Sabu gets star billing and the full Korda Technicolor treatment in this tale of an Indian Prince who learns to love the British Empire.
The classic Home Front drama. It's surprisingly unsentimental considering the times in which it was made. Launder and Gilliat had the knack of getting British stiff-upper-lip-ness just right, so that the wartime optimism and heroism of ordinary people seems natural. This film is probably their crowning glory.
The Helping Hands agency is run by Sid James. The agency will do anything for anyone. So Williams gets to walk the chimp and Hawtrey gets to enter the boxing ring. This is the most bitty of all the Carry Ons with no attempt at a plot. Still, if you don't like one sequence, there's always another along in a minute. It only falls apart at the end with a slapstick house decorating/wrecking scene.
In order to disrupt the German war effort a team of pilots go on a dangerous mission to destroy a dam using Barnes Wallis' bouncing bombs. Would we remember this film quite as well if it weren't for the terrific theme tune by Eric Cotes? Even without it, this is a stirring tale.
Though it is best remembered for Peter Sellers' portrayal of the bolshie shop steward Fred Kite, this is a wonderfully even-handed look at the class struggle. Funny and nasty - and though Trades Unionism may have changed, human nature certainly hasn't.
