Private’s Progress (1956)

Private’s Progress is a British war film first released in 1956, directed by John Boulting.  The film is based on a novel by Alan Hackney and stars Richard Attenborough, Ronald Adam, Dennis Price, Henry B. Longhurst and Terry-Thomas.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


In 1941, Stanley Windrush has his university studies interrupted when he is conscripted into the British army.  Because of his aristocratic background, Windrush is considered officer material, but when he fails to get past an officer selection board, he ends up being posted to a holding unit, under the command of the hard-to-please Major Hitchcock.  Windrush is trained as a Japanese interpreter but ends up being assigned to a secret operation conceived by his uncle, Bertram Tracepurcel.  The plan is to seize a consignment of priceless works of art from a Nazi-controlled chateau on the continent and bring these back to England.  In fact, Tracepurcel intends to purloin the antiques and sell them off for his own gain...

Private’s Progress, the first of the Boulting Brothers’ irreverent film satires, proved to be an instant hit and helped boost the profile of many of its stars.  It may even have inspired the BBC TV series The Army Game and the first of the Carry On films, Carry On Sergeant (1958).  The film is perhaps most memorable for Terry-Thomas’s irresistibly funny turn as the upper-crust officer who, when provoked, spits, in his inimitable way, "You’re a shower, an absolute shower!", which would become the actor’s oft-repeated catchphrase. 

The cast list reads like a Who’s Who of 1950s British cinema, including legends such as Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price and Ian Carmichael, in addition to the aforementioned Terry-Thomas.  William Hartnell appears briefly in the role for which he would have been best remembered if he hadn’t been cast in the TV series Doctor Who, the hectoring sergeant major.  John Le Mesurier is hilarious as an army psychiatrist; a decade later he would be immortalised as Sergeant Wilson in the TV series Dad’s Army.

Miles Malleson, George Coulouris and Peter Jones (to name just three) also put in some memorable contributions that help to make this an enjoyable romp.  Christopher Lee makes a fleeting appearance as a Nazi officer; a few years later, he would be known throughout the world as the unrivalled prince of horror, through his Dracula films for Hammer.  Several of the cast would reprise their roles in the sequel to this film, I’m All Right Jack (1959), which is indisputably the best of the Boultings’ satires of contemporary England.

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