Customer Reviews

Privates on Parade [VHS]

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A war dramedy that plays like an awkward hybrid of "How I Won The War" and "The Producers". John Cleese is the officer who leads a troupe of Special Services actors on the British equivalent of a USO tour of the 1948 Malaysian conflict. Hilarity ensues? Somewhat. Most of the belly laughs come from the actual stage numbers (you have to listen closely to the lyrics for full comic effect). Portrayal of the grim realities of war tempers the comedy somewhat. Veddy veddy British, which means that if you are already tuned into the Python/Red Dwarf/Benny Hill sensibility, you'll likely find the film an entertaining diversion. Other viewers may find it puzzling and uninvolving. Personally, I thought the most interesting aspect was the backdrop-the Malaysian confilict itself, which is rarely reviewed in history books and documentaries (possibly due to its close proximity to the end of WW 2). MGM's DVD sports a good transfer and decent audio. A guarded recommendation-to history buffs, Anglophiles, and Ptyhon completists.

This is a movie which at times is very funny and very black, worth watching and for some worth having, but which also can't seem to decide which sacred cows it wants to gore or which messages it wants to deliver.

It's 1948 and the British are fighting a Communist insurrection in the Malayan jungles. For the British Army in Malaya, WWII has hardly stopped. Acting Captain Terri Dennis (Denis Quilley) heads up a ragtag group of inept soldiers whose job it is to improve morale by staging song and dance shows for the troops. Since there are few women available, most of the troupe doubles in full drag, including -- with great enthusiasm and queenly putdowns -- Dennis. The troupe is under the command of Major Giles Flack (John Cleese), a Bible quoting anti-communist Army man who is more inept than the soldiers under him. However, it seems British arms are being stolen from a depot and being sold to the guerillas. The ringleader is an Army sergeant. One thing leads to another and soon the troupe is on a tour of remote outposts in the northern jungle. Unbeknownst to them, they are transporting one last big haul of rifles and ammo.

Privates on Parade started life as an acerbic British review that interspersed dark themes with music hall pastiches. And that's what we have here. The troupe led by Quilley puts on songs and dances that parody Fred and Ginger, Marlene Dietrich, marching production numbers and Vera Lynn-type icky ballads ("When the shadows creep, over fields of sheep, with a love that's deep, you and I will go to sleep, doing all those little things we used to do."). The dialogue is full of sexual innuendo, bawdy one-liners and gay stereotyping, especially in Denis Quilley's great performance. But in between the numbers are increasingly bitter messages targeting the British empire, the behavior of British officers, the repression of gay love, the hypocrisy of some men toward women, and so on. I suspect that, like Oh, What a Lovely War, it was a far more effective stage review than it turned out to be a movie.

Denis Quilley is the heart of the movie as the flamboyant queen with a great heart and second-rate talent. He's the lead in drag in several of the musical numbers and is first-rate. John Cleese does John Cleese, and he's a welcome part of the movie. I suspect he took the role because he liked the point of view, and the producers (including George Harrison) wanted him for some star power. Among the soldiers in the troupe is David Bamber playing a somewhat talented young soldier whose companion, a rough-speaking but funny sergeant, is killed in a fire-fight. I remember Bamber for his wonderful performance as the oily Mr. Collins who lives for Lady Catherine de Bourgh's condescension in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice.

The movie is something of a curiosity piece. I liked it, but it never seemed able to settle down and pick its targets.

Peter Nichols wrote plays about damaged people to get his point across that everyone is damaged in some way. In "Joe Egg" a married couple deals with raising a severely retarded child. "The National Health" depicts hospital patients who are as emotionally damaged as they are physically damaged. "Privates On Parade" presents the British version of a USO troop touring Southeast Asia in 1948. In all three plays the characters escape their troubles in song-and-dance routines. The film of "Privates" isn't as good as the actual play, but it is wonderful that it was filmed. They got John Cleese (fresh out of Monty Python and still falling back on his old routines) to play the commanding officer, but he is almost too competent to symbolize utterly oblivious authority. Most of the unit is gay, with Denis Quilley reprising his stage role of outrageous queen/star/director Terri Dennis. in the most touching number, "Sunnyside Lane," the two older men (even though one has a wife waiting in England, they have pledged to reenlist to stay together) sing of their shared happiness. This is a very funny film, perfect for any fan of amateur theatrics.

What a pleasant surprise this turned out to be! I only picked the film up because I wanted to start seeing Handmade Films' output (being a huge George Harrison fan, I learned of his film producing credits, and wanted to check them out), so I knew nothing about it, and what little I had heard was mixed to negative. So I was expecting a lowbrow, stupid, mildly amusing comedy.

What I found instead was a genuine little gem of a movie, far better than anything I anticipated. Though not a really laugh-out-loud comedy at first, it really draws you in with its characters and fine performances, and the interplay between the men makes you feel welcome and right at home with these boys. I can't actually recall any of the names of the actors, they were all British actors I'd never heard of, but they were remarkable.

There were a lot of what people would call gay stereotypes, but the writing and actors create fully fleshed-out and realized characters, so it never feels forced, or like gay humor for the sake of gay humor. We're not laughing at these dudes in drag, we're laughing with them, because they're having a ball through it all! The scenes where they're sitting backstage taking off make-up, and the dialogue exchanged, is fascinating (this coming from someone who's been involved with the theater for many years now, so it touched a special place in me, I suppose). I may be making the movie out to be about gay pride or whatnot, but it really isn't. It's about a troop of entertainers during the war, most of which happen to be gay, hence the cross-dressing musical numbers, which are a real hoot!

But the film also has a serious side to it; like all great war comedies, there is a touch of melancholy on all the proceedings. True, it isn't handled as subtly or as deftly as, say, M*A*S*H or Catch-22, but when bad things happen in this movie, you truly feel sad. It's never the same old obligatory dramatic scenes to move the plot along just so we can get to the next joke. Again, great script here. It would be wonderful to do the play someday.

Like I said, there aren't a great many laugh-out-loud "muy ha ha" moments; this is a film where the characters themselves laugh a lot, and you're laughing or at least smiling right along with them. And there are a great many little touches sprinkled throughout the movie to really bring it to the next level. Jessica Christ, do check it out!

PRIVATES ON PARADE debuted on the English stage in 1977. It was critically liked, but it was only a mild success, running less than a year. Time, however, has been kind to the stage production: it has been frequently revived in England and in 1990 picked up the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play for its off-Broadway production. But whatever the merits of the play, the merits of the film are somewhat spotty.

PRIVATES ON PARADE concerns something called SADUSEA, also known as Song and Dance Unit, South East Asia--something akin to a USO performing troupe. World War II has ended, but England is still a presence in Malayasia, where SADUSEA tours to entertain the troops. In theory, the group is under the command of blustery but ignorant Major Giles Flack (John Cleese), who doesn't realize that most of the actors are gay. In actual fact, it is controlled by leading actor-director-writer Captain Terri Dennis (Denis Quilley, recreating his performance from the original English production. There are many English-styled gay jokes and drag performances, and Quilley is truly memorable throughout, but there is something genuinely nasty going on behind the scenes: one member of the company is a traitor selling arms to the enemy, and he doesn't care who gets hurt in the process. Although often called a comedy, the film is better described as a particularly bitter satire on the decline of the British Empire and the ugliness of war in general; the tour ends with two dead, several seriously wounded, and everyone except the loud but incompetent Major Flack deeply disillusioned.

The film works best when Denis Quilley is on the screen, flamboyantly homosexual in a classic English manner. But overall, the film sputters. It is funny, and the humor is a sharp counterpoint to the folly of war, but it is never quite funny enough and the folly is never quite bloody enough for the whole thing to work. It lacks the razor-sharpness of great satire. Even so, its worth a look--don't expect happy endings and you may like it more than you expect.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Excellent movie. Serious subjects, lighthearted but not romanticised view of wartime. Great viewing!

I got this because the video box photo and liner notes made it look like a comedy starring John Cleese. It's neither. It took a long time to gel into a disappointingly predictable plot. The only thing that saved it was the unexpected attack scene toward the end--unexpected mostly because I was misled into thinking this was a slapstick farce instead of a mediocre drama with some funny bits. They did nothing with the "intelligence" officer except use him as a foil for Denis Quilley's character (which wasn't necessary) and a badly focused romantic interest. They could have used him to add some intrigue. Likewise, they totally wasted the Mata Hari-like female lead. It was as if the writers just didn't want to do anything to awful to all these nice people, for fear that the viewers wouldn't have enough sympathy for them when they were attacked. Even the evil one gets away. And the feel-good ending feels too...good.

Though I didn't think it was a great movie, I did find the characters easy to like, and the musical numbers were well done and funny.

And I can't fault John Cleese's performance. He plays the "God-King-Country" bit to the hilt, but not for laughs, and I liked that. He comes across as an idealistic but clueless bit of military deadwood, which is exactly what that character should be. Likewise, Denis Quilley nailed his character perfectly.

Simply put, this is an awful film. It is billed as a comedy, but there is nothing, at all, funny about it. More than a financial burden it's also a waste of time. John Cleese, himself, was unable to save this picture, that is how bad it is. What is unfunny about it? Everything. I don't know who the planned audience for this disaster was supposed to be, but I can't think of any part of the world population who would think this film was even mildly amusing. The more serious storyline, if you can even call it that, makes very little sense and doesn't bring the notability or the value of this project up either. For a better relatively unknown John Cleese film check out Clockwise.