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.
