Il était un petit navire

Saw this as "All At Sea" in the mid 1980's and actually had a copy from TV on tape, but lost it. I'd love to have a copy in my video/DVD library, but none to be found... Really fun and a great cast. Guinness plays the part(s) well, and there are lots of familiar faces if you are at all familiar with British comedy, or British Films in general for that matter. I believe that "All At Sea" was the US Title (US release also in 1957). It is interesting to note that it was made the same year as "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and that Percy Herbert also shares the screen with Guinness in both films.

The great Alec Guinness gives one of his usual fine performance in this lightweight comedy, wrapped around a typically wacky Ealing conceit - the sailor who can't go to sea buying a pier and running it like a ship. The early set-up sequences, featuring a montage of Guinness playing his ancestors at sea through the ages, are the usual silly, slapstick fun, and our hero's exploits getting his 'ship' up and running, fending off the crooked local council, and generally having a good time are heartwarming and cannot fail to raise a smile. One sequence, where he tries to run a dance hall at the end of the pier and is merrily strutting his stuff on the dancefloor with some local hottie when the authorities arrive to complain, is particularly memorable if only for the mad grin on Guinness' face as he boogies. Lacking the deeper satirical bite or wealth of really hilarious moments and characters powering the true classics of Ealing, this is nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable little film, featuring the standard role-call of vaguely familiar faces (watch out for a youngish Donald Pleasence in an early scene). Not brilliant, but fun.

It was a bit of a shock that, when Alec Guinness passed away many, so many of his obituaries insisted that "Star Wars" was his most memorable film. For those unfortunates who remember him that way, the Ealing Films he made during the 1950s are absolutely essential viewing.

Not least among those films is this little opus, in which Guinness portrays an ex-naval officer who suffers from catastrophic mal-de-mer. Unable to go at sea but not wishing to be away from it, he assumes command of the only type of "vessel" he can endure, an amusement pier.

It is Guinness's characterization that makes this film work. The very fact that he plays Captain Ambrose absolutely straight is what makes the character so funny, including a wonderfully spot-on parody of Noel Coward's speech to his crew from "In Which We Serve": "An efficient pier is a happy pier". Of course, it is granted that audiences back in 1957 undoubtedly picked up on allusions such as that much more readily than audiences would today.

The film also features a running theme prevalent in many British comedies of that period, namely the individual overcoming big bureaucracy or big business. In this case, when the local town council threatens to close down his amusement pier, the imperturbable Captain Ambrose outwits them by means of the clever expedient of registering his pier as a ship, under a foreign flag of convenience. It's just the sort of solution one would expect from the inventive studio that brought audiences "Passport to Pimlico".

I understand this film was also released under an alternative title, "Barnacle Bill". However, under any title, it is a worthy addition to the seemingly limitless pantheon of characters portrayed by the remarkable Alec Guinness.

I have this on tape (from the TV) and hoping it will come out on DVD or VHS. I lucked out one day and taped it. I have never seen it shown since. My tape is wearing out. Help! It is a great comedy and can be enjoyed over and over again.

Known as 'Barnacle Bill' here in the UK, this film concerns a retired RN captain who battles debilitating sea-sickness and buys an old pier, but every time he looks like making a go of it the local council undermines him. I like this film a lot for its cast of stalwart British favourites of the day, sunny photography and whimsy, but it has a number of scenes which always strike me as a bit lame. I must admit to being rather impressed by the seemingly-genuine radar display in his cabin. Most other films would simulate this. The film comes to a rather unsatisfactory end as our hero finishes his story in the bank and they all come dancing out. THE END. We don't get a twist or a final amusing observation, which makes the end a bit ...well, lame. Still a nice little film though.