Don't Panic Chaps!

Don't Panic Chaps! is a 1959 British comedy film directed by George Pollock and starring Dennis Price, George Cole, Thorley Walters and Terence Alexander.[1] The film was produced by Teddy Baird for ACT Films.[2] Originally called Carry On Chaps, the title was changed following the success of the "Carry On" series.[3]

Don't Panic Chaps!
Original British quad poster
Directed byGeorge Pollock
Written byMichael Corston
Jack Davies
Ronald Holroyd
Produced byTeddy Baird
StarringDennis Price
George Cole
Thorley Walters
CinematographyArthur Graham
Edited byHarry Aldous
Music byPhilip Green
Production
companies
Distributed byColumbia Pictures Corporation (UK)
Release date
November 1959 (UK)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUK
LanguageEnglish

It was based on a radio play and was made for £75,000.[4] It was shot at Walton Studios. The film's sets were designed by the art director Scott MacGregor.

Plot

The film starts just after the Battle of El Alamein somewhere in North Africa. British troops train in enemy plane and ship recognition. They train to operate an inflatable dinghy and are then taken by submarine to an Adriatic island. After setting up camp they discover that the island is the base for a small unit of Germans when one of the British soldiers bumps into a German soldier while both are skinny dipping in the sea.

The British soldiers hunt for the Germans and find a former monastery where they are surprised by a German officer. He explains that his group were guarding stores for re-supplying German submarines but have been forgotten by their superiors and offers to share his supplies and accommodation if the British will agree to a truce. The British soldiers return to their camp to consider the offer and eventually agree to accept when they realise that their food and water are about to run out. They join the Germans at the monastery but both the British NCO Bolter and the German NCO Meister disagree.

The two sides live harmoniously and even find mutual interests, with Finch befriending a German archaeologist and helping on an archaeological dig. One day, while sunbathing, the British officer Brown sees a woman, Elsa, in the sea clinging to some wreckage. He is unable to swim and calls to his men to help him but they ignore his calls. Eventually he jumps in the sea but has to be rescued by the woman. The soldiers talk to her and discover that she is Slavic, and doesn't understand English, French or German. Finally Finch tries Italian and is able to communicate with her. All the soldiers vie for her attention.

The two NCOs are mutually hostile and eventually leave the monastery for a fist fight. When they are too exhausted to continue, they realise that they agree that their duty as soldiers is to return to their own army so that they can continue fighting. They agree to take the inflatable dinghy and return to the war. However, they are unable to overcome the current and return to the island.

When a submarine finally appears it's British, and so as agreed the British troops go aboard along with Elsa, while the Germans go into hiding. They reflect that had it been a German submarine, they would probably have been sent to the Eastern Front. But no sooner has the British submarine disappeared than a U-Boat surfaces. Preferring a life of idleness in the Adriatic to the Eastern Front, they quickly walk away back to the interior of the island.

Cast

References
  1. "Don't Panic Chaps (1959) - BFI". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
  2. Action! Fifty Years in the Life of a Union. Published: 1983 (UK). Publisher: ACTT. ISBN 0 9508993 0 5. ACT Films Limited - Ralph Bond p81 (producer listed as Teddy Baird)
  3. "Don't Panic Chaps!". TV Guide.
  4. Tom Johnson and Deborah Del Vecchio, Hammer Films: An Exhaustive Filmography, McFarland, 1996 p171
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