Private's Progress (1956)

That was an excellent one.

Powerful

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I really don't understand why this masterpiece only has a rating of 6.6! Some people have no idea what a good film is it would seem. "Private's Progress" is an "anti establishment" satire on how some people take every advantage of the position they hold in their jobs and exploit it accordingly. Such is the case with the army in this film. Set during the Second World War, a young, good- natured but rather naive enlisted Private, Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) falls into the wrong hands after befriending the likable rogue Cox (Richard Attenborough). The latter character is into every shady, moneymaking enterprise there is. What Windrush doesn't know, is that his uncle - an army major - is also involved in the same racket of stealing and selling priceless merchandise on the black market. Dennis Price plays the thoroughly unscrupulous uncle in question, who uses his front of that of a major for his own selfish endeavours. You realise soon enough that Windrush takes everyone and everything at face value, without learning to read between the lines as it were. He has a series of adventures during his time in the army. One of these, is incurring the wrath of Terry Thomas and it makes for marvellous entertainment. The way Thomas describes his men as being "An absolute shower" is a riot. Apart from the main cast, there are many familiar actors in "Private's Progress." Ian Bannen, Kenneth Griffith, Victor Maddern, Brian Oulton, William Hartnell (The First Doctor Who), Thorley Waters and others. This satire was one of the first films to be produced by Roy and John Boulting and it is a delight from beginning to end.

Private's Progress is a Boulting Brothers comedy set in 1943 and made just 10 years after the war ended. Its a surprisingly satirical barb at army life during the war starring Ian Carmichael as Stanley Windrush conscripted from University into the Army and a rather inept soldier during basic training under the watchful eye of William Hartnell playing his usual sergeant type.Windrush fails to be selected as an officer and ends up under the command of Major Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas) in a rare nice guy role where most of the soldiers are as reluctant as Windrush including a crafty Private Cox (Richard Attenborough).Windrush gets a posting to train to be a Japanese interpreter and is contacted by his uncle, a Brigadier (Dennis Price) to join a secret operation which is in fact a scam to steal looted artworks from the Germans and sell them on to crooked art dealers. Cox is in with the Brigadier on this scheme. The film is full of comedy character actors which frequented this type of films in the 1950s and 1960s. Its not laugh out loud but relies on Carmichael's skill as the fish out of water gentle comedy. It almost feels like a vintage Carry on film at the beginning where the plotting is loose and its only in the last third where they go on their mission does the film find focus.Part of the plot about stealing German art treasures reminded me of the more recent The Monuments Men.

Back when World War II was really going on, the British did not care too much for service comedies in the same way we did watching Bob Hope, or Eddie Bracken, or Abbott&Costello. The fact their island was really being bombed did dampen the sense of humor somewhat. Private's Progress could never have been made back then.But the British sense of humor came back with a vengeance in the making of this film by the Boulting Brothers. I have to say I truly enjoyed it along with a few favorite British character actors of mine.One I was not familiar with was Ian Carmichael who plays upper class twit Stanley Windrush who leaves Oxford in answer to his country's call to arms. Though he's quite proper, he's about as qualified for military service as Lou Costello. He's not Costello though, he's more like a version of Captain Parmenter from F Troop, the perfect dupe for the schemes of others around him. His gullibility is recognized by his uncle Dennis Price and by scheming private Richard Attenborough.Carmichael and the rest arrive almost at the very end of World War II where Price and Attenborough have hatched a grand plan to steal some of the art treasures the Nazis have originally stolen. Terry-Thomas is in this as well at the start of his brilliant comic career as an officer almost as dumb as Carmichael.If you're liking the British comedies shown on public television, Private's Progress is definitely your kind of film.

Upper class toff Stanley Windrush gets called to join the Army half way thru his university eduction, keen he may be, but he really is a fish out of water.Brought to us from the greatly talented Boulting brothers, is this most adored of British comedies. It's fish out of water plot has been {and will forever be} done to death, but driving this one on is the sly digs at the British class system so evident in the Armed forces from yore. Windrush can't cut it as the officer his standing suggests he should be, so he is promptly sent down amongst the working class, and it's here that the film appeals mainly on the comedy front. Windrush is in with a group of dodgers and bluffers, the army has taken them in, but they are going to take what they can from the army in the process, legal or not! Yet it's here that Windrush learns the most about affinity, friendships and trust, where the classes being broken down provides scope for real good comedy, to which the meeting of the different classes works so well as the makers keenly prod the inside of the cheek with a sharp tongue.Ian Carmichael is not the most gifted actor to have strode out for Britain, but in the right comedy role he could excel, such is the case here as he delivers the goods as the hapless Windrush. Across the cast list we have got Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, William Hartnell, Ian Bannen and the sublime Terry-Thomas, all names that are familiar with British movie fans from the black and white period. Private's Progress is a very British picture, the humour isn't of the sledge-hammer kind, it's very subtle and very knowing. But it's a film that I'm sure will go down well with anyone who is willing to invest some good, right frame of mind, time with it.Not quite the shower Terry-Thomas would have us believe actually. 7/10