The Night We Dropped a Clanger | |
---|---|
Directed by | Darcy Conyers |
Written by | John Chapman |
Produced by | David Henley Sydney Box |
Starring | Brian RIx Cecil Parker William Hartnell Leslie Phillips |
Cinematography | Ernest Steward |
Edited by | Sidney Stone |
Music by | Edwin Braden |
Distributed by | Rank Organisation |
Release date |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
The Night We Dropped a Clanger is a 1959 black and white British comedy film directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Cecil Parker, William Hartnell and Leslie Phillips.
The title comes from the British expression "to drop a clanger", meaning to say something inappropriate or revealing. It links in the title to the secondary meaning of "clang", the noise of a metallic object hitting the floor. It was released as Make Mine a Double in the United States.
A British secret agent is sent on a secret operation in occupied France during the Second World War but a diversionary tactic turns into a farcical tale of mistaken identity. [1] [2]
Andrew Sachs made his film debut in a minor role.
When mysterious, unpiloted, midget aircraft start landing in southern England during the Second World War, secret agent Wing Commander Blenkinsop, VC and bar, is chosen for a top-secret mission to occupied France to investigate. Meanwhile, as a diversionary tactic to deceive the Germans, his exact look-alike, Aircraftsman [sic] Atwood (both parts are played by Rix), is reluctantly recruited to go to North Africa. However, through a farcical mixup, Blenkinsop finds himself in Africa and Atwood ends up in France.
By far more luck than judgement, Atwood returns to England in one of the buzz bombs and, with everyone (including Blenkinsop's girlfriend Lulu) believing he is Blenkinsop, he becomes a national hero, while the real Blenkinsop desperately tries to regain his identity and his life. Atwood continues the impersonation, but when he meets Lulu's mother, and his future mother-in-law, he begins to have doubts. Accidentally meeting Blenkinsop, they swap back to their real identities. [3]
SKY Movies wrote, "a typically rickety British farce of the late Fifties, a time when the Carry On's were gaining their first foothold. This is a sort of Carry On Flying: Brian Rix has a field day in a dual role and there's even William Hartnell, giving his comic all as yet another barking NCO. Broad, unpolished, lowbrow fun." [4]
John Welsh was an Irish actor.
Andreas Siegfried Sachs, known professionally as Andrew Sachs, was a German-born British actor. He made his name on British television and found his greatest fame for his portrayal of the comical Spanish waiter Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
Brian Norman Roger Rix, Baron Rix, was an English actor-manager, who produced a record-breaking sequence of long-running farces on the London stage, including Dry Rot, Simple Spymen and One for the Pot. His one-night TV shows made him the joint-highest paid star on the BBC. He often worked with his wife Elspet Gray and sister Sheila Mercier, who became the matriarch in Emmerdale Farm.
Cecil Parker was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969.
Private's Progress is a 1956 British comedy film based on the novel by Alan Hackney. It was directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting, from a script by John Boulting and Frank Harvey.
I Was Monty's Double is a book by M. E. Clifton James, first published in London in 1954. It was made into a film in 1958, directed by John Guillermin, from a screenplay adapted by Bryan Forbes. It tells the story of Operation Copperhead: James had an uncanny resemblance to Bernard Montgomery in real life, and he was used to impersonate Montgomery to confuse the Germans during the Second World War.
Peter Ray Burton was an English film and television actor.
Sheila Betty Mercier was an English actress, of stage and television, best known for playing Annie Sugden in the soap opera Emmerdale for over 20 years, from the programme's first episode in 1972 until the mid-1990s, with a guest return in 2009.
Raymond George Alfred Cooney OBE is an English playwright, actor, and director.
Target for Tonight is a 1941 British World War II documentary film billed as filmed and acted by the Royal Air Force, all during wartime operations. It was directed by Harry Watt for the Crown Film Unit. The film is about the crew of a Wellington bomber taking part in a bombing mission over Nazi Germany. The film won an honorary Academy Award in 1942 as Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. Despite purporting to be a documentary there are multiple indicators that it is not quite as such: film shots include studio shots taken from the exterior of the aircraft looking into the cockpit whilst "in flight"; several stilted sections of dialogue are clearly scripted; on the ground shots of bombing are done using model trains; and several actors appear. The film does give a unique insight into the confined nature of the Wellington's interior and some of the nuances of day to day operation such as ground crew holding a blanket over the engine while it starts to regulate oxygen intake.
John Slater was an English character actor who usually portrayed lugubrious, amiable cockney types.
The Night We Got the Bird is a 1961 British comedy film and a follow-up to the 1959 film The Night We Dropped a Clanger. Directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Dora Bryan, Ronald Shiner and Irene Handl. it is based on Basil Thomas's play "The Love Birds", and was the last film appearance by Ronald Shiner.
The Whitehall farces were a series of five long-running comic stage plays at the Whitehall Theatre in London, presented by the actor-manager Brian Rix, in the 1950s and 1960s. They were in the low comedy tradition of British farce, following the Aldwych farces, which played at the Aldwych Theatre between 1924 and 1933.
Look After Lulu! is a farce by Noël Coward, based on Occupe-toi d'Amélie! by Georges Feydeau. It is set in Paris in 1908. The central character is an attractive cocotte, Lulu, whose lover is called away on military service; the plot involves libidinous foreign royalty, a mock wedding that turns out to be real, people hiding under beds and in bathrooms, and a happy ending.
John Roy Chapman was a British actor, playwright and screenwriter, known for his collaborations with Ray Cooney.
Nothing Barred is a 1961 British black and white comedy film directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Leo Franklyn and Naunton Wayne.
And the Same to You is a 1960 British boxing-themed comedy film directed by George Pollock and starring Brian Rix and William Hartnell. It is based on a stage farce by A.P. Dearsley.
Arnold Bell was a British actor.
Darcy Conyers (1919–1973) was a British screenwriter, actor, producer and film director. He is sometimes credited as D'Arcy Conyers.
Leo Franklyn was an English actor. Much of his early career was in Edwardian musical comedy; in his later career he was chiefly associated with farce.
The Night We Dropped a Clanger at IMDb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8JWUHNswIU Full movie on YouTube.