"The longest unsponsored advertisement ever to reach cinema screens", reckoned producer Monja Danischewski. Maybe so, but Alexander Mackendrick's debut feature is much more than that. This comic account of a real-life event pitches a priggish English army captain against the remorseless guile of an islandful of thirsty Scots defending a cache of shipwrecked whisky, and helped make ‘Ealing Comedy’ one of British cinema’s most enduring brands. It's a film of boundless mischief, and it marked Mackendrick from the start as the most complex and subtle of Ealing's directors.
Up Next in Comedy
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Carry On Nurse
With a colonel constantly causing annoyance, a bumbling nurse, a budding romance between a patient and nurse, and a man obsessed with having his bunion removed, Haven Hospital's new Matron (Hattie Jacques) has a lot of hard work ahead. As she goes on ruling with an iron fist, Oliver Reckitt (Kenn...
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I'm All Right Jack
After securing a job at his uncle's arms factory Stanley Windrush gets caught up in a dispute between the factory bosses and its trade union official. The Boulting Brothers' classic comedy brims with brilliant performances, including Ian Carmichael as the lovable Stanley and Dennis Price and Rich...
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Clockwise
When he's invited to a headmasters' conference in order to make his inaugural speech as chairman, Brian Stimpson (John Cleese), a man obsessed with punctuality, sets off with time to spare. However, numerous unexpected obstacles lead him into a race against the clock to arrive on time.