Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

alexanderdavies-99382 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.

paul-743-899114 This film is very underrated and rarely shown on TV.The premise is simple, and there's nothing wrong with that, especially when it's so funny. Everything about it is as British as fish and chips, so Americans may not appreciate it as much as us, Australians and Kiwis, etc.The direction, editing, script and acting are spot on. The Boulting Brothers followed this one up with "I'm All Right Jack.", using nearly the entire same cast (playing the same characters), plus Peter Sellers, which was a master stroke. I reckon this is just as good as IARJ. There isn't a dull moment, and it's worth seeing for Terry Thomas and Dennis Price alone. No one says Terry's lines like him, and no one does wily like Price.What a shower!

Tim Kidner 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.

Spikeopath Upper class toff Stanley Windrush gets called to join the Army half way thru his university eduction, keen he may be, but he really is a fish out of water.Brought to us from the greatly talented Boulting brothers, is this most adored of British comedies. It's fish out of water plot has been {and will forever be} done to death, but driving this one on is the sly digs at the British class system so evident in the Armed forces from yore. Windrush can't cut it as the officer his standing suggests he should be, so he is promptly sent down amongst the working class, and it's here that the film appeals mainly on the comedy front. Windrush is in with a group of dodgers and bluffers, the army has taken them in, but they are going to take what they can from the army in the process, legal or not! Yet it's here that Windrush learns the most about affinity, friendships and trust, where the classes being broken down provides scope for real good comedy, to which the meeting of the different classes works so well as the makers keenly prod the inside of the cheek with a sharp tongue.Ian Carmichael is not the most gifted actor to have strode out for Britain, but in the right comedy role he could excel, such is the case here as he delivers the goods as the hapless Windrush. Across the cast list we have got Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, William Hartnell, Ian Bannen and the sublime Terry-Thomas, all names that are familiar with British movie fans from the black and white period. Private's Progress is a very British picture, the humour isn't of the sledge-hammer kind, it's very subtle and very knowing. But it's a film that I'm sure will go down well with anyone who is willing to invest some good, right frame of mind, time with it.Not quite the shower Terry-Thomas would have us believe actually. 7/10