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Tony Hancock Filmography
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Tony Hancock: International Dreams and Introspection
Hancock also starred in the 1960 film The Rebel
(aka, Call Me Genius in the USA) where he plays the role of an office worker turned artist who meets international acclaim after moving to Paris, but only as the result of mistaken identity. The film was not well received in the United States; owing to a conflict with a contemporary series the film had to be renamed and this inflamed American critics. Hancock was later to dismiss the film as crude and its failure was a contributory factor in his disastrous break with his writers, Galton and Simpson, after the last television series for the BBC. This was famously the worst decision of his career.
Hancock always dreamed of being a major international star, but tradition holds that he failed to realise how uniquely British his style of humour was - too uniquely British, that is, to have universal appeal. This was demonstrated by his second starring vehicle, The Punch and Judy Man (1962), in which he plays a struggling seaside entertainer who dreams of a better life. Sylvia Sims plays his nagging social-climber of a wife, and John Le Mesurier plays a sand sculptor. The film's humour is bitter-sweet and understated and was perfectly tailored to a particular British audience of the time. The vast American entertainment industry, whose moguls were used to a more brash style of humour, dismissed it as slow-moving and dull. His BBC shows were, however, frequently broadcast in Australia.
In early 1960 Hancock appeared on the BBC's
Face to Face, a half-hour in-depth interview programme conducted by former Labour MP John Freeman. Freeman asked Hancock many searching questions about his life and work. Hancock, who deeply admired his interviewer, often appeared uncomfortable with the questions - but answered them frankly and honestly. Hancock had always been highly self-critical, and it is often argued that this interview heightened this tendency, contributing to his later depression.
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