MAGNET contributing writer Jud Cost is sharing some of the wealth of classic films he’s been lucky enough to see over the past 40 years. Trolling the backwaters of cinema, he has worked up a list of more than 100 titles—from the ’20s through the ’80s—that you may have missed. A new selection, all currently available on DVD, appears every week.
Private’s Progress (1956, 96 minutes)
Identical twins John and Roy Boulting were versatile enough to write, direct and produce a delightful string of British comedies in the ’50s and ’60s that included Private’s Progress, Lucky Jim, I’m All Right Jack and The Family Way. Using a stable of actors led by Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Peter Sellers and Terry-Thomas, the Boulting brothers were as tuned-in to their times as Judd Apatow is today.
The university studies of Stanley Windrush (Carmichael) are interrupted when he’s conscripted into the British Army near the end of World War II. Unlike Windrush, his roommate, Arthur Egan (Peter Jones), looks forward to the experience. “Six weeks in the ranks, nice commission, off to the War, then back here again. What bothers me is we may be too late for a second front,” says Egan, naively. “I’ve never felt less aggressive in my life,” gulps Windrush.
“What you have to think about is seeing your sister being violated by an enormous German,” explains Egan. “You’ve never seen my sister. She did two years in the Land Army,” says Windrush. “Well, your mother then,” says Egan. “My mother disappeared 17 years ago with a chiropodist from Luton,” says Windrush. Nobby, their porter, sympathizes, “Don’t worry about us, Mr. Windrush. We’ll still be here when you come back—if you do come back.”
At a party hosted by his sister Cathy (Sally Miles), Windrush meets some of her more artistic friends who wouldn’t be caught dead in the military. “Will they commission you, do you think, or will it be sordid?” she asks. “I dare say, but I really don’t know,” Stanley answers. “Oh, Sidney, my poor brother’s going into the Army,” Cathy tells an effeminate young man. “I was in, myself, for a time. Ghastly!” says Sidney (Michael Ward). “I just couldn’t be bothered answering that blessed trumpet thing they kept blowing.”
Windrush arrives at Gravestone barracks in a bowler hat, as though he’s selling stocks and shares in a London brokerage. “With a name like Windrush, you should have been here a day early rather than half a day late!” barks his drill sergeant. “These sausages taste like they’ve been cooked in axle grease,” moans Windrush over breakfast. “Mine are jolly good,” replies Egan. “I’ll have yours, if you don’t mind.” In training, Windrush’s bayonet gets stuck inside a straw dummy. He finishes the long-distance run 45 minutes after the rest of his company. And he tells the medical officer that he “woke up this morning feeling a little fragile.”
Although Stanley fails his officer selection-board review, his uncle, Major Bertram Tracepurcel (Dennis Price), of the War Office finds a place for Private Windrush with “Operation Hatrack,” a covert mission to retrieve the great art treasures of Europe that have recently been salted away by the Nazis.
