The Night We Dropped a Clanger (1959)

Very Cool!!!

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

As a new type of V-1 type doodle-bug starts to fall on southern England during WW2, Brian Rix plays a secret agent and his incompetent double to good effect here, under orders from 'Bukpasser' and 'Spendal' of the Air Ministry.There is a very good supporting cast, and some other good performances, especially from Cecil Parker. It is the first screen role for Andrew Sachs, too.The idea that an important military man should be impersonated (and appear to be in the wrong country) for the benefit of the Germans is based on fact; General Montgomery was impersonated in exactly this way during WW2, more or less as depicted in the film 'I was Monty's double'.Yes in this film the humour is mostly broad, but in the context of British comedy films made at this time, I think it is a pretty good effort. I started watching this film with low expectations and found myself chuckling quite unexpectedly; there are many deftly-performed sight gags that you might miss if you are not paying attention.

THE NIGHT WE DROPPED A CLANGER is a WW2-era comedy featuring a star turn for music hall personality Brian Rix, the guy well known for dropping his trousers and the like in various routines. Rix takes on the dual role of a leading wing commander and the incompetent aircraftsman who just so happens to be his double. One is due to be sent into occupied France on a secret mission and the other will be his decoy on a mission to North Africa. What could possibly go wrong? The answer is everything, but THE NIGHT WE DROPPED A CLANGER is really only a film for die-hard fans of British comedy of the era. This film feels like it was made in the 1940s, not 1961. The humour is quite weak and tame and not as funny as the rival CARRY ON films from the same time. Rix is something of an acquired taste and although some of his slapstick routines are funny, his weak-willed character is more irritating than amusing.Still, there's a solid supporting cast to enjoy, including William Hartnell once again playing up the stern role he ended up typecast with. Leslie Phillips enjoys a little womanising but is rather underutilised, it has to be said, although there's a nice part for Liz Fraser who gives something of an eye-popping performance as a nightclub singer. Hattie Jacques has a good cameo as does Irene Handl, but they're all too brief unfortunately.

As a young schoolboy growing up in Manchester during the late 1950's I always looked forward to the screening of a Brian Rix farce on television. My father was a great fan of his and we both loved to watch Brian and his wife Elspet Gray in any "Whitehall Farce" the BBC screened, usually at Christmas.Consequently, I was looking forward to watching this film very much. Sadly, I was greatly disappointed by this particular effort. The film had very little humour and an even poorer storyline.The production values were bad and the comedic talents of comedians such as Hattie Jacques, Cecil Parker and Leslie Phillips utterly wasted.Worth watching only if you are a die-hard fan of Mr.Rix. Perhaps, his other films are better ... let us hope so.

Brian Rix stars in dual roles as a celebrated RAF officer and a hopelessly incompetent airman. When RAF Intelligence notices how similar the two men look they propose to use the incompetent as a decoy on a secret mission. Needless to say, the plans get mixed up and the incompetent leads the secret mission, while the real agent is used as a decoy. I was unfamiliar with Brian Rix before I viewed the film and I must admit I quite enjoyed his work here. Other familiar faces include Cecil Parker, Leslie Phillips and William Hartnell. Not a classic of the standard of Ealing's best, but few good laughs during the 90 minutes.The print I saw had the title, Make Mine A Double.