No Smoking (1955) Online

This is a traditional British comedy starring comic actors of the period.

It has the feeling of an Ealing comedy due to the fact that it is about the struggle between the " little man " and the government.

Reg Dixon stars as Reg Bates, a chemist who runs a shop in a small village. He also makes his own pills and potions.

One such pill is an anti smoking pill that stops people from wanting a fag.

However, when production starts on a grand scale the tobacco companies and the government set out to stop him. Of course , after many comic moments the little man triumphs.

This is a smart little comedy made more enjoyable by the likable Reg Dixon as the little man. Good for a few chuckles on a wet afternoon in January!

Reg Dixon was a radio comedian whose signature tune was "Confidentially".He looks rather like the magician David Nixon.Dixon had a very limited film career of two films,of which,unsurprisingly this is the last.The film is based on a play.However the idea is clearly borrowed from "The Man In The White Suit".Namely the reaction of a major industry to its profits plunging.However i find the idea of a no smoking pill in the 1950s film as being rather out of place.i cannot recall any major desire on the populations part to give up smoking.this was before the link to cancer was established.In fact when you went to the cinema you used to have to watch the film through a cloud of smoke.You could see the rising smoke picked out by the beam of the projector.This is a very lame comedy and it actually sent me off to sleep.