Up to His Neck (1954) User Reviews

My brief review of the film

[sol- · 5/10 · 20 October 2005]

Unrealistic, overly silly and at times quite messy, Ronald Shiner does seem to know what he is doing at least, and the vitality that he gives to his character, plus some amusing amounts, are enough to bring this British comedy, about rivalry between navy officers, up to scratch. There is little in the way of character development, and in fact most of the supporting characters are indistinguishable from the next. Some of the happenings are hard to digest, they are so silly, and there are few impressive features in the film. However, as just light entertainment, it works fairly well: not a laugh-out-loud film, but certainly one with a fair share of amusing moments.

Let them all walk the plank

[malcolmgsw · 3/10 · 3 September 2018]

Difficult to realise or understand that Ronnie Shiner was one of the top British film stars of the fifties.I even recall seeing this at the Ode on Temple Fortune when it was released.Watching it now,some 64vyears on it is difficult to work out why anybody thought that this dogs dinner of a film was funny.The writers must take a lot of the blame.Though any film featuring Brian Rix has a big handicap to start with.The story is very silly.Shiner is in the navy and is involved in nonsensical goings on in China.Lots of familiar faces are unable to save this mess.Hatfield Jacques appears in a truly embarrassing bit part at the beginning of the film.Peter Rogers had the basic idea for this film.He had better ones.

Screaming every line for comedy isn't funny.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 25 June 2023]

Nothing humorous for the king of the cannibal island, Ronald Shiner, crowned ruler of a tropical paradise and spending his days ogling the women and deciding such verdicts in cases such as one of the seven husbands of an oversexed Polynesian woman who wants one day away to visit mother. His days in the tropical paradise come to an end when the British navy arrives and declaring him a deserter orders him back on the ship. Shiner reluctantly complies and ends up involved in a caper involving Japanese spies.

A childish comedy made for adults, this British film is embarrassingly bad, and not just for the nonsensical plotline. Shiner is at the bottom of the barrel of British clowns who somehow made a success, and his credits include mostly films that fortunately did not focus on him. But he's in practically every scene of this film, eliciting groans from me with every squawky line he bellows. The villains are painfully one dimensional and the natives so badly cliched that it is insulting. When. A cute pet monkey doesn't even get laughs, you know you've got a problem.