The Baby and the Battleship ** (1956, John Mills, Richard Attenborough, André Morell, Michael Hordern, Lisa Gastoni) – Classic Movie Review 2493

Producer-director Jay Lewis’s 1956 British comedy is a cheery and fast-moving if dated Fifties caper about a boatload of jovial Royal Navy sailors who have shore leave in Naples. After a brawl, one of them wakes up to find an Italian baby separated from its mother and is forced to smuggle it aboard their ship in the middle of joint operations with Allied navies off the coast of Italy.

Though typecast as servicemen and giving very broad performances, John Mills and Richard Attenborough (as Puncher and Knocker!) keep the mild fun afloat, even if the script, based on a 1956 novel by Anthony Thorne, is high on sentimentality and lower on wit and laughs. The likeable actors help a lot, though. It’s Puncher who finds and smuggles the baby.

It was in touch with the mood of the time and a sizeable hit in its day and was one of the ten most popular movies at the British box office in 1956.

John Mills said: ‘I was sent the script by Elstree studios. It was awful but the idea was good. I gave it to Bryan Forbes to do a rewrite.’ Forbes also has an acting role as Professor Evans. Martyn Garrett, who played the baby, made only this film and Three Men in a Boat (1956).

Also in the sweet cast are André Morell, Michael Hordern, Lisa Gastoni, Ernest Clark, Lionel Jeffries, Thorley Walters, Duncan Lamont, Cyril Raymond, Kenneth Griffith, John le Mesurier, Gordon Jackson, Harry Locke, Michael Howard, Clifford Morrison and Ferdy Mayne. Barry Foster is a sailor at the dance.

The British Royal Navy provided a large amount of co-operation with scenes shot aboard HMS Birmingham and in Malta.

The three friends and business partners are all gone now: John Mills died on April 23 2005 aged 97, Richard Attenborough died on August 24 2014 aged 90 and Bryan Forbes died on 8 May 2013 (aged 86).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2493

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