KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

alexanderdavies-99382 I really don't understand why this masterpiece only has a rating of 6.6! Some people have no idea what a good film is it would seem. "Private's Progress" is an "anti establishment" satire on how some people take every advantage of the position they hold in their jobs and exploit it accordingly. Such is the case with the army in this film. Set during the Second World War, a young, good- natured but rather naive enlisted Private, Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) falls into the wrong hands after befriending the likable rogue Cox (Richard Attenborough). The latter character is into every shady, moneymaking enterprise there is. What Windrush doesn't know, is that his uncle - an army major - is also involved in the same racket of stealing and selling priceless merchandise on the black market. Dennis Price plays the thoroughly unscrupulous uncle in question, who uses his front of that of a major for his own selfish endeavours. You realise soon enough that Windrush takes everyone and everything at face value, without learning to read between the lines as it were. He has a series of adventures during his time in the army. One of these, is incurring the wrath of Terry Thomas and it makes for marvellous entertainment. The way Thomas describes his men as being "An absolute shower" is a riot. Apart from the main cast, there are many familiar actors in "Private's Progress." Ian Bannen, Kenneth Griffith, Victor Maddern, Brian Oulton, William Hartnell (The First Doctor Who), Thorley Waters and others. This satire was one of the first films to be produced by Roy and John Boulting and it is a delight from beginning to end.

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.