Orders Are Orders

A run of the mill army barracks in Bilchester is overrun by a film company planning to make a Z grade science fiction movie. All seems to being going well as the pretty lady actors have the barracks in a tizzy and get the soldiers to play a part. That is until the Divisional Commander turns up for one of his inspections.

Tho far from being at the top of the cast list, this sub-standard remake of a 1933 film of the same name is of interest to see the names Peter Sellers, Sid James & Tony Hancock in the same movie. However, the truth is is that it's a poor movie that is directed badly by David Paltenghi and the source material really doesn't transfer well to the screen. Based on a play written by Ian Hay in 1932, the makers seems to think that by weaving chaotic scenes with chaotic shouty dialogue that that is going to make for a mirthful movie. It doesn't.

Released to DVD in 2007 as part of a collection called Long Lost Comedy Classics, this is easily the weakest of the set. Other titles in the collection are Miss Robin Hood, John & Julie, Make Me An Offer, The Love Match and the quite brilliant Time Gentlemen Please!. Orders Are Orders smacks of being a "set filler" and exists purely because of the names attached to it (Brian Reece, Margot Grahame & Raymond Huntley also star). 3/10 for Huntley's efforts and James' bizarre American accent

Awful low-budget comedy in which a British army camp (manned apparently by only half-a-dozen soldiers) is overrun by American movie producer Sid James (!) and his crew. Laughs are non-existent despite featuring the likes of Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock and Bill Fraser. A young Donald Pleasance also makes a brief appearance.

Maybe Orders are orders, but service comedies are about disorder. An American film company invades a a British army base to make a Martian-Invasion movie, and proceeds to flimflam the people in charge to get their own way. It's a bit odd to hear Sid James essay a Brooklyn accent as the sleazy producer-director, but he's also got Margot Grahame as his star in a constantly changing role, as Colonel Raymond Huntley's wife,, and gum-chewing Britons of both sexes and scanty costumes abounding. With a rat in the barracks, Tony Hancock trying to practice a military band for a coming competition, Peter Sellers trying to make a few bob on the deal and a general coming to inspect the base, it's extremely frantic and even occasionally funny.

It's clearly a movie made for the British market, and how they landed Miss Grahame for this role is a bit of a mystery to me. It was her last regular film role. Three years later, she would take a part in Preminger's ambitious but ill-fated SAINT JOAN. She had been Britain's highest paid film actress in the 1930s, England's answer to Jean Harlow. Perhaps she had simply had enough and wanted to retire. She died in 1982 at age 80.

ORDERS ARE ORDERS is another army-focused British comedy from the 1950s and another let down. CARRY ON SERGEANT is still the best that I've seen from this era while all others feel somewhat strained and clumsy, not to mention dated. This film has a good story but not many good jokes unless exaggerated character humour is your idea of a good time.

The story is about a film crew who arrive at an army barracks to shoot a science fiction movie and have various run-ins with the soldiers there. The wobbly special effects we see them filming with are funny and reminiscent of an Ed Wood movie. There's a lot of skirt-chasing and various encounters on and off the base between the characters. One of my main problems is that the film crew characters are exaggerated buffoons while the soldiers, in particular the officers, are all prim and proper and dull. The ensuing situations simply aren't all that funny in the face of it.

While the likes of Margot Grahame and Raymond Huntley bag the dull lead roles, it's the supporting players who are the most interesting. Tony Hancock bags an 'introducing' credit and is his typical world-weary character. Sid James is the brash film director but struggles with his unconvincing American accent throughout. Peter Sellers plays his usual part in this and the best I can say about him is that he's better than he was in DOWN AMONG THE Z MEN. There are nice cameos for young 'uns like Donald Pleasence and Eric Sykes. The best participant is the gorgeous Maureen Swanson whose eye-popping introduction scene is the highlight of the whole movie.

Military men marching pridefully and gloriously in the the morning sun, with delightful music played by the military orchestra, just getting ready to another hard working day at the army barracks, or are they? In the setting of the rising sun there is a big line of cars and trucks heading for the barracks, what are they doing here and who are they? The question is solved fast, and to the military mens big surprise its a film production company, who has planned to make a "big blockbuster" science fiction movie at the army barracks, but one commanding officer is distend to make it very difficult for the Hollywood film crew... and for then on, the movie just shows a cheap slice of comedy and a little bit of romance, and thats about it.

What we do get out of this comedy is a thin storyline, and some decent funny characters, but not memorable. The funniest character is Peter Sellers, and he is probably the only one you will remember the most, when you have sat through this movie.

One thing that was a little bit funny, was the movie they were filming in the movie, its funny because it looks like a Ed Wood production, very unimagined and just cheap. There is not one time where you believe its a making of a expensive science fiction movie, and just looking at the film crew playing "big time Hollywood stars" is so laughable... and by the way I have never seen a badder costume design for a Martian in a movie, since 'Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster' 1964, and that is pretty bad!

See it if you are in a good laughing mood, if your sad its just sad to look at.