Barnacle Bill (1957 film)

William Horatio Ambrose wants desperately to live up to his family's Royal Navy tradition; however, he has a debilitating problem. He suffers from seasickness. As a result, his contribution to the Second World War consists of testing cures for the malady. After the war, he retires from the navy as a captain and purchases a dilapidated late Victorian era amusement pier. At last, he has his own command. Unfortunately, his workers are an apathetic bunch, led by an insolent malcontent who quits when the new owner imposes discipline. With the assistance of a navy veteran and much hard work by bored local teenagers, Ambrose soon repairs his pier.

Every time Ambrose comes up with an ingenious way to make his business profitable, however, the local town council, headed by crooked Mayor Crowley and a hostile Arabella Barrington, act as foils to his success. So when Crowley decides to confiscate and demolish Ambrose's pier and Barrington's bathing huts (under compulsory purchase), she resigns from the council and informs Ambrose. He counters by registering his property as a "foreign" naval vessel (christened the Arabella), under the flag of convenience of the easygoing country, Liberama. This puts it outside the town's jurisdiction. Ambrose soon attracts many happy, paying passengers for his stationary inaugural "cruise."

Thwarted, Crowley hires a dredger to demolish the pier late at night. But Ambrose adopts a seasickness remedy suggested by Barrington and takes to sea to battle Crowley's underlings. In the process, part of the pier becomes detached and floats away. Ambrose remains aboard to prevent salvagers from claiming it and drifts across the channel to France, where he is hailed as a naval hero.

As appearing in Barnacle Bill, (main roles and screen credits identified):[5]

• Alec Guinness as Captain William Horatio Ambrose.[N 1]
• Irene Browne as Mrs Barrington
• Maurice Denham as Mayor Crowley
• Percy Herbert as Tommy
• Victor Maddern as Figg
• Allan Cuthbertson as Chailey
• Donald Pleasence as Cashier
• Harold Goodwin as Duckworth
• Richard Wattis as Registrar of Shipping
• Lionel Jeffries as Garrod
• George Rose as Bullen
• Lloyd Lamble as Superintendent Browning
• Harry Locke as Reporter
• Jackie Collins as June
• Eric Pohlmann as Liberamanian Consul
• Joan Hickson as Mrs Kent
• Charles Cullum as Major Kent
• Miles Malleson as Angler
• Charles Lloyd-Pack as Tritton
• Warren Mitchell as Artie White
• Elsie Wagstaff as Mrs Gray
• Sam Kydd as Frogman, "Davy Jones"

Guinness appeared in the film as a favour to the director. In later years, he recalled it as "wretched, (a film) ... I never wanted to do and only did out of friendship to Charley Frend."[7] Although Barnacle Bill was the last Ealing comedy, it was shot at Hunstanton Pier[8] and Elstree Studios, as Ealing Studios had closed and was sold to the BBC for television production.[4]

Barnacle Bill opened at the Empire Cinema in London on the 11 December 1957[1] and was released under the title All At Sea in the United States.

Barnacle Bill (as All at Sea) was reviewed in The New York Times by Bosley Crowther. His review was sympathetic to the failings of the film and script but he did see redeeming qualities in Guinness's performance. "Mr. Clarke's whimsical notion doesn't sail quite the untroubled sea that Mr. Guinness' pier does. It runs into roughness, now and then, which requires rather diligent overacting and farcical behavior by all hands. But Mr. Guinness, who has made an art of underplaying, never goes too far overboard ..."[9]

• List of British films of 1957

• Barnacle Bill at the TCM Movie Database
• Barnacle Bill at IMDb