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

The Dark Man.

British born Jeffrey Dell was better known as a writer than a film director, although he did direct four feature films between 1943 and 1950 and one co-direct with Roy Boulting in 1959. The Dark Man (1951), which was also known as Man Detained, was made at Merton Park and on the Kent coast in England. Sharp eyes will spot Maidstone written on the front of a single decker bus, and its exciting climax was filmed on the British Army ranges at Dungeness in 1950 just six years after the end of WW2.

 

The lovelorn Policeman.

The Ruthless Killer.

This Jeffery Dell penned story starts when a ruthless killer, known only as the Dark Man (Maxwell Reed), robs and kills a petty criminal at an isolated farmhouse. Driven to the scene of the crime by a local taxi driver who is deemed to be the only witness has to be disposed of. When our killer is dealing with the driver a young woman on her bicycle hears the shots and pauses to investigate and accidently see’s the face of the murderer. Molly Lester (Natasha Perry) quickly leaves the scene but to late - the Dark Man has seen her and sets out to eliminate her and protect his identity, but not before she is given police protection in the form of Detective Inspector Jack Viner (Edward Underdown), who unprofessionally admits to Molly (22 years his junior) that he has developed romantic feelings for her? It wouldn’t happen today I hear you shout! In the meantime our villain is still stalking his intended victim and outwitting our London based lovelorn policeman.

 

The intended victim. 

The Best Friend.

Also on the cast list are Barbara Murray as Molly’s friend Carol Barns and William Hartnell as Jack Viner’s grumpy boss. As with many of these 1950’s British movies it includes some well-known faces including Harry Fowler, Sam Kidd, Digby Wolfe and Robert Brown. Not a particular unusual story but one made more interesting by Dell’s direction, the menace of Maxwell Reed as the shadowy villain and the location shooting in what seemed like, certainly compared to today, an empty Kent coast! Well worth a look at something that comes across as a rather superior B-movie.

Brighton Rock 1947.

According to Grahame Green, Richard Attenborough’s portrayal of the 17-year-old razor-wielding thug Pinkie Brown is the best depiction of any of the characters in his novels. When you see the film Brighton Rock (1947) you will understand why. This is a mesmerising performance and totally believable and Attenborough excels himself and will always be remembered for this particular role although as an actor he was in many other films including Dancing with Crime (1947), I’m All Right Jack (1959) and 10 Rillington Place (1971). But this role was to my mind the template for many other sociopathic gangsters that we still come across in modern cinema. Attenborough’s Pinkie Brown was a scary creation that despite the evil bravado was actually deeply vulnerable but almost devoid of human feelings and emotion.

 

Hail Mary full of grace....

It was Greene and Terence Rattigan that wrote the screenplay adapted from Greene’s 1938 novel of the same name. Richard Attenborough had starred in the original stage version at the Garrick Theatre in 1944 opposite Dulcie Gray as the naïve Rose, the modest waitress who becomes Pinkie’s girlfriend and then his wife, a role played by the Carol Marsh in this, the first screen adaptation[1].

Cubbit, Dallow and Pinkie discuss strategy. 

The drama is centred on Brighton, East Sussex on the South Coast of England between the wars. Amongst the façade of tourism and the Regency Terraces there is another Brighton, one of dark alleyways and slum housing where you will find the race-track gangs who fought one another with cut throat razors in order to control the tracks. One such gang was lead by Kite who because of an article written by newspaper reporter Fred Hale (Alan Wheatley) was killed by a rival gang. The young Pinkie Brown takes over leadership of the gang backed up by his second in command Dallow (William Hartnall whose suit you will not easily forget) Cubit (Nigel Stock) and the aging Spicer (Wylie Wilson). The gang set out to avenge the death of Kite by killing Hale and making it seem like a heart attack or perhaps a suicide. The local ‘bogies’ are happy to close the case and if it were not for the persistence of Ida Arnold (Hermione Bradley) who believes that Fred Hale has been murdered, nothing would have been done to investigate the matter further.

 

Rose - the naive waitress.

As well as the cast I have already mentioned some great British character actors, including Harcourt Williams as the crocked lawyer Prewitt, populated the film all of which were in top form. It was directed by John Boulting with his identical twin Roy producing. Location shooting took place in and around Brighton with the cinematography in the capable hands of Harry Waxman who went on to win a prize for his work on the 1959 social problem film Sapphire. The mood music was by Hans May.  All-in-all a terrific movie, if you have never seen it I would suggest you put that right immediately if for no other reason than to see an unforgettable performance from one of Britain’s greatest cinematic assets who will be greatly missed but as with all the best actors and directors leave’s us a body of work to appreciate for all time.

It it wasn't for Ida Arnold........

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[1] The second adaptation Brighton Rock (2010)