While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Copyright 1958 by J. Arthur Rank Film Productions, Limited. U.S. release through Lopert Pictures. No New York opening. U.K. release through Rank Film Distributors: 4 January 1959. Australian release through British Empire Films: July/November 1961. 7,996 feet. 89 minutes.COMMENT: A feast for Norman Wisdom fans - though Honor Blackman's admirers are liable to feel a bit cheated, as she has little to do, alas, and is even somewhat colorless (despite a lift from Jack's Cox's lighting photography which is noticeably less flat when she is around). The script is a bit more ingenious than the usual slight but slapstick Wisdom vehicle and allows our star to be a bit more adventurous and exciting than his usual callow self. Actually, Wisdom has two roles, one comedy, one straight, but he plays the comedy part straighter than his norm, and the straighter part with more than a touch of satire. It all jibes rather well. A script with more bite allows the support players more opportunities too. Edward Chapman, Campbell Singer and Hattie Jacques are particularly personable. Some unintentional humor, however, is provided by Brian Worth who is here forced to adopt a French accent.Wisdom's double role scenes are neatly timed (the special effects are okay too). Carstairs is not one of my favorite directors. His timing and pacing always seem too heavy-handed and over-emphatic. Although his direction does show more dash and flair here, the timing in general still has a blunt edge and is not as smooth and snappy as audiences have a right to expect. All the same, the film looks good, thanks to solid production values.Once we get away from the atrocious title tune, the film improves dramatically - or rather comically - with Wisdom and Chapman as a pair of cheekily omniscient, self-important bureaucrats attempting to impose their bloated authoritarianism on the army. The military brass get their revenge by drafting the two. Norman is smitten by a pretty parachutist, then he and Ed are inadvertently dropped into German-occupied France. And this is where the fun really starts

On one level The Square Peg is just a typical Norman Wisdom knock about comedy but dig a little deeper and its quite a clever satire on small town politics.Norman plays a cocky little road mender who makes himself a thorough nuisance outside an army camp with his stop go sign.He's been told by his boss Mr Grimsdale,played by the great Edward Chapman,"Pitkin,the war's going to be won on the home front keeping the arteries of the nation open" The exasperated military see it differently and call up the entire town hall staff (His Worship the Mayor will hear about this) There is a hilarious scene with Campbell Singer as an exasperated sergeant teaching Pitkin bayonet practice."Come on Pitkin buckets of blood" Forget about Pitkin's infatuation with Honor Blackman who plays a secret agent we will cut to the quick with Pitkin and Mr Grimsdale coming out of the pub,jumping into the wrong lorry which is full of paratroopers,and finding themselves landing in France where they start digging up the french roads causing more chaos.Pitkin goes into town to buy milk where it is discovered he is a dead ringer for the local German commandant.The French resistance persuade him to dig his way into the castle and release all the prisoners.The commandant is General Schreiber,a thoroughly nasty piece of work who has a weakness for a large female opera singer played by Hattie Jacques and enjoys singing duets with her. I can give no higher praise than to say that Danny Kaye in his prime could not have been funnier.The scene where Pitkin,disguised as the general duets with Miss Jacques is sublimely funny. Pitkin of course gets caught,is put up against a wall to be shot,then falls down the hole he dug to get into the castle,makes his escape,cue happy ending.The last scene sees him as the new Mayor with Mr Grimsdale as his obsequious minion. Yes the plot is absolutely ridiculous but there are so many funny scenes along the way who cares? Norman Wisdom of course became a knighted national treasure who ended his acting career making welcome guest appearances in the long running TV series Last of the Summer Wine.

THE SQUARE PEG is a Norman Wisdom vehicle that sees him once more playing the part of Norman Pitkin, employee of gruff Yorkshireman Mr Grimsdale (Edward Chapman). The film is set during WW2 and sees the hapless pair become involved with a local army base, eventually finding themselves in occupied France of all places.This is the first Norman Wisdom film I've watched. I was inspired to watch it after getting into the CARRY ON films made during the same era. Like those, it has dated quite a lot since it first came out, with the comic hijinks feeling very genteel in the modern era of gross-out comedy. Although I found few laugh-out-loud moments, much of the film is gently amusing.Wisdom and Chapman share an excellent rapport and their scenes together are obvious highlights within the movie, although an elaborate, late-on sequence involving Pitkin, his doppelganger and a German opera singer (the delightful Hattie Jacques) marks the film's highlight. Until then there's plenty of mugging, slapstick and jokes at the expense of stiff-upper-lipped army superiors (including BERGERAC's Terence Alexander). Honor Blackman shows up as a memorably feisty female agent. I didn't find it quite as funny as I'd hoped, but I'm inspired to check out more of Wisdom's work.

Although we don't roar with laughter now , there are some 'classic¬ scenes:- 1. changing step when arrested and the others copy and lose step - quite clever. 2. best of all - the performance of the German lieder with the exaggerated German " Dein ist mein Hertz " - some professional singers roll about at that ! What a fantastic wide mouth. 3. During the scene with Hattie Jacques there is a fine touch of sexual innuendo for brief seconds. 4. No sentimental songs to interrupt the action. 5. His infatuation with Honor Blackman is not over done or carried though to the point of implausibility. So, although this is not his best film, it has one or two memorable, even "classic" moments. Worth watching - if only every 5 years !