Desert Mice ** (1959, Alfred Marks, Sidney James, Patricia Bredin, Dick Bentley, Dora Bryan, Irene Handl, Marius Goring, Reginald Beckwith, Liz Fraser) – Classic Movie Review 7299

Producer/ director Michael Relph’s 1959 British film Desert Mice is a jolly Fifties comedy, predating TV’s similarly themed long-running hit sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, about a wartime concert party performing for British soldiers in the North African desert in World War Two, while finding time to combat a Nazi plot.

Alfred Marks stars as a fussy major called Poskett, but the real fun comes as Sid James and Dora Bryan go through their typecast paces as cockneys, Britain’s first ever contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest Patricia Bredin sings, Reginald Beckwith does some camp conjuring, Irene Handl plays the piano and Liz Fraser vamps. It is a very good comedy ensemble. The premise and the players are all present and correct but David Climie’s original screenplay has gone a little bit AWOL.

The main cast are Alfred Marks, Sidney James, Patricia Bredin, Dick Bentley, Dora Bryan, Irene Handl, Kenneth Fortescue, Marius Goring, Reginald Beckwith, Liz Fraser, Joan Benham, Anthony Bushell, George Rose, Alan Tilvern, Philip Hauser, John le Mesurie, Gilbert Davis, Nigel Davenport, Paul Eddington and Jon Pertwee.

The 1982 Privates on Parade used the same theme.

The year 1959 was a good one for Patricia Bredin, with Desert Mice, Left Right and Centre and The Bridal Path.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7299

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