Peter Sellers' first film role: a chaotic army vs. Hollywood showdown you've never heard of.
An American movie company wants to shoot a science-fiction film using a British army barracks as a location, and its soldiers as actors.
Acting
Sellers and Hancock stealing every scene they're in.
Production
Genuine British army barracks add authentic comic friction.
Director
David Paltenghi
Brian Reece
Capt. Bill Harper
Margot Grahame
Wanda Sinclair
Raymond Huntley
Col. Fred Bellamy
Sidney James
Ed Waggermeyer
Tony Hancock
Lt. Wilfred Cartroad
Peter Sellers
Pvt. Goffin
Clive Morton
Gen. Sir Cuthbert Grahame-Foxe
June Thorburn
Veronica Bellamy
Maureen Swanson
Joanne Delamere
Peter Martyn
Lt. John Broke
Bill Fraser
Pvt. Slee
Barry MacKay
R.S.M. Benson
Donald Pleasence
Cpl. Martin (as Donald Plesance)
Eric Sykes
Pvt. Waterhouse
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Peter Sellers' feature film debut, playing a glorified extra with barely ten lines. He'd later call his early career 'playing idiots for idiots.'
The film gently mocks 1950s Anglo-American relations: brash Hollywood producers vs. stiff-upper-lip military — a tension still ripe for comedy today.
GB
