Sailors Three *** (1940, Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert, Michael Wilding, Carla Lehmann, Jeanne De Casalis, James Hayter, John Laurie) – Classic Movie Review 10,739

Walter Forde’s 1940 British black and white comedy film Sailors Three is a silly, happy, likeable World War Two patriotic Ealing Studios musical farce, with Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert and Michael Wilding. 

Director Walter Forde’s 1940 British black and white comedy Sailors Three [Three Cockeyed Sailors] is a silly but happy and likeable World War Two patriotic Ealing Studios musical farce, in which three cockeyed Royal Navy sailors (Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert and Michael Wilding) on a spree in a Buenos Aires neutral port boozily board and capture a Nazi pocket battleship, the Ludendorff, and all the Germans on board, having mistaken it for their own, taking it over for the Royal Navy.

Sailors Three is rather tatty and obvious, and very slack at the beginning, though the laughs do eventually kick in and Trinder, Hulbert and Wilding are certainly amusing enough in this lightest of frolics, custom made to enliven the dark days of the war. Comedy expert Forde keeps the show bouncy and on the road.

It is cockney music hall comedian Trinder’s debut for Ealing. It hit the UK funny bone and was very popular, and more was required from Trinder: Fiddlers Three followed in 1944.

Trinder sings the song ‘All Over the Place’ (words by Frank Eyton, music by Noel Gay), which became one of the most popular of the wartime.

Also in the cast are Carla Lehmann, Jeanne De Casalis, James Hayter, John Laurie, Harold Warrender, Alec Clunes, Danny Green, Henry Hewitt, Brian Fitzpatrick, Eric Clavering, John Glyn-Jones, John Wengraf, Manning Whiley, Victor Fairley, Robert Rendell, Allan Jeayes, Alec Clunes, Derek Elphinstone, Bryan Herbert, Johnnie Schofield, Julian Vedey and Olaf Olsen.

It was released on 14 December 1940 (UK).

It was released on VHS and later on DVD and Blu-ray on 8 February 2021, and you can rent or buy on Prime Video.

Sailors Three [Three Cockeyed Sailors], is directed by Walter Forde, runs 86 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios, is released by Associated British (UK) and United Artists (US), is written by Angus MacPhail, John Dighton and Austin Melford, is shot in black and white by Gunther Krampf, is produced by Michael Balcon and Culley Forde, is scored by Ernest Irving, and is designed by Wilfred Shingleton.

The cast are Tommy Trinder as Tommy Taylor, Claude Hulbert as Llewellyn Davies, ‘The Admiral’, Carla Lehmann as Jane Davies, Michael Wilding as Johnny Meadows, James Hayter as Hans Muller, Jeanne de Casalis as Mrs Pilkington, Henry Hewitt as Professor Pilkington, Brian Fitzpatrick as Digby Pilkington, John Laurie as McNab, Harold Warrender as Pilot’s Mate, Eric Clavering as Bartender, John Glyn-Jones as Best Man, John Wengraf as German Captain, Manning Whiley as German Commander, Victor Fairley as German Petty Officer, Alec Clunes as British Pilot, Derek Elphinstone as British Observer, E.V.H. Emmett as Newsreel Commentator, Danny Green, Henry Hewitt, Brian Fitzpatrick, Robert Rendell, Allan Jeayes, Alec Clunes, Bryan Herbert, Johnnie Schofield, Julian Vedey and Olaf Olsen.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,739

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