In his last role before he became an international superstar with his starring role as James Bond in Dr. No (1962), Sean Connery appeared in a World War II comedy entitled On the Fiddle (1961), which is a British colloquialism for a shyster on the take. In it, he played a character named Pedlar Pascoe, a gypsy rogue who hooks up with con artist Horace Pope (Alfred Lynch) when the latter convinces him to join the RAF where they can hoodwink and trick fellow enlisted men with their opportunistic schemes. All of their so-called business ventures are failures until they are transferred to a combat zone in France where they become unexpected war heroes and return in triumph, eventually regaining ownership of a pub in Cornwall they had previously lost. The film was a modest, unassuming B-movie entertainment that would probably never have received a U.S. theatrical release if it wasn't for Connery's success as secret agent OO7 and explains why On the Fiddle turned up in American movie houses as Operation Snafu in 1965 (it was also known as Operation War Head).

At the time he made On the Fiddle, Connery was at the end of a very unsuccessful contract with 20th-Century-Fox and unhappy with the direction of his career and the sort of roles he was being offered. Fox gave him one more opportunity in the sprawling all-star Normandy Invasion epic, The Longest Day (1962), in which his brief scene with comrades-in-arms Kenneth More and Norman Rossington qualified as no more than a cameo. After that, Fox cut him loose but director Terence Young, who had previously directed Connery when he was a minor supporting actor in Action of the Tiger in 1957, caught his performance in the stage play Judith and realized he would be perfect as the heroic lead in an adaptation of Ian Fleming's spy adventure, Dr. No. While there are varying accounts of who deserves the credit for casting Connery in the role of James Bond – producers Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli and Harry Saltzman often claim that honor – Young was instrumental in the decision and Connery's subsequent success.

Despite its relatively obscure status in Connery's filmography, On the Fiddle also had a hand in assisting Connery's climb to fame. It marked the first time he achieved top billing in a movie and, despite its lack of critical accolades, it did attract the attention of some movers and shakers in the film industry. A writer for the British publication Woman noted at the time that "It's a real mystery to me why no film company has built Sean Connery into a great international star. He reminded me of Clark Gable. He has the same rare mixture of handsome virility, sweetness and warmth."

Connery has moments of charm and appealing foolishness as the not-too-bright, more brawny half of the con man team in On the Fiddle and the picture is more interesting today than when it was first released. Now it provides an intriguing look at wartime England with director Cyril Frankel mixing stock footage with real locations that featured bombed out ruins and damage from the war. It also functions as a showcase for some of the best comedic character actors in British cinema at that time, all of whom get to shine in brief bits in the film's episodic structure, such as John Le Mesurier, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Lance Percival.

When On the Fiddle opened in the U.S. as Operation Snafu, audiences and critics weren't fooled into believing it had any connection to the James Bond films and it quickly vanished after a brief theatrical run. Yet, the few reviews it did receive were more positive than negative with Howard Thompson, film critic for The New York Times, writing "The wonder is that a picture with a story already done, gag by gag, a hundred times is so easy to take. It is, though – flip, friendly, brisk and a wee bit cynical in its take-it-or-leave-it jauntiness. Even the final switch to heroics clicks into place as deftly played by Alfred Lynch and Mr. Connery."

Alfred Lynch, unfortunately, never had the same impact that Connery had on American audiences but on his home turf, he was quite successful, specializing in working class Cockneys in such films as Two and Two Make Six (1961) and West Eleven (1963), eventually graduating to bigger international productions such as 55 Days at Peking (1963), The Hill (1965) with his former co-star Sean Connery, and The Taming of the Shrew (1967) and numerous television shows in England (Manhunt, The Fortunes of Nigel, Doctor Who).

Producer: Benjamin Fisz
Director: Cyril Frankel
Screenplay: Harold Buchman; R.F. Delderfield (novel "Stop at a Winner")
Cinematography: Edward Scaife
Art Direction: John Blezard
Music: Malcolm Arnold
Film Editing: Peter Hunt
Cast: Alfred Lynch (Horace Pope), Sean Connery (Pedlar Pascoe), Cecil Parker (Group Capt. Bascombe), Stanley Holloway (Mr. Cooksley), Alan King (Top Sgt. Buzzer), Eric Barker (Doctor), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Trowbridge), Kathleen Harrison (Mrs. Cooksley), Eleanor Summerfield (Flora McNaughton), Terence Longdon (Air Gunner), Victor Maddern (First Airman), Harry Locke (Huxtable), John Le Mesurier (Hixon), Viola Keats (Sister), Peter Sinclair (Mr. Pope).
BW-97m.

by Jeff Stafford

SOURCES:
Sean Connery: A Biography by Michael Freedland
Sean Connery by John Parker
Sean Connery: A Biography by Bob McCabe
another untitled Sean bio
www.afi.com
www.screenonline.org.uk/
IMDB