Real movie stardom pretty much eluded Spike Milligan, although he appeared in quite a few. He was an unlikely leading man and there are only a small handful of films in which his name appears above the title - this week Jeremy Phillips of Cinema Limbo joins Tyler to mull over one of them: arguably Spike's 'biggest' film, Postman's Knock from 1962.
In the early sixties Spike was signed to MGM with a view to launching him on the same road to cinematic success as his erstwhile Goons colleague Peter Sellers but a lack of available projects and, frankly, the difficulty in finding something which suited Milligan's unique style put paid to any ambition he may have harboured of being honoured by the Academy.
He made Invasion Quartet with Bill Travers and then soon after Postman's Knock, in which he starred as Harold Petts, a rural village postman who gets a job in London, and naturally havoc ensues. Add a rather weak romantic subplot and some comedy villains and the result is a pretty formulaic British black & white comedy film - the inclusion of Arthur Mullard, Mario Fabrizi and Warren Mitchell to the cast further cements it.
But for all that it's not a bad film; there's some nice touches here and there and Spike does his best with what he's been given. Oh, and you'll be whistling the theme tune all day!
Cinema Limbo can be found here: http://www.podnose.com/cinema-limbo/

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