Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

robert-temple-1 This film is a joy to watch, because of the perfect timing and comic talents of Ian Carmichael, who really was the fifties equivalent in Britain of Woody Allen. Carmichael plays a hopelessly incompetent but perfectly charming draftee to the Army during World War II. He starts out as an officer because he has a posh accent, but is quickly demoted to a private because he is so hopeless. But even as a private he cannot cope. Richard Attenborough plays Carmichael's chum. Terry-Thomas plays his usual pastiche role of an upper class twit officer with a sneer. There is nothing particularly inventive about this film, it is just jolly good fun. It was directed by John Boulting and produced by Roy Boulting. It's those brothers again. Ian Bannen makes his first credited appearance in a feature film. Dennis Price and Thorley Walters play officers. William Hartnell, always the sergeant major is, well, the sergeant major, and there was never anybody better at that than he was. Hartnell is one of those amazing stalwarts of British films who deserves more attention than he has received. He was not a Cockney, he was one of the locals whom I know so well, the older ones of whom proudly say of themselves: 'I'm from West Central' (WC1 postal area), better known as Holborn.

l_rawjalaurence PRIVATE'S PROGRESS, the first of the Boulting Brothers' series of satirical films - produced by themselves in association with British Lion - is a bit of a structural ragbag, with a comic look at army training followed by a dangerous (yet successful) mission to steal German art treasures.Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) is an upper-class twit studying at Oxbridge who is plucked from his safe life as undergraduate to serve as an officer in World War II. He proves totally incompetent in his army training, despite the best efforts of Sgt. Sutton (William Hartnell) to train him. He encounters a variety of colorful characters, notably Private Cox (Richard Attenborough) as well as Commanding Officer Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas) who is prone to describing his charges as an "absolute shower!" Having left camp without commission, Windrush is co-opted into a secret mission run by his uncle Bertram Tracepurcel (Dennis Price) that involves a trip to Germany. Disguised as a Nazi officer - although he knows no German - Windrush bumbles his way through the scheme, only to discover at length that its purpose was not what he first assumed.PRIVATE'S PROGRESS follows a familiar path trodden by other Fifties service comedies, notably RELUCTANT HEROES (1951) and CARRY ON SERGEANT (1958) - with Hsrtnell appearing once more in the latter film as an exasperated sergeant. The Boulting Brothers seem intent on showing how many of those on active service during World War II were manifestly unsuited to the task; the fact that Britain actually emerged triumphant was almost in spite rather than due to their efforts. At the time the film was made Carmichael was gradually ascending to stardom; having played another bumbler in SIMON AND LAURA (1955), he was to repeat the same role in I'M ALL RIGHT JACK (1959). The Boultings surround him with a gallery of other incompetents, notably Terry-Thomas, Kenneth Griffith, Victor Maddern and Ian Bannen.On the other hand the film makes some serious points about the levels of crime that took place during the war. Con-artists such as Tracepurcel and Cox flourished at that time, taking advantage of their secure jobs in the services to instigate a series of illegal operations. The fact that are both are found out at the end of the film has more to do with the prevailing codes of censorship at that time, rather than their own ineptitude. Spivs made a highly lucrative living during the Forties, and PRIVATE'S PROGRESS shows explicitly why that was the case.

bkoganbing Back when World War II was really going on, the British did not care too much for service comedies in the same way we did watching Bob Hope, or Eddie Bracken, or Abbott&Costello. The fact their island was really being bombed did dampen the sense of humor somewhat. Private's Progress could never have been made back then.But the British sense of humor came back with a vengeance in the making of this film by the Boulting Brothers. I have to say I truly enjoyed it along with a few favorite British character actors of mine.One I was not familiar with was Ian Carmichael who plays upper class twit Stanley Windrush who leaves Oxford in answer to his country's call to arms. Though he's quite proper, he's about as qualified for military service as Lou Costello. He's not Costello though, he's more like a version of Captain Parmenter from F Troop, the perfect dupe for the schemes of others around him. His gullibility is recognized by his uncle Dennis Price and by scheming private Richard Attenborough.Carmichael and the rest arrive almost at the very end of World War II where Price and Attenborough have hatched a grand plan to steal some of the art treasures the Nazis have originally stolen. Terry-Thomas is in this as well at the start of his brilliant comic career as an officer almost as dumb as Carmichael.If you're liking the British comedies shown on public television, Private's Progress is definitely your kind of film.

bob the moo Before WWII the British workforce were made up of the military, agricultural workers, industrial workers and millions of civil servants to organise everything. With WWII the military grows in the UK to the largest it has ever been. As part of the draft, the upper class Stanley Windrush finds himself called out of his university education to join the war effort. After failing the officer's training, he finds himself down among the working classes.Despite the fact that this film has a very loose plot until the final third, this is still a great little comedy that will appeal to those of us who are familiar with British society and all it's general groups. The plot sees an educated person fall into the ranks of the workingmen before being sent on a mission to steal a collection of priceless art from inside Germany. All of this is OK and the majority of the film is spent on Windrush's training but in reality I see the plot as just an effective framework for lots of sharp observations that, although rarely laugh-out-loud funny, are still very funny. Nobody gets away unscathed and the type of humour is obvious from a pre-credit sequence that mocks the number of civil servants and a title sequence that pointedly thanks nobody official for their help! The script has spot-on digs at the educated classes, the scheming and work-shy working classes, the foolish officer classes as well as the whole general culture of the UK. You would think that the film would have dated, but it's observations on British society are still pretty accurate (even if they are sweeping generalisations). For this reason I found it funny and the plot manages to pull off the dual trick of being enough to keep the film moving and giving it a narrative but also not intruding into the humour of the film.The cast is surprisingly deep in good performances, spot on caricature and a load of famous faces doing just what they are famous for! Carmichael leads the cast really well and has an enjoyable role as a bit of a limp fellow (educated, you know!). He is supported by the likes of Attenborough as a bit of a dodger and a raft of good performances from the likes of Malleson, Jones, Maddern, Hartnell and Trubshawe. These are added to by the typically wonderful Terry-Thomas ('you're an absolute shower, the lot of you') and Le Mesurier doing their usual (but always appreciated) stuff. Also of note is a small, early role for one Christopher Lee as an English-speaking German aide towards the end of the film. All the cast do really well but it is a spot-on script that makes their work look so effortless.Overall this is not a hilarious comedy in the modern style but more a consistent gentle wit that, sadly, may leave modern audiences wondering why it is so loved. However those of us aware of the society that the film is digging at will be more than amused by this film. Plot may well come second to humour and satirical digs but it is still strong enough to make the film work without taking anything away from the sharp script.