Terry-Thomas

Collection of six films featuring British comedy actor Terry-Thomas.

In Private's Progress (1956), upper-class twit Windrush (Ian Carmichael) causes military mayhem when he joins up in the army. An inept soldier, he unwittingly becomes involved in his high-ranking uncle's (Dennis Price) scam to appropriate some rather valuable spoils of war - a haul of German jewels.

The Boulting Brothers comedy Brothers In Law (1957) stars a host of British stars. Roger Thursby (Ian Carmichael) is an overly keen, newly-qualified barrister who rubs his fellow barristers up the wrong way. When he is thrown in at the deep-end, with a particularly hot-tempered judge (Miles Malleson) and tricky case, Thursby learns how to prove himself not only to the judge and fellow barristers but also to the public gallery.

In The Naked Truth (1957), Nigel Dennis (Dennis Price) is an unscrupulous tabloid publisher who is making himself rich by approaching celebrated personages with scandalous stories and offering not to print them for a certain fee. But some of his targets have had enough of this and are drawing up plans to do away with the rotten fellow. Terry-Thomas plays the aristocratic Lord Mayley, while Shirley Eaton plays model Melissa Right, and Peter Sellers is TV star Sonny McGregor.

In Too Many Crooks (1959), Fingers (George Cole) and his gang of crooks seem to be having a run of bad luck, as they keep botching one job after another. When they try to rob the wealthy philanderer Billy Gordon (Terry-Thomas) they manage to get things wrong once again and end up kidnapping his wife Lucy (Brenda Da Banzie) instead. Unfortunately, Billy is overjoyed to have his wife gone and makes no effort to pay the ransom, which makes Lucy mad and absolutely determined to have her revenge.

In School For Scoundrels (1960), Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael) is one of life's losers. Despised and disregarded at work, his prospective girlfriend April (Janette Scott) is whisked from under his nose by charming bounder Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas). In desperation, Henry enrols at Stephen Potter's (Alastair Sim) College of Lifemanship, where he gradually learns how to get one up on the other fellow.

Make Mine Mink (1960) is based on the stage play by Peter Coke. When Dame Beatrice Appleby (Athene Seyler) receives a fur coat from her ex-jailbird maid Lily (Billie Whitelaw) she can't help but suspect that it was stolen. In order to set things right she gathers together a team of local misfits, headed by the eccentric Major Rayne (Terry-Thomas), and draws up plans for a reverse-heist which will secretly put the mink back into the hands of its rightful owners. However, when the gang set out on their mission, they soon begin thinking that their talents could be put to other uses.

First released: Monday 14th May 2007