You Lucky People!

Well stone the crows, I sat the kids down to show them the genius that was Tommy Trinder where he plays a former army man now doing well in civvy street as a spiv.

The film came out several years before Carry on Sergeant but this one was not as good, then again Trinder was not much cop as a comic or as an actor.

A group of civilian reservists arrive at their army camp to do their two weeks refresher training where they basically get treated like dirt. One of the soldiers has to resist the amorous advances of Dora Bryan.

Well smack bang in the middle of the movie, convicted kiddie fiddler Rolf Harris pops up as a soldier. I thought at any moment he might take out his didgeridoo and start playing with it.

Well I had to send the kids to therapy, as I told them, you unlucky people.

You've got to wonder about a British film environment which throws up this potboiler and leaves Maurice Elvey's more accomplished films in obscurity. Indeed archiving raises the old question. Is something lost when you know where it is.

YOU LUCKY PEOPLE is the last film to star Tommy Trinder in a lack lustre movie career. He was considered a major player by the producers and swallowed a large slice of the budget. Trinder's material is dispiriting,breaking the narrative flow with routines that were never all that funny when developed probably for other uses. It comes as a surprise to find him bursting into song in the finale.

Plot covers army reservists called back for training with Trinder having made his bundle in war surplus since being demobbed.

Production values are respectable though the use of the cut price anamorphic lens, the first sound film to be shot in "scope" black and white, seems to have minimised editing with many scenes a single run of the camera. Dora Bryan's footage is better covered and she comes out of things more effectively than the largely nonentity cast around her.

I do wonder how the BIG reach a decision as to what films deserve a DVD release.There are still many worthwhile British films awaiting a release.So what made them choose this unfunny service comedy.Tommy Trinder appears in his last starring role.He made some good films for Ealing.However this film really scrapes the barrel and makes you realise just how good a film is Carry On Sergeant.Trinder only has himself to blame for the poor script as he was partly responsible for writing it.In any event his style was more suited to variety in the cast closing halls or TV which he took to very easily.However his success on TV was cut short by a few to many insults to his bosses on screen.

Tommy Trinder was a star in his day and this was meant to be a vehicle for him. I guess if you like Tommy Trinder then this film will have some appeal but otherwise it is at best a quaint and not terribly funny period piece.

The premise of 'army life meets reservists/new recruits' is one that had already been explored and would be explored again. I guess the humour is largely lost on today's folk that didn't have military life as part of the common experience. As others have noted this film serves to highlight what a good film Carry on Sergeant is. Cast aside, I suppose this film could claim that it isn't any worse than 'down amongst the Z-men' but the latter at least has a catchy song in it.

The BFI have taken the trouble to digitally remaster this film and whilst it wouldn't have been top of my list for this treatment, they have done a decent job of it. The anamorphic lens used for the cinemascope-esque wide screen did produce some weird artefacts though; there is quite a lot of distortion at the edges of the frame which I found a bit distracting.

Overall there are other films in this genre which better deserve a viewing than this one.