Double Bunk ** (1961, Ian Carmichael, Janette Scott, Sidney James, Liz Frazer, Dennis Price, Reginald Beckwith, Irene Handl) – Classic Movie Review 7300

Ian Carmichael and Janette Scott star as the just married couple Jack and Peggy who buy a rundown houseboat on the River Thames in writer-director C M Pennington-Richards’s mild and minor 1961 black-and-white British farce Double Bunk, laden with gentle, innocent early Sixties fun, though it is a throwback to an earlier era of British comedy. It is the Fifties kind of film that the kitchen sink dramas of the time were putting out of business.

The newlyweds  get into all kinds of farcical scrapes when they decide to move the now renovated houseboat to a new location down river to Folkestone, taking their friends Sid and Sandra (Sidney James, Liz Frazer) with them. First they get lost in fog, and tangle with the river traffic, and then find themselves grounded on a French beach! Challenged to a race back to London by their yacht-owning landlord, the couple make yet another impetuous decision.

Double Bunk is partly scuppered by the director’s rather drippy screenplay, but it gets an enormous lift from the vintage cast. It also stars Dennis Price, Reginald Beckwith, Irene Handl, Noel Purcell and Naunton Wayne.

Sidney James and Liz Frazer as Sid and Sandra in Double Bunk.

Carmichael and Scott give attractive, easy-going performances – and James and Frazer give delightful performances – that smooth the way through a silly slapstick script, in a simple, amiable outing from a different, less complicated era.

If in any doubt, feel safe to tip-toe aboard though for the appealing stars and the endearing supporting cast.

Also in the cast are Bill Shine, Michael Shepley, Miles Malleson, Graham Stark, Gladys Henson, Gerald Campion, Terry Scott, Willoughby Goddard and Marianne Stone.

The score is by Stanley Black, and the title song by Stanley Black, Jack Fishman and Michael Pratt (the actor Mike Pratt) is sung by Sidney James and Liz Fraser over the opening credits.

It was a big deal, premiering at London’s Leicester Square Theatre on 30 March 1961, followed by UK general release on 8 May 1961.

The houseboat is Jasmine Cot in the film but in real life is Joan Mary, a British Admiralty 48-foot Personnel Launch, Diesel conversion, based at Newman’s Shipyard, 1 Strawberry Vale, Twickenham, London.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7300

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