Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers

This is the a lower budget sequel to The Virgin soldiers but its actually slightly better. Askwith and Laighton are a good double act. The film concentrates more on the comedy than the war is hell pathos . Being an Robin Askwith film its slightly more bawdy than the original with a couple of scenes that could have come out of a Confessions film but the script is far superior as is the acting. Its also a who's who of British character actors of the 1970's..

On the face of it, the title of this film, and the fact that Robin Askwith is in it, suggests that this film is typical of most 70s films that Askwith appears in: brief nudity, poor plot, simply an excuse to show semi-naked women. Don't be fooled, it is actually better than that and this was not what I was expecting.

This film does have two very brief moments of nudity and Askwith jumping into bed but there is certainly no 'romping' and this film has a half-decent storyline, with very little slapstick humor. The story is not based on Askwith getting his wicked way, but rather, it mixes the desires and frustrations of soldiers forced to stay an extra six months at war when they want to go home with the harsh realities of war and this film does has scenes of sadness in it too and is certainly one (if not two) better than the 'Confessions' films - this is a more rounded film with a decent story.

Excellent performances from the supporting cast: George Layton, Nigel Davenport, John Le Mesurier, Edward Woodward (whose character Sgt Wellbeloved is not all what he makes out to be) and Warren Mitchell as Morris Morris (with a very funny Welsh accent).

A mixture of good humor and sadness - worth watching if you have a spare 87 minutes!