Invasion Quartet * (1961, Bill Travers, Spike Milligan, John le Mesurier, Grégoire Aslan) – Classic Movie Review 12,020

They tried to turn Spike Milligan into a movie star with Invasion Quartet (1961).

Invasion Quartet poster by Ronald Searle.

Director Jay Lewis’s 1961 British World War Two comedy-drama film Invasion Quartet is based on a story by Norman Collins and stars Bill Travers, Spike Milligan, John le Mesurier, and Grégoire Aslan.

Despite the vintage British comedy cast, this turns out to be an unhappy slapstick war comedy with a tale that would have been better handled seriously about two injured officers who abscond from their hospital and set off with an explosives expert and an old Colonel to destroy a giant long-range German artillery gun in Nazi-occupied France.

Bill Travers, Spike Milligan, John le Mesurier, and Grégoire Aslan do their best in this humble MGM British studios black and white programmer, running 91 minutes. But, despite their work and the good-natured story, there aren’t many laughs or thrills to be found here.

Also in the cast are Thorley Walters, Maurice Denham, Millicent Martin, Thelma Ruby, Cyril Luckham, John Wood, Bernard Hunter, Alexander Archdale, William Mervyn, Eric Sykes, Ian Ainsley, Gerald Case, John Dunbar, Michael Sarne, and John Crocker.

Along with the 1962 Postman’s Knock, it is one of two comedies created for Spike Milligan by screen-writers John Briley and Jack Trevor Story. MGM made a loss of $119,000 on Invasion Quartet and a loss of $31,000 on Postman’s Knock, and that was the end of the attempt to turn Spike Milligan into a movie star.

The story has similarities to the real-life one of Commando Sgt Peter King and Pte Leslie Cuthbertson, but audiences were encouraged to think of it as a comedic salute to The Guns of Navarone.

The cast are Bill Travers as Freddie Oppenheimer, Spike Milligan as Godfrey Pringle, Grégoire Aslan as Debrie, John Le Mesurier as Colonel, Thorley Walters as Cummings, Maurice Denham as Dr. Barker, Thelma Ruby as Matron, Millicent Martin as Kay, Cyril Luckham as Col. Harbottle, William Mervyn as Naval Officer, Peter Swanwick as Gun Commander, Alexander Archdale as War Office Brigadier, Gerald Case as Medical Board Officer, Ernst Ulman as German Sergeant, John Wood as War Office Duty Officer, Richard Marner as German Soldier, Bernard Hunter as War Office Coding Officer, Ernst Ulman as German Sergeant, Eric Sykes as Band Conductor, Ian Ainsley as German Officer, John Dunbar as Medical Board Officer, David Lander as Maquis leader, Michael Sarne as German Soldier, and John Crocker as The Storeman.

The films directed by Jay Lewis: A Man’s Affair (1949), The Baby and the Battleship (1956), Invasion Quartet (1961), Live Now, Pay Later (1962), A Home of Your Own (1964).

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,020

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