Dir: Charles Frend | UK Comedy
The last and least of his Ealing comedies – dismissed by Alec Guinness as “the wretched, boring ‘Barnacle Bill’ – which I never wanted to do but only did out of friendship to Charley Friend” – ‘Barnacle Bill’ features playing yet another authority figure whose boundless self-confidence is completely unspoiled by failure and whose hubris involves sleeping in a hammock.
Recalling the depiction of the D’Ascoigne family in ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’ with Guinness’s ancestors played by Guinness; while lacking the subtlety of the classic Ealing comedies of yesteryear with a galumphing score by John Addison it ended the studio’s history with a whimper rather than a bang but affords the agreeable sight of Guinness shaking a leg with a young Jackie Collins in slacks and a ponytail. @RichardChatten
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