The Captain's Table

This is the old fish-out-of-water plotline, in this case a tramp steamer captain is made temporary captain of a passenger liner after the regular captain becomes ill. The star, John Gregson had, a few years earlier, been in the sublime Genevieve, however this is nowhere near that level. It follows a fairly predictable path and is hardly innovative. Still, I found it fairly amusing, and a relatively painless way of spending an hour and a half. Looking at the DVD (incidentally, why is the DVD in 4:3 format when surely it would have been made in wide screen format) I was interested to note that it was produced by Joseph Janni , who in the sixties would go on to produce such films as A Kind of Loving, Billy Liar and Darling. Evidently, he had his finger on the pulse of evolving tastes.

A strange writing triumvirate of John ('The Devils') Whiting, Bryan Forbes and Nicholas Phipps (who also plays one of the passengers) turned Richard Gordon's 1954 novel into a virtual remake of 'Doctor at Sea', who's 'naughty' jokes, quirky supporting cast (most of whom plainly never left the obvious set with painted skies at Pinewood) and shiny Eastman Color photography coalesced soon afterwards for a third time into 'Carry On Cruising'.

Peggy Cummins is breathtakingly gorgeous as always. Joan Sims's turn as Maud Pritchett is funny. I have a soft spot for Donald Sinden.

Like many of its ilk Captain's Table looks like a very typical British 50s comedy and while good fun it's certainly no classic. It's very reminiscent of the Love Boat TV series with a cast of Britain's best it should shine - but it's all just for laughs. From a running jokes about Bridge players, to Donald Sinden's womaniser, it's all pretty much what you'd expect The women are the stronger characters here, and the plot is all about them trying to land the new captain. Fun but hardly original.

However, and it's a huge however, it is one of a handful of films that should be watched as being one of the better examples of the transition in British Cinema from social comedies to the more bawdy comedy of Carry On. You can actually see right up on screen the change coming and the difference between Genevieve, School For Scoundrels, Passport to Pimlico, and the Carry On films. The comedy is not Carry On saucy yet, but sex is a real theme throughout. No one foot on the floor cinema here. No coyness. There are bikinis everywhere and while not saucy it ain't coy either. Something happens in cinema around the Bikini Atoll, 1957, where the Big Bang suddenly does seem to liberate its own double entendre.

The whole of Captain's Table has characters that will become stock in the 1960s, a very camp batman, which Kenneth Williams will make his stock and trade, at the beginning of the film we have a seaman who could be Sid James, and throughout there are touches and ideas that Carry On will take and fly with.

If British Comedy from the 1950s is about class: either upper twits at play or working class succeeding despite authorities, then 1960s is about the triumph of the working man finding status and financial freedom. Captain's Table straddles both these with lots of upper-class twits (the Army Captain in particular) and a more blatant approach.

The film itself is lightweight fluff and fun because of it, but as a record of the changing point in British cinema it holds a place.

This film has a great cast which is totally wasted on this unimaginative load of clichés.Most of the scenes in this film have been done so much better in other films.The jokes such as they are are so old that they have whiskers on.The crew constantly on the fiddle.Ronnie Shiner was rather better at this than Richard Wattis.Donald Sinden being asked to do his unfunny woman chaser from the Doctor series.John Gregson then at the hight of his stardom playing a rookie cruise Captain and Peggy Cummins with her designs on him.That marvellous actor Reginald Beckwith almost stealing the film.However the Big problem with this film is that is just not funny.