Up the Front

Lurk is working as a dogsbody in a rich English household when WW1 is declared. In order to impress a girl he accompanies his boss to a recruiting show where he is hypnotised to think he needs to save England. Before the spell can be lifted he recruits and is shipped out to the front. Once there he finds himself drawn into a plot involving the German's secret plan for the way and a tattoo.

This is a very poor vehicle for a man of Frankie Howerd's talents. The first half of the film is the closest we get to his humour and even that isn't very funny. I'm a big fan of Howerd and think he's very funny but this doesn't do anything to use him. The plot is unimportant, but suffice to say it's very silly and doesn't hold the interest. That makes the comedy even more important and as I said already, in fails in that respect, with only a handful of funny lines and relies on smutting jokes and slapstick humour.

Howerd doesn't look convinced by the material himself, he delivers it all in his own indomitable style but it's all below his usual quality. The other actors only mug along, all playing the straight men to Howerd's comments.

Overall an unfunny, smutty comedy that wastes the talents of it's lead star.