The Rebel (1961 film)

The Rebel
Trade ad poster by Tom Chantrell
Directed by	Robert Day
Produced by	W.A. Whittaker
Written by	Ray Galton and Alan Simpson Tony Hancock
Starring	Tony Hancock George Sanders Paul Massie Margit Saad
Music by	Frank Cordell
Cinematography	Gilbert Taylor
Edited by	Richard Best
Production company	Associated British Picture Corporation
Distributed by	Warner-Pathé Distributors
Release date	2 March 1961, World Premiere London (UK)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Rebel (US title: Call Me Genius) is a 1961 satirical comedy film about the clash between bourgeois and bohemian cultures. Starring the British comedian Tony Hancock, it was written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The film was made by Associated British Picture Corporation and distributed by Warner-Pathé (ABPC's distribution arm).

Hancock plays a disaffected London office clerk who gives up his office job to pursue full-time his vocation as an artist. Single-mindedly, and with an enthusiasm far exceeding any artistic talent, he sets to work on his supposed masterpiece Aphrodite at the Waterhole, moving to Paris where he expects his genius will be appreciated. While his ideas and persona gain acceptance (indeed plaudits) among the "beat" set, legitimate art critics, like Sir Charles Broward (George Sanders), scoff at his work. He manages to achieve success, however, when the work of his former roommate, a genuinely talented painter, becomes confused with his own. The confusion is eventually resolved after a series of art exhibitions, and he returns to London, where he pursues his 'art' in defiance of whatever others may think of it.

The Rebel attempts to transfer Hancock's TV comedy persona to the big screen, and several of his regular supporting cast also appeared, including John Le Mesurier, Liz Fraser and Mario Fabrizi. Although the film was the sixth most popular movie at the British box office for 1961, it was not well received in the USA, where audiences possibly did not understand the highly anglocentric humour. Hancock though was nominated for a BAFTA Film Award in 1962 as Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles:

The film explores existentialist themes by mocking Parisian intellectual society and portraying the pretensions of the English middle class. Galton and Simpson had previously satirised pseudo-intellectuals in the Hancock's Half Hour radio episode "The Poetry Society", in which Hancock attempts to imitate the style of the pretentious poets and fails, and is infuriated when his idiot friend Bill does the same and wins their enthusiastic approval.