Sois toujours diplomate

"Man in a Cocked Hat" is a British comedy satire that just doesn't have that many laughs. The DVD I watched is from a Peter Sellers collection that had this film under its original British title, "Carlton Browne of the F. O." Frankly, that title makes a lot more sense.

Others have weighed in on this film, and I agree with the majority that the film is pretty flat - which means, not very funny. With this cast, there was potential for great laughter. The plot is okay, even a very good one. But it seems to me that so much was put into the ridiculous "power" of the fictional island nation of Gaillardia and not enough into crispy, witty dialog among the characters of the British Foreign Office. So, the silly antics on Gaillardia just don't get the laughs, and the great comedic cast of Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Raymond Huntley, John Le Mesurier and Miles Malleson is mostly wasted.

This probably isn't a film that many people would stay awake through or watch much beyond the first 15 minutes or so.

A flat and rather unfunny British comedy, it is nevertheless revived to a certain degree by nice locations and an interesting, though hardly brilliant, performance from Peter Sellers. I am not sure if Terry-Thomas and Thorley Walters were supposed to look so alike, but either way their similarity in appearance does not help the film, since they are both playing such similar characters that it is easy to forget who is who. The film does have the odd amusing moment or two, and overall it is quite okay stuff to watch, but it is rather far off the par of typical 1950s and 1960s British comedy - and not in a positive direction.

Partially from the perceived need, one feels, to include a conventional love story in the plot to make the film more marketable to a 1950's movie-going public.

The film starts with some wickedly funny characterizations of the upper-class bureaucrats running the Foreign Office --- the British are pilloried in the way that only the British can pillory themselves. But after that, the film loses its way in a conventional farcical plot. Terry-Thomas watchable as always, but the great talent in the cast (Peter Sellers, et al) is largely wasted.

A diverting, but not great film.

Peter Sellers and Terry-Thomas here vie for the honours in a dated but sparkling piece of bunkum. A comedy that aims at so many targets (the cold war US/USSR rivalry, the UN, the British civil service, 'banana republics'...) normally fails, but this certainly has more hits than misses.

There are two unmissable scenes. The first is a military march-past which is rolling-on-the-floor funny from first to last: the mixed up commentary (note the point when the commentator finally gets a sentence right!); the shenanigans on the parade ground; and the collapsing review stand all combine to excellent effect. Second, a more minor but tasty scene where a table dancer (she is dancing ON the table) distracts Terry-Thomas in the course of his diplomatic discussions- surprising how much eroticism can get through the ludicrously heavy censorship of the period!

John Le Mesurier does an effective job in a 'wicked uncle' role torn straight from the pages of 19th century melodrama. Those who recall him from his small role in Ben-Hur might have cause to reflect that here is a supporting actor who gets about a bit!

Overall, both Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers have appeared in better films but, in parts, as funny a film as you are likely to find on a wet afternoon.

I'd love to know the story behind this Pacific Island country of Gaillardia where they seem to speak some kind of language close to Italian, but it's on the 33rd parallel latitude in the Pacific. Could some other enterprising Italian sailor before Columbus have gotten there and bred with the natives?

In any event they have a new young king in Ian Bannen courtesy of an assassination, a double dealing prime minister in Peter Sellers and they've been a British protectorate for some generations now. But the place is so small and insignificant that no one quite remembers it at the Foreign Office headed by Raymond Huntley.

It falls in the office of Miscellaneous Territories headed by Terry- Thomas and that should tell you all you need to know as he's sent out on a diplomatic mission to find out why everyone is so interested in this place all of a sudden.

Man In A Cocked Hat has some funny moments, but it's generally a weak satire on the art of diplomacy British style. This film recalls in the recent past the blundering diplomacy of the Suez Crisis which brought down a Tory Prime Minister served by a Foreign Secretary much like Huntley.

Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers fans should like this though.