I Only Arsked!

A request from a British protectorate in the Middle East is met by sending Major Geoffrey Sumner, a sergeant-major, and five enlisted men, who spend most of their time trying to get into the King's harem, while an uprising rages around them.

It's a film version of the British TV service sitcom, The Army Game, with several of enlisted men from the series: Bernard Bresslaw, Michael Medwin, Alfie Bass, Charles Hawtrey, and Norman Rossington are all present from the first series, doing their signature bits. While I have never seen any of the episodes from the season -- only about a third of the series survives -- that's one of the major issues of film versions of TV series: what may be funny in half an hour, movie versions tend to move the venue from its usual location in an effort to add value, which reduces the fun, and a character that is laughworthy in small doses palls at greater lengths; for example, I found Bresslaw's nasal and foolish character palled soon enough. Michael Bentine shows up in blackface as a procurer, but displays no goonery in the show.

Many of the cast turned up in various Carry On films, and several found their strength elsewhere, but except for the few fans of the TV show yearning nostalgically for the old days, this won't win many plaudits.

Another film watched for the "House of Hammer" podcast and, alas, another comedy. I say "alas" as we've just been through two less than stellar comedies in the "Up The Creek" series. "I Only Arsked!" has a better pedigree, as it was based on popular TV series "The Army Game" but unfortunately it doesn't generate much better results.

Receiving a request to provide military support to a Middle Eastern country, ahead of a potential coup, they reluctantly send Major Upshott-Bagley (Geoffrey Sumner), his Corporal (Michael Medwin) and four hapless recruits. Already unsuited to the military, the soldiers struggle even more in the foreign climes and become more interested in King Fazim's (Marne Maitland) harem, than in saving his kingdom.

Comedy is perhaps the most 'of it's time' genre there is and again, I perhaps have to take some consideration to the fact that it's now 65 years later and I have no experience of "The Army Game", so don't go into the film with any in built goodwill, but again, I didn't enjoy the film. I'll accept that it's better than either of the two "Up The Creek" films because, at the very least, this does have jokes in it. To my ears they're often slow and obvious jokes, but the fact that they're there at least make this an improvement. I was confused as to why Bresslaw receives top billing. Admittedly he and Charles Hawtrey are the names in the cast that I knew before starting this Hammer run, so I can understand it in that sense. . . But both Hawtrey and Bresslaw are just two of the four soldiers and why any of them would receive top billing over the others is a bit of a mystery.

Better then, in comparison to the films of the last couple of weeks, but still not good.

This is a spin off from The Army Game one of the first comedy successes of ITV,not BBC as per the lines notes.It stars the TV cast with one exception.On TV William Hartnell played Sergeant Major Bullymore.Here his part is played by David Lodge.When the film was made young men were still having to do national service in the army.Maybe this accounts for its success on TV and of course the notable success of Carry On Sergeant,which co starred William Hartnell.Whereas the Carry On went for observed humour and physical comedy this just goes for physical comedy.It laughs at rather than with Bernard Bresslaw's character.It was his character and that of Alfie Bass which were the real stars of the show.However unlike the Carry On this feels very dated.The laughs are laboured and hard to come by.Little wonder that the carry on is still shown on TV whilst this is long forgotten.

Sergeant Chambers dupes the five residents of hut 29 into volunteering for a posting abroad: the mission is to protect an oil well in Daruwa.

Now, before you get too down on this film, it's worth remembering it was made way back in 1958. Comedy spin-offs were unheard of, and sitcoms themselves were very much in their infancy. The Army Game was one of the first and a massive hit.

I've slowly worked my way through the series; this film came out roughly during the run of the second run, but sadly most of the earlier episodes are missing. Most of the cast only did a single series, including the film's central character, Popplewell.

There's a naive charm and innocence to it. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but as a fan of the series, I quite enjoyed it. There are one or two amusing one-liners; Charles Hawtrey and Alfie Bass are both pretty good. Despite the film being named after Popeye's catchphrase, he's not particularly well served, there's innocent and dopey, and then there's just plain stupid!

The biggest disappointment however is the lack of CSM Percy Bullimore, who was played by the wonderful William Hartnell. I would suggest he was in part responsible for the sitcom's massive success, he's badly missed.

I quite enjoyed it.

6/10.