The Night We Dropped a Clanger * (1959, Brian Rix, Cecil Parker, William Hartnell, Hattie Jacques, Leslie Phillips, Leo Franklyn, John Welsh, Liz Fraser, Irene Handl) – Classic Movie Review 11,486

The 1959 British film The Night We Dropped a Clanger [Make Mine a Double] is a forced and tedious farcical comedy. Brian Rix stars as an Armed Forces lavatory attendant who is mistaken for a wing commander and sent into action against the Germans.

Director Darcy Conyers’s 1959 British black and white film The Night We Dropped a Clanger [Make Mine a Double] is a forced and tedious, but then back in the day popular farcical comedy. Brian Rix stars as an Armed Forces lavatory attendant, who, by an amazing coincidence, is mistaken for a wing commander in the air force and is sent into action against the Germans instead of him in occupied France during the Second World War.

A more than reasonable cast of very good comic actors is forced to work with a derivative and silly plot, with largely all-too-ordinary results, and two Rixes are not an improvement on one. The actors’ mugging style of performance is the last resort of the desperate to please but stuck with a very poor script.

It also stars Cecil Parker, William Hartnell, Leslie Phillips, Leo Franklyn, John Welsh, Liz Fraser, Hattie Jacques, Irene Handl, Vera Pearce, Oliver Johnston, John Chapman, Ray Cooney, and Larry Noble. Andrew Sachs makes his screen debut in a minor part.

It was released by the Rank Organisation in the UK on 11 October 1959.

It was released as Make Mine a Double in the US where the British expression ‘to drop a clanger’ (make an embarrassing or foolish mistake) is unknown.

Running time: 86 minutes.

The Night We Dropped a Clanger [Make Mine a Double] is directed by Darcy Conyers, is written by John Chapman, is produced by David Henley and Sydney Box, is shot by Ernest Steward, and is scored by by Edwin Braden.

Rix returns for the follow-up: The Night We Got the Bird (1960).

The cast are Brian Rix as Aircraftman Arthur Atwood/ Wing Commander Blenkinsop, Cecil Parker as Air Vice-Marshal Sir Bertram Bukpasser, William Hartnell as Warrant Officer Bright, Leslie Phillips as Squadron Leader Thomas, Leo Franklyn as Belling, John Welsh as Squadron Leader Grant, Toby Perkins as Flight Lieutenant Spendal, Liz Fraser as Lulu, Charles Cameron as General Gimble, Vera Pearce as Madame Grilby, Julian D’Albie as Air Marshal Carruthers, Sarah Branch as WAAF Hawkins, Irene Handl as Mrs Billingsgate, Andrew Sachs as Briggs, Hattie Jacques as Ada, Arthur Brough as Admiral Bewdly, Ray Cooney as Corporal, Oliver Johnston as Air Commodore Turner, Merilyn Roberts as 1st WAAF, Sheila Mercier as 2nd WAAF, Christine Russell as 3rd WAAF, Larry Noble as Farmer, John Langham as Ricky, Rowland Bartrop as Smythe, Julie Mendez as Dancer, and Patrick Cargill as Fritz.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,486

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/