I really don't understand why this masterpiece only has a rating of 6.6! Some people have no idea what a good film is it would seem. "Private's Progress" is an "anti establishment" satire on how some people take every advantage of the position they hold in their jobs and exploit it accordingly. Such is the case with the army in this film. Set during the Second World War, a young, good- natured but rather naive enlisted Private, Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) falls into the wrong hands after befriending the likable rogue Cox (Richard Attenborough). The latter character is into every shady, moneymaking enterprise there is. What Windrush doesn't know, is that his uncle - an army major - is also involved in the same racket of stealing and selling priceless merchandise on the black market. Dennis Price plays the thoroughly unscrupulous uncle in question, who uses his front of that of a major for his own selfish endeavours. You realise soon enough that Windrush takes everyone and everything at face value, without learning to read between the lines as it were. He has a series of adventures during his time in the army. One of these, is incurring the wrath of Terry Thomas and it makes for marvellous entertainment. The way Thomas describes his men as being "An absolute shower" is a riot. Apart from the main cast, there are many familiar actors in "Private's Progress." Ian Bannen, Kenneth Griffith, Victor Maddern, Brian Oulton, William Hartnell (The First Doctor Who), Thorley Waters and others. This satire was one of the first films to be produced by Roy and John Boulting and it is a delight from beginning to end.

This film is a joy to watch, because of the perfect timing and comic talents of Ian Carmichael, who really was the fifties equivalent in Britain of Woody Allen. Carmichael plays a hopelessly incompetent but perfectly charming draftee to the Army during World War II. He starts out as an officer because he has a posh accent, but is quickly demoted to a private because he is so hopeless. But even as a private he cannot cope. Richard Attenborough plays Carmichael's chum. Terry-Thomas plays his usual pastiche role of an upper class twit officer with a sneer. There is nothing particularly inventive about this film, it is just jolly good fun. It was directed by John Boulting and produced by Roy Boulting. It's those brothers again. Ian Bannen makes his first credited appearance in a feature film. Dennis Price and Thorley Walters play officers. William Hartnell, always the sergeant major is, well, the sergeant major, and there was never anybody better at that than he was. Hartnell is one of those amazing stalwarts of British films who deserves more attention than he has received. He was not a Cockney, he was one of the locals whom I know so well, the older ones of whom proudly say of themselves: 'I'm from West Central' (WC1 postal area), better known as Holborn.

The Halliwell's Film Guide that I used to get and live by always praised 'Private's Progress', but has it ever been on TV? Not that I know of and as someone in his mid 40's I hardly would have seen it when it was theatrically released.So, now, to my just purchased Terry Thomas Collection; very good value and which includes this film plus five more. I would suggest this be the best way of buying Private's Progress, as the remainder (not seen yet) are well regarded and Thomas starred in some great films.My second viewing in two days and I'm loving the disarmingly naive Ian Carmichael, who isn't quite a fish out of water but is certainly floundering at the edges. The film is set in 1942 and the offbeat intro sets the tone. The script is superb, gently bristling with satirical jibes and subtle in-jokes that are only revealed after repeat viewings. The comedy relies on intelligent writing rather than visual gags, so give it a chance - and concentrate!The cast list is quite an extravaganza, a feast of well-known and famous faces that I was brought up on. Aside of the aforementioned Terry Thomas, who is the entertainingly robust toff Major Hitchcock, John Le Mesurier as an Army psychiatrist and a bounder of a chancing fellow private, Richard Attenborough. As Private Cox, he instigates a major theme of this film, getting out all you can from an unfortunate situation that war happens to be. We might associate such waspish satire with the likes of Hollywood writers such as Billy Wilder and his 'Stalag 17', but this is our very own, very English example.There's also an array of other, lesser characters that will be familiar to anybody who watches Brit movies of the '60s.It all rolls along nicely, fairly briskly leading to a rather bizarre situation that finds Windrush moving into Intelligence, becoming a Japanese translator but gets sent on a mission to Germany - where his new found skills prove absolutely useless and he nearly ends up getting shot as he can't speak a word of German! The story about stolen art treasures that his Brigadier uncle (Dennis Price) is having brought back, somewhat unofficially, from occupied Germany quickens the visual pace and sees out the film, ending with Windrush finally back at his old school, where he is a master.Transfer quality: this one is fine, obviously un-restored and slightly grainy, with the odd blemish but seldom noticeable and which is par for the course for a film of this era.So, Private's Progress is a delight, hideously unknown and one of British cinema's little gems.

Back when World War II was really going on, the British did not care too much for service comedies in the same way we did watching Bob Hope, or Eddie Bracken, or Abbott&Costello. The fact their island was really being bombed did dampen the sense of humor somewhat. Private's Progress could never have been made back then.But the British sense of humor came back with a vengeance in the making of this film by the Boulting Brothers. I have to say I truly enjoyed it along with a few favorite British character actors of mine.One I was not familiar with was Ian Carmichael who plays upper class twit Stanley Windrush who leaves Oxford in answer to his country's call to arms. Though he's quite proper, he's about as qualified for military service as Lou Costello. He's not Costello though, he's more like a version of Captain Parmenter from F Troop, the perfect dupe for the schemes of others around him. His gullibility is recognized by his uncle Dennis Price and by scheming private Richard Attenborough.Carmichael and the rest arrive almost at the very end of World War II where Price and Attenborough have hatched a grand plan to steal some of the art treasures the Nazis have originally stolen. Terry-Thomas is in this as well at the start of his brilliant comic career as an officer almost as dumb as Carmichael.If you're liking the British comedies shown on public television, Private's Progress is definitely your kind of film.