The Punch and Judy Man is a 1963 starring Tony Hancock, Sylvia Syms, Ronald Fraser, Barbara Murray, John Le Mesurier, Hugh Lloyd, and Mario Fabrizi.
Wally Pinner (Hancock) is a Punch and Judy performer living in the seaside resort Piltdown. He can't stand his social-climbing wife Delia (Syms), nor the Mayor of Piltdown, Arthur Palmer (Fraser). The few people Wally can tolerate are his fellow seaside entertainers - his fellow Punch and Judy man Edward Cox (Lloyd), sandman Charles Arthur Ford (Le Mesurier), and photographer Nevil Shanks (Fabrizi).
Hilarity Ensues as Wally's frustration with his life rises when the Mayoress, Mrs. Palmer (Pauline Jameson), asks Delia to get him to provide a Punch and Judy show for the town's 60th-anniversary gala, which is to be hosted by Delia's idol, Lady Jane Caterham (Murray).
The film was Hancock's second big-screen vehicle, following The Rebel, but it wasn't a success. Hancock never starred as the lead in a film again.
The Trope and Judy Man:
- Camera Fiend: Throughout the Foodfight!, Nevil continually takes photos of the chaos. Charles even asks him for three pictures of him knocking out a drunk.
- Digital Destruction: The 2006 DVD cuts out the scene of Wally showing flowers up a porcelain pig's backside, the entire sequence of Wally and Edward in his workshop, and the beginning of the town hall scene. The deletion of the former scene now causes an
Orphaned Reference, as the scene of Delia finding the flowers inside of the pig is still kept in the film. - Foodfight!: Wally and Edward's Punch and Judy show at the gala is interrupted when some drunks start throwing buns at each other, and not before long the whole event has everyone throwing buns all over the hall.
- Got Volunteered: Wally is forced to do a Punch and Judy show for the gala when Delia tells Mrs. Palmer that he'll do it without asking him first.
- Rich Bitch: Lady Jane Caterham, who turns up her nose at Piltdown and thinks that being in such a town is beneath her.
- Pretty in Mink: Lady Caterham always wears a lovely mink coat.
- Signs of Disrepair: When Lady Caterham turns on the town's illuminations, the power grid can't handle all the lights, causing many of the illuminated signs to short out and spell out insults.
- Tagline: "Hancock rebels again!".
- Talk to the Fist:
- During the Foodfight! at the gala, Charles punches a drunk in the face
- After Lady Caterham slaps her, Delia retaliates with a knockout punch that makes the front page of the papers.
