and this threatens the future of the small business. Plenty of chaos before the two bosses come to an agreement at the end, reprieving Wisdom's horse in the process. The Early Bird certainly has its moments and I've never seen this sort of thing happen with the milkman who comes round where I live (yet!). One part I thought which was a little too daft is where the horse sleeps in Wisdom's bed. Joining Wisdom in the cast are Edward Chapman as Mr Grimsdale, Dad's Army star John Le Measurer and Frank Thornton (Are You Being Served?, Last Of the Summer Wine). Have a good laugh with The Early Bird. Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

...which i really enjoyed! The film starts off on a brand new day at The Grimsdale Dairy, where Norman and Mr. Grimsdale are getting up, falling down stairs and ripping wallpaper!! not to mention getting the odd dressing gown caught in the odd door! Anyway Norman sets off in his horse and cart (yes, it's 1965 and Norman still uses a horse and cart!) and when it comes for Norman to set the milk down on the doorstep, he realises someone has beat him too it!!! and new and bigger dairy! (which i forget the name off) One of the milkmen from the new dairy breaks The Grimsdale Dairy bottle and lies saying it was cats kicking them, which results in a war between the two dairy's! After a long hard battle (even a comical game off golf!), Mr Grimsdale decides to give in and sell the Grimsdale dairy to the larger company, believing he'll get 50/50 of the shares, which he doesn't!!! Later on Norman fakes a fire by releasing some sort of smoke machine which makes everyone believe that there is a fire! After the head of the fire department realises what is wrong, the head of the diary hopes that Norman gets 10 years for his trouble but Norman quickly replies that it's not as bad as what they did to Grimsdale dairy, they finally resolve the problem but Norman thinks they are back when the amazing bottle kicking cats make an appearance! So overall i really enjoyed this film, plenty off laughable moments and sad emotional bits squeezed in to create a great, clean, family film!