This was supposed to be Tony Hancock's breakout role to world stardom. It did not pan out that way and Hancock would take his own life less than 5 years after this was released. The irony with this movie is how much better the supporting cast comes across than the star who cowrote the script. Mario Fabrizi, Hugh Lloyd, Ronald Fraser, John Le Mesurier all have a bigger collective impact in their scenes than Tony Hancock. Hancock has been accused of firing all his costars in Hancock's Half Hour because they either upstaged him or practically shared billing like a double act.
What is apparent when comparing this to The Rebel is how well Galton and Simpson wrote to Hancock's talents as a performer than Hancock could. Granted the comparisons between the two should end there since this is not a screwball comedy like The Rebel was. I think the writing team were mocking Hancock a little with that script. His artwork being the metaphor for his own talent and how well he ends up promoting someone else's hard work and talent that he just happens to be the face of by chance. The fact that it happens abroad instead of England is even worse since it mirrors Hancock's ambitions to be an international success. Galton and Simpson's script of The Rebel sounds like a vicious attack on Hancock if analyzed in that way.
The movie has nice scenes. It doesn't have a particularly severe plot. A man with a wife desperate to achieve status in the community demands her husband make an effort to do so with disasterous results. Others have noted that the movie can't decide what it is. Dark comedy, screwball comedy, drama etc. It feels like it drifts from time to time.
I love the location shooting the most but I still hoped this movie were set in the winter months. Della Pinner's motivations would be better understood during the cold slow months at the shore. I can image Wally and Edward's Punch and Judy act would be pushed indoors to different functions and schools. Community becomes all the locals and their focus shifts to each other when the tourists are not around. Everything makes much more sense off season. They try to make up for that with the town anniversary event bringing the locals together. Off season at a shore town can be extremely dreary so trying to be comic in that setting might be asking too much of anyone.