Sailors Three

Sailors Three
Directed by	Walter Forde
Written by	Austin Melford John Dighton Angus MacPhail
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Starring	Tommy Trinder Claude Hulbert Carla Lehmann
Cinematography	Günther Krampf
Edited by	Ray Pitt
Music by	Ernest Irving
Production company	Ealing Studios
Distributed by	Associated British
Release date	14 December 1940 (1940-12-14) (UK)
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Sailors Three (released in the US as Three Cockeyed Sailors) is a 1940 British war comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert and Carla Lehmann. This was cockney music hall comedian Trinder's debut for Ealing, the studio with which he was to become most closely associated. It concerns three British sailors who accidentally find themselves aboard a German ship during the Second World War.

Detailed surveys published in Britain in the early years of the war by the "Mass-Observation" organisation, showed the popularity of comedy with wartime cinema audiences. Films with the war as a subject were particularly well received, especially those movies showing the lighter side of service life, largely because many in the audience would soon be finding themselves in uniform. John Oliver writes in BFI screenonline, " to prepare such potential recruits for their own possible riotous and fun-packed life in the Royal Navy, Sandy Powell had already taken the shilling in All At Sea (dir. Herbert Smith, 1939) before Tommy Trinder did likewise with Sailors Three, following his comic misadventures in the army in Laugh It Off (dir. John Baxter) earlier that same year."

The song "All Over The Place" (words by Frank Eyton; music by Noel Gay), sung by Trinder in the film, became one of the most popular of the war.

Plot

During the Second World War, three Royal Navy sailors on a drunken spree in a Brazilian neutral port mistake a German ship for their own and climb aboard. It turns out to be a pocket battleship, the Ludendorff, and to the credit of the Royal Navy, the trio manages to capture the ship and all the Germans on board.

Cast

• Tommy Trinder as Tommy Taylor
• Claude Hulbert as Llewellyn Davies, 'The Admiral'
• Carla Lehmann as Jane Davies
• Michael Wilding as Johnny Meadows
• James Hayter as Hans Muller
• Jeanne de Casalis as Mrs Pilkington
• Henry Hewitt as Professor Pilkington
• Brian Fitzpatrick as Digby Pilkington
• John Laurie as McNab
• Harold Warrender as Pilot's Mate
• Eric Clavering as Bartender
• John Glyn-Jones as Best Man
• John Wengraf as German Captain
• Manning Whiley as German Commander
• Victor Fairley as German Petty Officer
• Alec Clunes as British Pilot
• Derek Elphinstone as British Observer
• E.V.H. Emmett as Newsreel Commentator (uncredited)

Critical response

• TV Guide called it "a funny comedy from the propagandistic Ealing studios".
• Britmovie concluded director "Walter Forde’s music-hall training enabled him to see that the gags were well-timed."
• In the BFI screenonline, John Oliver writes, "Trinder may have made more distinguished films at Ealing, but Sailors Three was not only a promising start at the studio but the film that would remain his most successful outright comedy."

External links

• Sailors Three at IMDb
• Sailors Three at the BFI's Screenonline