Private’s Progress *** (1956, Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas, William Hartnell) – Classic Movie Review 1847

Co-writer/director John Boulting and producer Roy Boulting’s 1956 vintage British comedy Private’s Progress stars Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas and William Hartnell. The Boulting Brothers take the risk of sending up the then British sacred cow of the army in the first of their mildish lampooning spoofs of British institutions, two years before Carry On Sergeant, with Hartnell playing the Sergeant in both films.

Carmichael plays Stanley Windrush, an undergraduate dufus who has to interrupt his university education when he is called up into the British Army towards the end of World War Two. He unwittingly helps his dodgy War Office uncle, Brigadier Bertram Tracepurcel (Price), to loot German treasures and meets up with wily Private Cox (Attenborough) who knows all the scams.

John le Mesurier plays the medical officer in Private's Progress (1956).

John le Mesurier, aka Sgt Wilson in TV’s Dad’s Army, plays the medical officer in Private’s Progress (1956).

This British laughter-raiser was hugely popular back in the mid-Fifties and it is still pretty amusing, though the fun in the satire is held back by the creaky mechanism of the ancient plotlines. However, nothing stops the irrepressible performances. Carmichael, Attenborough as the ace Army scrounger, Price, Terry-Thomas as the commanding officer Major Hitchcock, Hartnell as Sgt Sutton and John le Mesurier as the medical officer are just great.

A pre-stardom Christopher Lee plays a German officer awaiting trial for war crimes, though of course he mostly speaks in English. Though Lee was a fluent German speaker, it is hardly good casting. But, anyway, perennial movie villain and all-purpose foreigner Lee takes it on the chin. Lee recalled: ‘My only strong moment was when I took cyanide and cheated the gallows. It was the director who made my journey worthwhile by dashing to the piano to relieve his feelings with a quick burst of Chopin or Liszt when he felt the pressure too much.’ Lee also dubbed Price’s voice when he is speaking in German.

John Boulting writes his screenplay with Frank Harvey, basing it on Alan Hackney’s novel.

The film ends: ‘To all those who got away, this film is most respectfully dedicated.’

Major Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas) goes to watch In Which We Serve (1942), where one of the privates in the audience is played by Attenborough, who starred in it.

Major Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas, catchphrase ‘you’re an absolute shower’) tells Windrush ‘you’re an absolute bounder’ and ‘you’re an absolute rotter’.

Eternal screen military NCOs Hartnell joined the Royal Armoured Corps in World War Two but was invalided out 18 months later after a nervous breakdown.

The cast are Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas, Peter Jones, William Hartnell, John le Mesurier, Christopher Lee, Jill Adams, Thorley Walters, Ian Bannen, Victor Maddern, Kenneth Griffith, Miles Malleson, Michael Trubshawe, John Warren, George Coulouris, Derrick de Marney, Brian Oulton, David Lodge, Basil Dignam, Lockwood West, Glyn Houston, Ronald Adam, Lloyd Lamble, Eynon Evans, Jack McNaughton, Marianne Stone, Irlyn Hall, Sally Miles, Ludwig Lawinski, Robert Bruce, Michael Ward, Theodore Zicky, Henry Oscar, Henry Longhurst, Frank Hawkins, David King-Wood and Nicholas Bruce.

Private’s Progress is directed by John Boulting, runs 102 minutes, is made by Charter Film Productions, Boulting Brothers and British Lion Film Corporation, is released by British Lion Film Corporation (1956) (UK) and Distributors Corporation of America (DCA) (1956) (US), is written by Frank Harvey and John Boulting, based on Alan Hackney’s novel, is shot in black and white by Eric Cross, is produced by Roy Boulting and is scored by John Addison.

Attenborough, Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and le Mesurier also star in the Boulting Brothers’ 1957 satire, Brothers in Law. Carmichael and Terry-Thomas also star in School for Scoundrels (1960).

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