Double Bunk

What a great little film this is! It's a British comedy starring various alumni from the CARRY ON franchise, and one which takes place almost entirely on a houseboat. The film stars the hardworking Ian Carmichael and the elfin Janette Scott as a newlywed couple who through various machinations of the plot decide to go on a short cruise with a friend and his girlfriend; the usual hijinks and hilarity ensue.

Films like DOUBLE BUNK seem to get by on their effortless charm and genuine humour. Certainly there are a few saucy moments here, but the film for the most part belongs to an earlier, cleaner time in which the laughs feel unforced and entirely natural. And when your film is chock full of seasoned comic performers as it is here, it's hard to go wrong.

Inevitably for a film with Sid James in a leading role, he ends up stealing all of the best bits. You can rely on Sid, and he doesn't disappoint. Scott is saddled with a fairly dull 'straight' role although she does have a few good moments - and check out those shorts! - but the best female performance comes from Liz Fraser, playing your usual sex siren. Here, she's a striptease artist, and as well as being breathtakingly gorgeous she's very funny too.

The supporting cast is exemplary. Dennis Price essays the caddish role with ease, while Naunton Wayne's cameo was to be his last performance. Watch out for Miles Malleson as a fishing vicar, and another nice cameo from Irene Handl, who seems to spend all of her screen time in the kitchen! There's plenty of slapstick humour here, and it all holds together very nicely. I think that as a film, DOUBLE BUNK certainly holds its own against the CARRY ONs of the era.

This is a story about Jack and Peggy (Ian Carmichael and Janette Scott) who get thrown out of a rooming house for being in the same room together. They end up buying a somewhat dilapidated houseboat. enter Sid James playing a man named Sid who offers to sail the boat as part of a honeymoon for Jack and Peggy. He brings along Sandra, the always welcome Liz Fraser. After wreaking havoc with other leisure boaters they get stuck in a fog and end up in France. They have to get back and end up racing another boat owned by Watson, who was charging Jack and Perry ridiculous rent to keep the houseboat in the harbor in England. This is a fun film which gets better as it goes along. There is some slapstick and, since Sandra is a stripper, a little titillation but not much. Sid James plays a character we've seen him play so many times, the wise cracking friend not always up to complete good. I miss him a lot in films. If you like British humor that doesn't rely on tawdriness, just a decent plot with good performances, here it is. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Double Bunk is directed by C.M. Pennington-Richards and features music by Stanley Black and photography by Stephen Dade. It stars Ian Carmichael, Sid James, Janette Scott, Liz Fraser and Dennis Price.

When newlyweds Jack (Carmichael) and Peggy (Scott) face eviction from their rented London abode, they get tricked into buying a ramshackle houseboat. Taking the challenge on with determination in their hearts and love in their eyes, they are further knocked back when Mr. Watson (Price), the owner of the mooring station, tells them of the charges they must pay to stay where they are. Rebuilding the engine, Jack decides to treat Peggy to a honeymoon trip down the Thames, so with best pal Sid (James) and his stripper girlfriend Sandra (Fraser) along for the trip, they set off on what will prove to be a mighty adventure.

It opens with James and Fraser singing the delightfully catchy title song, and from there on in the film never lets up the jovial mood created. There's nothing uproarious here, this is a gentle British comedy built to keep the smile on your face, though it does slot in a few laugh out loud moments (double dose of gangplank frivolity, Sid's Vodka hangover, a punch up after a bum squeeze). It's well performed, often sexy (wolf whistles at the ready here for both our lady protagonists) and the water setting is very easy on the eye.

Fans of vintage British comedy are sure to get much from this easy going feel good comedy. 8/10

I bought the DVD of "Double Bunk" in a sale more out of curiosity than anything else. I like the early black & white comedies of the 50s and 60s starring Ian Carmichael and Dennis Price, such as 'School for Scoundrels', 'I'm All Right Jack', 'Privates Progress' and 'Lucky Jim' in which Ian played more or less the same hapless character who gets lucky in the end. I also like the early Carry Ons such as 'Sergeant', 'Cabby' and 'Regardless'. 'Double Bunk' is like a marriage of the two because several of the Carry On team appear in this comedy about a young couple who buy a rundown houseboat moored in the Thames but soon find themselves crossing the Channel in a fog and landing in France. Less than 24hrs later they are in a race back home after stealing fuel from their competitor's powerful motor launch captained by Dennis Price. The scenes of these two large boats racing up the narrow section of the Thames and creating havoc with smaller sailing boats as well as producing a massive wake that floods the banks and half drowning fishermen out for a quiet days fishing is unique in cinematic history. I can't imagine such as stunt being repeated today. I last saw this film when it first appeared in the cinema when I was still at school. I had forgotten the plot but not song which introduces the film. I'ts called "Double Bunk' (what a surprise!) and is sung by - you'd never guess - Sid James and Liz Frazer who figure prominently in this very well made film. The film has a cast of characters whose faces are immediately recognisable. To see who they are you must watch the DVD. I found it enjoyable to see it again after 45 years. I look forward to seeing it again and again.

When I was in hospital in 1957 my bed radio played the comedy "Take it from Here" in which a couple named "Ron" (Wallis Eaton) and "Eff" (June Whitfield) were featured.The producers of Double Bunk (1961) worked these two radio characters into the screenplay twice by portraying them hidden in a punt with a canvas cover over them so that the viewer could retain the mental image of them that they had "seen in their mind's eye" from the radio comedy which I believe Frank Muir & Dennis Norden had written.Another character I recognised from my youth was Gerald Campion who played "Billy Bunter" from the BBC TV children's programme of the 1950s.If you have followed the career of Naunton Wayne he makes a rare solo appearance, minus Basil Radford, playing a harbour master who is side-tracked by the ample charms of a young Liz Fraser.Also on display is comedienne Irene Handel playing a frumpy wife of the previous owners of the houseboat from whom Ian Carmichael & Janette Scott newly weds have purchased it in lieu of a house.In early post war Britain couples had a hard job finding marital accommodation because of blitzed buildings and general strict financial circumstances.The other reviewers have adequately commented on the plot of this very British comedy where each well known actor/actress plays well trodden & familiar roles known by a British audience.

The uppermost question occurred to me watching this film on www.IMDb.com was surely one has to show proficiency by the marine equivalent of the driving test before you can be let loose on the river.But of course the resulting slapstick forms the basis of the film comedy.