On the Fiddle 1961

During the Second World War, the streetwise Horace Pope, Alfred Lynch, is hauled before a magistrate on charges of street peddling. In mitigation, he claims his black-market work is only a stopgap until he enlists in the war effort. The magistrate, skeptical of his plea, forces him to sign up and join the fight.

Soon after, Pope bonds with Pedlar Pascoe, a loyal and easy-going companion who gladly goes along with his schemes. Together they pursue small-time get-rich-quick plans—selling leave passes and arranging postings near home—calculated to pad their pockets while keeping them from being sent into front-line action. Their antics are light-hearted but risky, and their cleverness makes their misdeeds feel almost forgivable in the chaos of war.

Even after their records catch up with them, they are sent on a mission to occupied France, where they press their luck once more by selling food and supplies to the grateful newly-liberated French. The work becomes oddly useful amid the war’s upheaval, and their improvisation softens the blow of danger around them.

Their fortunes take a dramatic turn when they kill a group of German soldiers who have them pinned down in a forest. They are decorated by the American forces to whom they have been attached, and their commanding officer—who harbors a sneaking admiration for their schemes—tears up their record of crimes, recognizing that a touch of audacity can, in extraordinary times, tilt the balance toward something unexpectedly heroic.