Don't Panic Chaps!

Last updated

Don't Panic Chaps!
"Don't Panic Chaps!" (1959).png
Original British quad poster
Directed by George Pollock
Written byMichael Corston
Jack Davies
Ronald Holroyd
Produced byTeddy Baird
Starring Dennis Price
George Cole
Thorley Walters
CinematographyArthur Graham
Edited byHarry Aldous
Music by Philip Green
Production
companies
Distributed by Columbia Pictures Corporation (UK)
Release date
November 1959 (UK)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUK
LanguageEnglish

Don't Panic Chaps! is a 1959 British comedy film directed by George Pollock and starring Dennis Price, George Cole, Thorley Walters and Terence Alexander. [1] The film was produced by Teddy Baird for ACT Films. [2] Originally called Carry On Chaps, the title was changed following the success of the "Carry On" series. [3]

Contents

It was based on a radio play and was made for £75,000. [4] It was shot at Walton Studios. The film's sets were designed by the art director Scott MacGregor.

Plot

The film starts just after the Battle of El Alamein somewhere in North Africa. British troops train in enemy plane and ship recognition. They train to operate an inflatable dinghy and are then taken by submarine to an Adriatic island. After setting up camp they discover that the island is the base for a small unit of Germans when one of the British soldiers bumps into a German soldier while both are skinny dipping in the sea.

The British soldiers hunt for the Germans and find a former monastery where they are surprised by a German officer. He explains that his group were guarding stores for re-supplying German submarines but have been forgotten by their superiors and offers to share his supplies and accommodation if the British will agree to a truce. The British soldiers return to their camp to consider the offer and eventually agree to accept when they realise that their food and water are about to run out. They join the Germans at the monastery but both the British NCO Bolter and the German NCO Meister disagree.

The two sides live harmoniously and even find mutual interests, with Finch befriending a German archaeologist and helping on an archaeological dig. One day, while sunbathing, the British officer Brown sees a woman, Elsa, in the sea clinging to some wreckage. He is unable to swim and calls to his men to help him but they ignore his calls. Eventually he jumps in the sea but has to be rescued by the woman. The soldiers talk to her and discover that she is Slavic, and doesn't understand English, French or German. Finally Finch tries Italian and is able to communicate with her. All the soldiers vie for her attention.

The two NCOs are mutually hostile and eventually leave the monastery for a fist fight. When they are too exhausted to continue, they realise that they agree that their duty as soldiers is to return to their own army so that they can continue fighting. They agree to take the inflatable dinghy and return to the war. However, they are unable to overcome the current and return to the island.

When a submarine finally appears it's British, and so as agreed the British troops go aboard along with Elsa, while the Germans go into hiding. They reflect that had it been a German submarine, they would probably have been sent to the Eastern Front. But no sooner has the British submarine disappeared than a U-Boat surfaces. Preferring a life of idleness in the Adriatic to the Eastern Front, they quickly walk away back to the interior of the island.

Cast

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Finch</span> English-Australian actor (1916–1977)

Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Submarine films</span> Subgenre of war film

The submarine film is a subgenre of war film in which the majority of the plot revolves around a submarine below the ocean's surface. Films of this subgenre typically focus on a small but determined crew of submariners battling against enemy submarines or submarine-hunter ships, or against other problems ranging from disputes amongst the crew, threats of mutiny, life-threatening mechanical breakdowns, or the daily difficulties of living on a submarine.

<i>Father Goose</i> (film) 1964 film by Ralph Nelson

Father Goose is a 1964 American Technicolor romantic comedy film set in World War II, starring Cary Grant, Leslie Caron and Trevor Howard. The title derives from "Mother Goose," the code name assigned to Grant's character. Based on a story A Place of Dragons by Sanford Barnett, the film won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It introduced the song "Pass Me By" by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, later recorded by Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra and others.

<i>Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed</i> 1969 British film

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is a 1969 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Films, starring Peter Cushing, Freddie Jones, Veronica Carlson and Simon Ward. The film is the fifth in a series of Hammer films focusing on Baron Frankenstein, who, in this entry, terrorises those around him in a bid to uncover the secrets of a former associate confined to a lunatic asylum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thorley Walters</span>

Thorley Swinstead Walters was an English character actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedy film roles such as in Two-Way Stretch and Carlton-Browne of the FO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terence Alexander</span> English actor

Terence Joseph Alexander was an English film and television actor, best known for his role as Charlie Hungerford in the British TV drama Bergerac, which ran for nine series on BBC1 between 1981 and 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japan during World War I</span> Period of Japanese history from 1914 to 1918

Japan participated in World War I from 1914 to 1918 in an alliance with Entente Powers and played an important role in securing the sea lanes in the West Pacific and Indian Oceans against the Imperial German Navy as a member of the Allies. Politically, the Japanese Empire seized the opportunity to expand its sphere of influence in China, and to gain recognition as a great power in postwar geopolitics.

<i>Escape to Athena</i> 1979 British film

Escape to Athena is a 1979 British adventure comedy war film directed by George P. Cosmatos. It stars Roger Moore, Telly Savalas, David Niven, Stefanie Powers, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Roundtree, Sonny Bono and Elliott Gould. The film is set during the Second World War on a German-occupied Greek island. The music was composed by Lalo Schifrin. It was filmed on location on the island of Rhodes.

Preveli is a location on the south coast of the Greek island of Crete, in the Rethymno regional unit, notable for its monastery.

<i>We Dive at Dawn</i> 1943 British film

We Dive at Dawn is a 1943 war film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring John Mills and Eric Portman as Royal Navy submariners in the Second World War. It was written by Val Valentine and J. B. Williams with uncredited assistance from Frank Launder. It was produced by Edward Black. The film's sets were designed by Walter Murton.

Squadron Leader Henry Melvin "Dinghy" Young, was a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War.

<i>Second Fiddle</i> (1957 film) 1957 British film

Second Fiddle is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters, Lisa Gastoni and Richard Wattis. The film was produced by Robert Dunbar for Act Films Ltd. It was the final film of prolific director Maurice Elvey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gertan Klauber</span>

George Gertan Klauber was a British bit part character actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adriatic campaign of World War II</span>

The Adriatic campaign of World War II was a minor naval campaign fought during World War II between the Greek, Yugoslavian and Italian navies, the Kriegsmarine, and the Mediterranean squadrons of the United Kingdom, France, and the Yugoslav Partisan naval forces. Considered a somewhat insignificant part of the naval warfare in World War II, it nonetheless saw interesting developments, given the specificity of the Dalmatian coastline.

Yugoslav minelayer <i>Zmaj</i> Yugoslav and German warship (1928–1944)

The Yugoslav minelayer Zmaj was built in Weimar Germany for the Royal Yugoslav Navy in the late 1920s. She was built as a seaplane tender, but does not appear to have been much used in that role and was converted to a minelayer in 1937. Shortly before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 during the Second World War, she laid minefields along the Dalmatian coast, perhaps inadvertently leading to the sinking of two Yugoslav passenger ships. Slightly damaged by Italian dive bombers and then captured by the Italians during the invasion, she was soon handed over to the Germans. While in their service the ship was renamed Drache, had her anti-aircraft (AA) armament improved, and was used as a seaplane tender and later as a troop transport. In the latter role she participated in over a dozen convoys between the Greek port of Piraeus and the Greek island of Crete between December 1941 and March 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Anglo</span>

Operation Anglo was a British Commando raid on the island of Rhodes during the Second World War. The raid was carried out by eight men of the Special Boat Section (SBS) assisted by four Greeks.

<i>Top Secret</i> (1952 film) 1952 British film

Top Secret is a 1952 British black and white comedy film directed by Mario Zampi and starring George Cole, Oskar Homolka and Nadia Gray. A sanitation inspector is mistaken for an international spy. It was shot at the Elstree Studios of Associated British. The film's sets were designed by the art director Ivan King. The film was released in the United States as Mr. Potts Goes to Moscow.

Comradeship is a 1919 British silent film drama, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Lily Elsie, Gerald Ames and Guy Newall. The film's action covers the entire span of World War I, from the months before the outbreak of hostilities to the declaration of peace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karaburun tragedy</span> 2004 tragedy at sea off the coast of Italy

The Karaburun tragedy of 2004, also known as the 9 January tragedy, was a marine incident that occurred during an attempted sea crossing from northern Albania to Italy by 36 people, including two dinghy operators and the smugglers' leader. They were trying to cross the Strait of Otranto, off the southern coast of Italy, in an inflatable boat, heading towards Brindisi, on the Adriatic coast of Apulia. Twenty-eight people died or were declared lost at sea, and there were only eight survivors. For Albanian emigrants, the tragedy had the second highest mortality rate for such events, after the Otranto tragedy of March 1997, when the Albanian ship Kateri i Radës, smuggling clandestine emigrants, was hit by the Italian warship Sibilla, resulting in the death of 84 people.

German submarine <i>U-53</i> (1939) German World War II submarine

German submarine U-53 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 13 March 1937 at Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel and went into service on 24 June 1939 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See (Oblt.z.S.) Dietrich Knorr.

References

  1. "Don't Panic Chaps (1959) - BFI". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
  2. Action! Fifty Years in the Life of a Union. Published: 1983 (UK). Publisher: ACTT. ISBN   0 9508993 0 5. ACT Films Limited - Ralph Bond p81 (producer listed as Teddy Baird)
  3. "Don't Panic Chaps!". TV Guide.
  4. Tom Johnson and Deborah Del Vecchio, Hammer Films: An Exhaustive Filmography, McFarland, 1996 p171