Privates Progress.

Stanley Windrush may be a familiar name for the lovers of 1950’s British cinema as the actor Ian Carmichael famously played the character twice. In 1959 he played Windrush in the Boulting Brothers movie I’m All Right Jack a satire on British industrial relations in the 1950’s. This movie was in fact a sequel to an earlier Boulting Brothers movie Privates Progress (1956) another satire but this time a light-hearted look at British army life during WW2. It included actors and characters found in the later film including Carmichael first portrayal of the unfortunate misfit Windrush that turned out to give the actor his first big break in movies.

 

What the English call a silly ass. 

Both these films had a satirical capability that was in many ways unique to the brothers and were ‘irreverently critical of British institutions’[1] The movie opens in 1942 and we find Stanley Windrush at University in the middle of his studies when he is called up to join the army to do his bit for the war effort. Our Stanley is of course an academic who comes from a well to do family and is assumed to be officer material. But Stanley turns out to be particularly incompetent, what the English would call a ‘silly ass’; consequently he does not survive the officer-training course at Gravestone Barracks. Placed in a far flung holding unit as a regular private where he can do no harm amongst fellow soldiers who display immense energy and resourcefulness avoiding any work. Its there he befriends Private Cox (Richard Attenborough) a particularly crafty layabout. Both men are drafted into a division commanded by Stanley’s uncle, Brigadier Tracepurcel (Dennis Price) a rather untrustworthy individual who has been tasked with uplifting a hoard of looted treasures and works of art from behind German lines. Stanley’s main job is to interpret but there is one slight problem his training at the interpreters school has been in Japanese and not German!

Various British actors grace the screen. 

Although the film was the second most popular movie at the British box office in 1957 it is not as hard hitting satirically as I’m All Right Jack.  It has a weak story line that is only saved from obscurity by its cast. As well as great performances from Carmichael, Attenborough and Price we get Terry Thomas as Major Hitchcock commander of the holding unit and an array of classic British actors including Peter Jones of The Rag Trade fame, William Hartnell known for his TV appearances as the first Doctor Who and in The Army Game as well as his roles in classic British feature film’s like Brighton Rock (1947) and Hell Drivers (1957). There is also an uncredited appearance, albeit brief of Christopher Lee just before his Hammer Horror career took off.

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[1] Sixties British Cinema - Robert Murphy

Beat Girl (Wild for Kicks).

“Psychologists think most human neurosis comes from too much contact with other human beings” so says wealthy Paul Lindon (David Farrar) who has just brought his new French wife Nichole (French actress Noelle Adam) home following their wedding in Paris. The 24-year-old French beauty is only half the prominent architects age, something that strikes home when she meets Paul’s daughter, the rebellious Jennifer (Brigette Bardot wonnabee Gillian Hills), who immediately takes a dislike to her stepmother. The large austere family home that all three now share has few homely attractions. Jennifer describes it as a morgue with Nichole commenting on the houses barrenness - all of which does not help its repressive constraining atmosphere. 

 

Brigette Bardot wonnabee Gillian Hills.

The films narrative centres on the relationship between the two women and an area of London known as Soho. Nichole has a past to hide that involves an old friend called Greta (B-Movie actress Delphi Lawrence) who is the star performer at a strip club owned by her boyfriend Kenny King (Christopher Lee taking a break from Hammer Films). Jennifer’s frequents the Soho Coffee Bars where mainly spoilt little rich kids hang out listening and dancing to ‘cool decadent jazz’. They include the obligatory working class lad Dave (good use of pop singer Adam Faith in his first film, although his second movie, along side girlfriend of the time Carol White, Never Let Go (1960) had already been released), Tony, a general’s son whose mother was killed in the Blitz, who drinks to much (played by Peter McEnery also in his debut movie, an actor who had a prominent role in Victim in 1961 along side Dirk Bogarde) and Tony’s well bred girlfriend Dodo (Shirley Anne Field who famously played Arthur Seaton’s girlfriend Doreen in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960))   

 

A cool crowd in Chislehurst Caves.

Directed by French filmmaker Edmond T Greville Beat Girl (1960) or as it was known in the USA Wild for Kicks, is a product of its time with its dodgy script and terrible corny dialog. There were small roles for Oliver Reed and Carol White and a larger one for Nigel Green, best known for his role as Colonel Ross in The Ipcress File (1965) and who also appeared in a range of British movies including the thriller The Man Who Finally Died (1963) alongside Stanley Baker. Also making his debut was composer John Barry with his first movie commission. Incidentally the films soundtrack was the first to be released on a LP (a large piece of vinyl with a picture cover!). Filmed at the MGM-British Film Studios at Borehamwood Hertfordshire its location shooting took place in Soho London with club scenes filmed in the Chislehurst Caves in Kent, Southern England.

 

An audition takes place in a late 1950's Soho strip joint.... 

....where its owner the late Christopher Lee interrogates Gillian Hills.   

 This was another of these films’ that received critically bad reviews but was popular with cinemagoers. It had problems with the censor that delayed its general release. The setbacks were down to displays of topless nudity and strip tease along with scenes of juvenile delinquency involving public road racing and ‘playing’ chicken on a railway line!  The movie was eventually given an adult only “X” certificate; thankfully my copy of the DVD was the uncut version that certainly made it a more appealing piece of British cinematic history.        

A Tale of Two Cities.

Written in 1859 and originally published in weekly instalments between April 1859 and November 1859 Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities was set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution and depicts how when the French proletariat got sick of the way aristocracy was treating them they decided that the best response was to execute the lot of them by chopping off their heads using the guillotine! Dickens story set out the social parallels between Paris and London but unfortunately the British did not have the use of the guillotine and to this day are still putting up with the shite served up by their rich overlords.

 

The handsome Sydney Carlton. 

Following four silent film adaptations of Dickens story the first talky was in 1935 directed by Jack Conway and starred Ronald Colman and Elizabeth Allan and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1980 there was a TV adaptation that starred Chris Sarandon, Peter Cushing, Alice Krige and Billie Whitelaw. But between the two we had A Tale of Two Cities made at Pinewood in 1958. Directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty E Box. The Rank Organisation movie starred Dirk Bogarde as Sydney Carlton with Dorothy Tutin as Lucie Manette.

 

Stephan Murray, Dorothy Tutin, Bogarde and Athene Seyler.

This is affectively a love story set against the storming of the Bastille with Bogarde's character making the ultimate sacrifice for the girl he loves so that she can live happily ever after with his look-alike rival. Some critics have commended Bogarde's performance as his best to date, which is not surprising as most of his career changing performances, other than Hunted (1952) came after A Tale Of Two Cities. Mine you the 38 year old actor did look extremely handsome as Carlton, a young lawyer who hates himself and seems to have a death wish slowly killing himself by consuming large quantities of alcohol! Dorothy Tutin (Savage Messiah 1972) does not have to put much effort into her role but there are some stand out performances further down the pecking order including Donald Pleasance as an unctuous spy, Christopher Lee as a sadistic aristocrat and Rosalie Crutchley as a sort of Madame guillotine character who gets a lot of pleasure arranging for the aristocracy to meet there deserved end. Also in attendance among the host of British actors is Cecil Parker as a banker, Athene Seyler as Tutin’s over protective companion and Stephan Murray as Tutin’s father - whose speedy recovery from 18 years in the Bastille is something to be marvelled at!

 

Rosalie Crutchley as 'Madame Guillotine'

Made completely in a studio does not help to make this the most realistic ‘revolutionary’ film you have ever watched with some scenes so underplayed that the excitement is completely non-existent. But is does pick up in the second half, which is probably more to do with the first half being so soporific and certainly is not a stand out movie in the career of one of Britain's greatest actors.