Barnacle Bill (1957)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Charles Frend

Writers:

T.E.B. Clarke (story)
T.E.B. Clarke (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 December 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A seasick sea captain commands an amusement pier despite local opposition.

Plot Keywords:

Pier | Arcade | Cruise Ship | Seasick | Ealing

Cast

Alec Guinness	...	Captain William Horatio Ambrose
Irene Browne	...	Mrs. Barrington
Maurice Denham	...	Crowley
Percy Herbert	...	Tommy
Victor Maddern	...	Figg
Allan Cuthbertson	...	Chailey
Harold Goodwin	...	Duckworth
Richard Wattis	...	Registrar of Shipping
Lionel Jeffries	...	Garrod
George Rose	...	Bullen
Lloyd Lamble	...	Superintendent Browning
Harry Locke	...	Reporter
Mike Morgan	...	Larry
Max Butterfield	...	Phil
Donald Churchill	...	Roy

Also Known As:

All at Sea (USA)

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Company:

Ealing Studios

Goofs:

Continuity: When Ambrose arrives in France a close-up shot shows him taking the cotton wool out of his ears. In the next shot the cotton wool is still in his ears.

Soundtrack:

Movie music

Another great Guinness performance

The great Alec Guinness gives one of his usual fine performance in this lightweight comedy, wrapped around a typically wacky Ealing conceit - the sailor who can't go to sea buying a pier and running it like a ship. The early set-up sequences, featuring a montage of Guinness playing his ancestors at sea through the ages, are the usual silly, slapstick fun, and our hero's exploits getting his 'ship' up and running, fending off the crooked local council, and generally having a good time are heartwarming and cannot fail to raise a smile. One sequence, where he tries to run a dance hall at the end of the pier and is merrily strutting his stuff on the dancefloor with some local hottie when the authorities arrive to complain, is particularly memorable if only for the mad grin on Guinness' face as he boogies. Lacking the deeper satirical bite or wealth of really hilarious moments and characters powering the true classics of Ealing, this is nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable little film, featuring the standard role-call of vaguely familiar faces (watch out for a youngish Donald Pleasence in an early scene). Not brilliant, but fun.