On the Beat (1962 film)

It was shot at Pinewood Studios and on location around Windsor. The film's sets were designed by the art director Bert Davey. It marked a return to Rank for Wisdom following two films for United Artists, although the latter distributed the film in America.

Norman Pitkin (Norman Wisdom) works at Scotland Yard as a car cleaner, but dreams of becoming a policeman as his late father was. The police reject his request to join the force, but later recruit him to work undercover in disguise. He has turned out to be the double of a suspected jewel thief, an Italian crime boss in London. In addition to his criminal activities, this man is a ladies' hairdresser.

Norman disguises himself as the suspect and gains entry to his salon. Once inside, after some inevitable mishaps, he manages to find the stolen goods, knock out the suspect, wrap him up in a curtain/wall rug, and bring him to justice.

As a reward, he is offered a permanent position in the police and marries his love, the ex-girlfriend of the man he brought to justice (whom he had rescued earlier in the film when she was attempting to commit suicide by jumping in the river).

• Norman Wisdom as Norman Pitkin/Giulio Napolitani
• Jennifer Jayne as Rosanna
• Raymond Huntley as Sir Ronald Ackroyd
• David Lodge as Superintendent Hobson
• Esma Cannon as Mrs. Stammers
• Eric Barker as Doctor
• Eleanor Summerfield as Sergeant Wilkins
• Ronnie Stevens as Oberon
• Terence Alexander as Chief Superintendent Belcher
• Maurice Kaufmann as Vince
• Dilys Laye as American Lady
• George Pastell as Manzini
• Jack Watson as Police Sergeant
• Campbell Singer as Bollington
• Lionel Murton as Man in Underground Train
• Robert Rietti as Italian Lawyer
• Marjie Lawrence as Crying Lady
• Peggy Ann Clifford as Giulio's Mother
• Jean Aubrey as Lady Hinchingford
• Monte Landis as Mr. Bassett
• Mario Fabrizi as Newspaper Seller
• Alfred Burke as Trigger O'Flynn
• John Blythe as Chauffeur (uncredited)
• Cyril Chamberlain as Cafe Proprietor (uncredited)
• Tutte Lemkow as Billposter in Underground (uncredited)
• Larry Martyn as Yob in Cafe (uncredited)
• Julian Orchard as Wedding Photographer (uncredited)
• Anita Sharp-Bolster as Hair-Salon Customer (uncredited)
• Alister Williamson as Detective (uncredited)

The film was one of the 12 most popular movies at the British box office in 1963.[1] According to Kine Weekly the four most popular films at the British box office in 1963 were From Russia With Love, Summer Holiday, Tom Jones and The Great Escape, followed by, in alphabetical order, Doctor in Distress, The Fast Lady, Girls! Girls! Girls!, Heaven's Above, Jason and the Argonauts, In Search of the Castaways, It Happened at the World's Fair, The Longest Day, On the Beat, Sodom and Gomorrah, The V. I. Ps, and The Wrong Arm of the Law.[2]

A slightly different arrangement of the film's title theme, by composer Philip Green, was recorded for a production music library, and may be heard in many American animated cartoons of the early 1960s, particularly those from Hanna-Barbera Productions.

• Hunter, I.Q. & Porter, Laraine. British Comedy Cinema. Routledge, 2012.

• On The Beat at IMDb
• On the Beat Trailer