Heavens Above.

Some critics believe that the last of the Boulting Brothers social satires Heavens Above (1963) deserves to be remembered because of Peter Sellers lead performance as the sincere Church of England clergyman who gets sent due to a clerical (no pun intended) error to the wrong parish and I would not disagree, but there is far more to the film than just Sellers award winning performance. It’s a clever and humorous satire on religion, the establishment and the working class and was called the Boulting Brothers most ‘human picture’ [1].

 

Sellers at his best.

The film is set in a small country town called Orbiston Parva that is over lorded by the Despard family, rich local landowners and proprietors of a factory that provides local employment. When we first meet the Rev. John Smallwood (Sellers) he is in a prison cell having been trussed up by a convict he has recommended to be made a trustee. The prison authorities are not unhappy to see their prison chaplain moved to another parish. But we soon discover that there are two John Smallwood’s and the wrong one gets sent to Orbiston Parva where chaos ensues.  Firstly he appoints a West Indian dustman as his churchwarden and then to make matters worse he moves the very large and unruly Smith family into the Manse.  Following these two actions things can only get worse and believe me they do.

 

Eric Skyes with a young future Small Faces star - Steve Marriott.

This British movie has an exceptional cast that’s far to long to list here but I would give special mention to Eric Skyes as head of the Smith family, Cecil Parker as the Archdeacon who recommends Smallwood for the Orbiston Parva parish and lives to regret it, Brock Peters as the churchwarden and Ian Carmichael in a guest appearance as the other Smallwood.  The films script was written by Frank Harvey, who was also responsible for writing the scripts for I’m All Right Jack (1959) and Privates Progress (1956), and based on an idea by Malcolm Muggeridge who also has a cameo role in the film.  

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[1] Cecil Wilson Daily Mail 22 May 1963

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