Operation Stogie

I've seen other reviewers praising this rarely-seen comedy for its insightfulness, but I'm afraid that I didn't witness any while watching. It's a cringingly cheap production from Welwyn Studios which involves a couple of soldiers who are tasked with taking a (tame) compromising photograph of a socialite as part of a special mission. If that sounds mildly diverting, rest assured that this isn't, because the ponderous plot just meanders along from one interaction to the next, adding in some actors in brownface playing an Arab delegation for no real effect. Anton Rodgers plays one of the sldiers, and the likes of Ferdy Mayne and Frank Thornton have bit parts, but none of its very good - or funny.

Funny how this movie slipped under the radar. It's cleverly and insightfully written, and the performances are really brilliant. Historians of the role played by British diplomats in the Cold War have a fair bit to learn from it. At the same time, it's genuinely entertaining. The social-class dimension is fascinating too, with a great deal of understanding of the subtleties by which how the (would-be) upper class held themselves above the upper middle class. The cinematography is on a high level, even if the stagecraft of the sets is pretty basic. Of course 1962 was when cinema was bottoming out as people bought televisions, and maybe this was one of the many casualties: unlike horror and crime flicks (which I adore), or the Carry On films (which I adore) that pushed the envelope of tittilation, this was close to telly fare. But still above it.