Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, December 5, 2019

ALL AT SEA (aka BARNACLE BILL) (1957)

After purring along for half a decade in a series of charmingly subversion British comedies for Ealing Studios (KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS/’49 to THE LADYKILLERS/’55), Alec Guinness reached an entirely different level of international stardom with THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI/’57. But he had one more Ealing comedy left to him in this modest, winning fable, loaded with Ealing Studio regulars in front & behind the camera. Guinness plays a inveterately seasick Captain from a Navy legacy family who finds the perfect ‘ship’ to command when he buys a seaside amusement pier which he registers as a foreign ship to avoid various town restrictions. Making a quick success of the long dilapidated structure, he’s now attacked by greedy town councilmen eager to tear it down for development and personal gain. And while the film’s delights run a bit shy of the best Ealing/Guinness pics, that’s no reason not to enjoy the real pleasures hiding here in plain sight. And such a handsome film under Douglas Slocombe’s camera, with director Charles Frend letting the gags rise to their natural level of buoyancy, much helped by a remarkably deep lineup of classic Brit supporting players. The sort of civilized film entertainment a generation once took for granted. Now, it’s treats!

DOUBLE-BILL: Less known than the Ealing Comedies, but coming right in the middle of them, THE PROMOTER/’52 (aka THE CARD) is a particular delight, with Guinness surrounded by Glynis Johns, Valerie Hobson, Petula Clark & Joan Hickson in a period comedy of social mobility.

No comments: