Orders Are Orders

Incredibly enough this was the second film version of an ancient army farce 'satirising' the film business. It's one of those rare films with an Introducing credit that actually counts for something, since it's Tony Hancock who's being introduced; and he gets the final close up. However, it was not an auspicious film debut since when he took his wife to see it at the Astoria in Charing Cross Road and asked if he'd be able to get in, was told "Get in? You can have the whole circle if you want it"! Hancock's future TV co-star 'Sidney' (as he was then billed) James playing yet another of the Americans he was then typecast as himself dismissed it as "a bit of a stinker".

It's more interesting to watch now than it was at the time since in addition to Hancock & James so many of the cast later made their mark on TV, including Bill Fraser, Gerald Campion and Eric Sykes (whose only screen credit is for additional dialogue). Maureen Pryor is memorably laconic as the gum-chewing continuity girl in trousers; and even Donald Pleasance puts in a fleeting appearance.

And of course there's a plump young Peter Sellers who a dozen years later reprised this film's plot for 'After the Fox' as well as guesting in Hancock's final completed film, 'The Wrong Box'.