You Know What Sailors Are

UK, 1954. Directed by Ken Annakin. Akim Tamiroff, Donald Sinden, Sarah Lawson, Bill Kerr, Naunton Wayne, Dora Bryan.

Scripted by Peter Rogers just a few years before he became the producer of the Carry On series of films, this satirical comedy feels a bit creaky nowadays, but is still mildly amusing in places. A reflection of the Cold War era, played mostly for laughs - Dr Strangelove it isn't. Cast as a naval officer, Donald Sinden seems here to be playing a comic version of the character he portrayed in the previous year's The Cruel Sea. Plenty of other British character actors pop up in familiar roles, but much of the humour is laboured by today's standards.