Up in the World
Up in the World
| 06 December 1956 (USA)
Up in the World Trailers

Norman is a window cleaner who has to clean a manor house with hundreds of windows. He is distracted by the son of the house who persuades him to go into town. When some villains try and kidnap the young heir Norman fights them off but the heir has banged his head and can't remember Norman's heroic stand

Reviews
dglink

The irrepressible Norman Wisdom goes "Up in the World" from poster hanger to window washer at a lavish estate, and the estate is lavish indeed as the film's exteriors were shot at the magnificent Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. Norman again tangles with his old nemesis, Jerry Desmonde as the estate manager, and finds a new foil in a spoiled young heir, Michael Caridia. Although Norman never falters, the film does. An extended soccer match wears on, and an involved kidnapping plot has few gags. However, the finale's Marx-Brothers-like mayhem leaves an elegant hall in shambles, as befitting the ever-bumbling Mr. Wisdom."Up in the World" is formula Norman, which is not all bad. Norman is fired over and over; he sings the title song, one of his own composing; and he falls for a young housemaid, who is in the mold of the young ladies Norman always falls for. Michael Ward, who played a fussy photographer in "Man of the Moment," amusingly returns as a fussy uncle here, and Lionel Jeffries pops up in a funny cameo. Mr. Wisdom never lets us down; whether dangling from a window, fooling around in a queue, or doing battle with Jerry Desmonde, his comic talents are pitch perfect. If only the movie had been worthy of him. However, lesser Wisdom is better than no Wisdom, and "Up in the World," while not a great classic, is acceptably entertaining.

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Aaron Hassard

I just watched this on Wednesday night (Tonight) and i have to say a really enjoyed it.My favourite bit, well thats hard to choose actually, em it has to be the bit where, well i can't choose they all just wee bits you can't really write down!My least favourite bit by far is the singing bit, i dislike the way Norman randomly breaks into song in some of his movies, but then again, he has a good singing voice and if i were the same, i'd like to show it to the world like Norman does!Basically in this film Norman applies for a window cleaner job at a big house with hundreds of windows, but is constantly stopped by sir Reggie (who sometimes during the movie i'd love to punch in the face but less annoying as the film progressed) who is later kidnapped and Norman tries to save him but is mistaken to be the kidnapper and is put to prison but is later found to be a hero and everything ends well, with Norman getting married to his girlfriend!Very good family comedy, 7/10.

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Andrei Pavlov

No, you will more likely keep off the chair rolling under the table.A gangster topic, a space topic, a war topic, a supermarket topic, a burlesque topic or a hospital one - Mr Norman Wisdom did it all. And did them all with heart. This movie sticks to the gangster topic. Norman Pitkin delivers again. In "Up in the World" he has quite a bunch of hilarious scenes: dressing up as a woman twice (!), throwing bombs with tear gas (!), performing Rock-and-Roll (!), escaping from a prison on a stormy day using a grotesquely long ladder (!), etc. My favourite one is with the Rock-and-Roll dance. Hope, there are enough exclamation marks to rate this movie rather high.Such comedies are fading away in today's hectic cybernetic world. To me they are the best of the best, because they remain childish and amusing in a very pleasant way. This kind of comfortable family entertainment is being almost lost and completely forgotten. That's atrocity.To give it the highest mark would be very subjective, but it's my choice and my advice: 10 out of 10. Thanks for attention.

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Lee Eisenberg

"Up in the World" is the first Norman Wisdom film that I've ever seen (I'd never even heard of him until watching it, although it sounds like he was a fairly famous comedian in his day). If this one is any indication, then the rest of his movies must be a hoot. What I mean is that "UITW" nearly made me die laughing. It casts Norman Wisdom as working-class Norman, who gets a job as a window washer for some rich snobs. Employed by them, he proceeds to do the sorts of things that we most often associate with Insp. Clouseau and Gilligan, all the while riling the stuffy owners; that whole sequence when he interrupts the meeting is very likely to make you hoarse from laughter. But when some thugs try to kidnap the son, he has to take charge.One thing that I should identify is that I watched this movie dubbed in Russian and I still laughed my head off. You literally don't need to know what they're saying to have a good time, you just need to see what Norman is doing. I guess that having him develop a relation with the maid did give the movie a humanizing aspect, but the truth is that you could watch "UITW" with the sound off and still get belly laughs. I definitely recommend it.

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