The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

"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."

I've watched one of these now, so I won't have to watch the others, which I understand are much the same.I suppose there's a charm in these, but not enough for me. If you don't know Norman Wisdom, he's a small guy who plays something in the zone of Laurel Hardy and Charlie Chaplin with a hint of Jerry Lewis. The plot here is a small guy working for a small business who bests a big business (and its bosses). Some mild physical humor weighted toward falling down stairs.There is something interesting here though. The story takes us past quite a few men. Every one of them has a woman who gives little kisses and coos. All the bosses of course have cuties who act coy and chirp on cue. A working man has a more relaxed bird. All are pretty (after the fashion of the time). All have their breasts punched up and displayed as fully as possible.Except for one. The famous Mr Grimsdale, who is our comic hero's boss. At each crisis, Norman runs back to Mr. Grimsdale to repeatedly interrupt him in the embrace of his woman. The comic situation starts with her not being his wife — but none of these women are wives. What's comic here is her size. She must be 6 foot four. For many shots, she must be standing on a platform so that Norman's head is level with her breasts.I wonder why this is considered funny? Its clearly engineered. She's large but not bossy. She has no physical advantage. She's goods to be cuddled just like the other girlies we see. And its not a Margater Dumont deal. Her size alone is meant to be amusing.A visit to another world. I suppose it is no more puzzling than asking why we laugh when someone falls down stairs.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Norman Wisdom's first film in color is, alas, one of his lesser vehicles; this time around, he's a milkman with Edward Chapman's modest firm (he is its only employer and even lives with his boss!) which is being run out of business by a big corporation that has, as its manager, the ubiquitous (and, by now, quite aged) Jerry Desmonde. Despite some good moments - an amusing but protracted opening gag involving Norman's elaborate waking methods, the star's Western-style showdown with a competitor, the utilization of his milk-bottles as weapons in a domestic squabble and Norman's demolition of Desmonde's garden - the film bogs down soon enough with a recurrent subplot about Chapman's tentative romance with his chubby middle-aged landlady (which is constantly interrupted by Norman bursting into their room) and the star's sentimental attachment to an old cart-horse (and whom the competition even contrive to poison in order to get them out of the way!). Besides, two extended set-pieces - one with Norman dressed as a priest disrupting Desmonde's golf game with John Le Mesurier, and his stint as a fireman (targeting Desmonde's entire office block) and featuring a young Peter Jeffrey as the fire chief - tend to fall flat on their faces rather than provide the intended hilarity!

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.