Blu-ray Film Review | StudioCanal

The Punch and Judy Man (1963) • Blu-ray [StudioCanal, Vintage Classics] — Hancock’s hit-and-miss kitchen sink comedy

A seaside Punch and Judy man is driven to distraction by his social climbing wife and his hatred for the snobbery of local government.

The Punch and Judy Man is a strange film that’s difficult to pigeonhole into one definite genre. Although there’s a sharp wit at work throughout, it’s hardly the comedy that its pre-release marketing had promised. I suppose it could be categorised as a comedy of manners that slides towards farce, and there are elements that would become mainstays of the sitcom format. But it’s more of a beautifully observed and realised slice-of-life drama — a sometimes-poignant portrait of a run-down seaside town desperate to recover its bygone halcyon days. It owes more to Under Milk Wood than it does to predecessors like the Ealing comedies or the Carry On films.

At the time, Tony Hancock was by far the most popular British comedian, and audiences were expecting his…