In one of the "Carry On" series, someone tells Sid James that the Arabs they are about to encounter are very intense. "Well, the Arabs do everything in tents, don't they?" The median measure of humor in "The Navy Lark" lingers around that neighborhood. Gordon Jackson shows up with a dozen rifles and asks the Chief Boatswain what he should do with them. "Well, shove them in your arsenal, you idiot!" But on the whole this is a more structured send up than most of the "Carry On" features -- less episodic and opportunistic, more of a beginning and an end.
A British "Inshore Minesweeping Unit" has been forgotten by the Navy after World War II on the peaceful channel island of Boonsley and they've adapted to the circumstances. The military shell is maintained. The men still wear uniforms most of the time and the proper reports are filed, although the reports of hundreds of mines is exaggerated, since the only mine about is a defused one on the beach named Bessy that the children play on.
The captain, Cecil Parker, spends his time fishing. His Number One is romancing the single Wren on the island. The Chief Boatswain runs a wine smuggling business on the beach -- and so on. No one wants to disrupt the tranquility of Boonsley. Except some suspicious authorities from the upper echelon.
I found it much funnier than the "Carry On" series. Not to worry, though. There's little in the way of subtlety here. It doesn't aim for the dazzling heights of the best of the Ealing comedies. I'll give one comparative example of the difference.
Parker and his crew take an stern, nosy inspector from Portsmouth on a mine sweeping mission to convince him that the unit is still functioning and necessary. Since it's assumed that no German mines are around, old Bessy has been refloated. Mistakenly the boat encounters a real mine and, thinking it's Bessy, the crew haul it aboard and treat it in a cavalier fashion, crawling all over it, banging it with wrenches, while the inspector quails. "Careful there, men," the unwitting Parker orders with faux authority -- and the live mine drops with a clank on the deck.
In "The Man in the White Suit," an inventor has been doing experiments in a gallon-sized retort on a desk. The dozen experiments have all exploded so far, wrecking half the factory. Still another attempt, and the inventor presses the plunger on the detonator from behind a wall of sandbags. Cut to the retort, filled with a bubbling fluid that suddenly stops making noise and turns white -- finally, a success. The camera dollies back to show Cecil Parker bending over the device, looking quizzically at the transformation.
Two potentially disastrous situations, both involving Cecil Parker. One is funny, the other hilarious.
In a way it's unfair to compare the two because at their peak the Ealing comedies were peerless, among the funniest ever made, or so it seems to me. "The Navy Lark" isn't helped by a frantic musical score that does its best to persuade us to laugh. But, except for the overdone climactic battle for Boonsley's home rule, it is an amusing tale and it takes some marvelous pokes at the military bureaucracy. The first couple of minutes might lead you to suspect one silly incident after another, but the film soon grounds itself in a more familiar reality.
You'll probably enjoy it.
A British "Inshore Minesweeping Unit" has been forgotten by the Navy after World War II on the peaceful channel island of Boonsley and they've adapted to the circumstances. The military shell is maintained. The men still wear uniforms most of the time and the proper reports are filed, although the reports of hundreds of mines is exaggerated, since the only mine about is a defused one on the beach named Bessy that the children play on.
The captain, Cecil Parker, spends his time fishing. His Number One is romancing the single Wren on the island. The Chief Boatswain runs a wine smuggling business on the beach -- and so on. No one wants to disrupt the tranquility of Boonsley. Except some suspicious authorities from the upper echelon.
I found it much funnier than the "Carry On" series. Not to worry, though. There's little in the way of subtlety here. It doesn't aim for the dazzling heights of the best of the Ealing comedies. I'll give one comparative example of the difference.
Parker and his crew take an stern, nosy inspector from Portsmouth on a mine sweeping mission to convince him that the unit is still functioning and necessary. Since it's assumed that no German mines are around, old Bessy has been refloated. Mistakenly the boat encounters a real mine and, thinking it's Bessy, the crew haul it aboard and treat it in a cavalier fashion, crawling all over it, banging it with wrenches, while the inspector quails. "Careful there, men," the unwitting Parker orders with faux authority -- and the live mine drops with a clank on the deck.
In "The Man in the White Suit," an inventor has been doing experiments in a gallon-sized retort on a desk. The dozen experiments have all exploded so far, wrecking half the factory. Still another attempt, and the inventor presses the plunger on the detonator from behind a wall of sandbags. Cut to the retort, filled with a bubbling fluid that suddenly stops making noise and turns white -- finally, a success. The camera dollies back to show Cecil Parker bending over the device, looking quizzically at the transformation.
Two potentially disastrous situations, both involving Cecil Parker. One is funny, the other hilarious.
In a way it's unfair to compare the two because at their peak the Ealing comedies were peerless, among the funniest ever made, or so it seems to me. "The Navy Lark" isn't helped by a frantic musical score that does its best to persuade us to laugh. But, except for the overdone climactic battle for Boonsley's home rule, it is an amusing tale and it takes some marvelous pokes at the military bureaucracy. The first couple of minutes might lead you to suspect one silly incident after another, but the film soon grounds itself in a more familiar reality.
You'll probably enjoy it.
