Sailor Beware

This was even funnier than I remember it the first time, which is unusual is it not, as it's usually the other way around i.e. rose-tinted spectacles.

Peggy Mount - what can you say about her. Absolutely superb, and was almost upstaged in a brilliant performance by the tiny Esma Cannon. Thora Hird as the nosey neighbour was great of course as she never fails to deliver.

Few familiar faces according to the IMDb, although I didn't twig them all :-

Michael Caine - in his first film apparently, Alfie Bass (wasn't sure it was him), Gordon Jackson, the even tinier Edie Martin, George A Cooper, Paul Edington (with beard, which threw me) and Henry McGee as a milkman, and again I didn't recognise him.

I think this is a much-underrated British comedy.

I (re)watched this over the weekend and also found it funnier than I'd remembered. A number of real, big, laugh-out-loud points.

Not just much underrated, but also quite important. A hugely successful stage comedy, it made Mount's name and established the domineering battle-axe character that would come to define her career.

Has anyone seen the sort-of sequel Watch It, Sailor! (1961) though? Utterly fascinating. Also originating on stage, from the same two writers, it follows the exact same family and group of characters and the exact same event in their lives - but plays out events very differently. Almost as if in an alternate dimension but, to echo Aunt Edie's wails, fate continuing to intervene and stop things from running smoothly in any plane of existence.

Sadly I don't think Watch It, Sailor! - produced by Hammer and distributed by Columbia - has ever been released in the UK (but a novelisation was published), so it's a real rarity, but watching and comparing the two is genuinely very interesting. Sadly, only Cyril Smith as father of the family Henry appeared in both.

Watch It, Sailor! used to be shown quite regularly on some tv channel that seems to have changed its name, and maybe its raison d'etre, over the last couple of years. Was it Sony Classic or Sony Greats or something like that? Not a patch on Sailor Beware (which, like all farces, I felt worked better on stage anyway) I didn't think. Obviously the change of cast didn't help, particularly the absence of Peggy Mount. Although the addition of Irene Handl (albeit at the loss of Esma Cannon) and Frankie Howerd should have helped.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 1st August 2023, 3:57 PM

Watch It, Sailor! used to be shown quite regularly on some tv channel that seems to have changed its name, and maybe its raison d'etre, over the last couple of years. Was it Sony Classic or Sony Greats or something like that?

View original

Yes, Sony own Columbia these days so that would make sense! I wasn't aware it'd been repeated any time remotely recently though, so thanks for mentioning. Shame I didn't catch it at a better quality than I've got it now! 😆

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 1st August 2023, 3:57 PM

Not a patch on Sailor Beware (which, like all farces, I felt worked better on stage anyway) I didn't think. Obviously the change of cast didn't help, particularly the absence of Peggy Mount. Although the addition of Irene Handl (albeit at the loss of Esma Cannon) and Frankie Howerd should have helped.

View original

No, indeed. Liz Fraser, for example, is great - but mostly it's a downgrade, particularly seeing the two in direct comparison. And (coincidentally?) near binary-opposites at that: the smooth-faced blond Gordon Jackson for Graham Stark; the diminutive, slight Esma Cannon for the much more Mount-like Handl. Really strange!

Incidentally, if anyone wants to catch it, Sailor Beware is next due on TPTV at 6:30 am Friday 11 August.