Some East End Wide Boys get a chance to unwillingly serve their country during WW2 in the 1965 British comedy Pal Joey. A Wide Boy is a "man who lives by his wits, wheeling and dealing," according to the Wikipedia. The Wide stands for wide awake or sharp witted. Sadly the men that Harry H Corbett pals around with can't live up to that expectation and they all wind up in the Army. They don't leave their cheating ways behind. Besides Harry H Corbett the cast includes Bill Frazer, Percy Herbert, Lance Percival, Reg Varney, Thorley Walters, Moira Lister, Derek Nimmo, and a few others I've seen but can't put a name to without help from the IMDb.
The movie is based on a novel by Eddie Chapman, director Frank Launder wrote the screenplay with Mike Watts. Launder is one of my favorite British film makers but this is just an average film. Perhaps if Frank's old working partner Sidney Gilliat had written the screenplay it might have been better. the Wikipedia says: The Guardian called it a "hopelessly ramshackle vehicle" for Harry Corbett.
It's a comedy but it fails to get a lot of laughs from me. Harry and his pals aren't that interesting either. Not sorry I watched it but it would have been nice to have some more jokes. It's another one from The British Film series, not all of whom are winners.
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