- Very Important Person (film)
Infobox_Film
name = Very Important Person
director =Ken Annakin
writer =Jack Davies Henry Blyth
John Foley (novel)
starring =James Robertson Justice Stanley Baxter Leslie Phillips
producer =Leslie Parkyn Julian Wintle
distributor = Rank
released = 1961
runtime = 98 min.
music =Reg Owen
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0055593"Very Important Person" is a 1961 British
comedy film , directed byKen Annakin , and written byHenry Blyth andJack Davies . In theUnited States , the film was re-titled "A Coming Out Party".The film contains fine performances from several well-known British comedy and character actors, including
James Robertson Justice ,Stanley Baxter as both a dour Scottish prisoner and the camp Kommandant,Eric Sykes as a sports fanatic,John Le Mesurier as the Escape officer,Leslie Phillips , andRichard Wattis as the emotional Entertainments officer, desperately trying to coax quality performances out of would-be entertainers.Plot
Sir Earnest Pease (
James Robertson Justice ) is a brilliant but acerbicscientist working onaircraft research duringWorld War II . He needs to takes a trip on a bomber to observe the results of his work. At first the plan is to fly in anRAF plane but when he is told to shave off his beard he refuses and gets to go in aRoyal Navy bomber where beards are allowed.Because it is vital that nobody knows who he is, Pease goes on the trip as Lieutenant Farrow, a
public relations officer.The bomber is damaged over
Germany and he is sucked out of a hole in the side of the airplane but lands safely with the aid of a parachute. He is captured and, after interrogation under his alias of Lieutenant Farrow of theRoyal Navy , he is sent to aPOW camp, mostly occupied by RAF officers.His excellent command of the German language causes him to be suspected of being a German agent, but when his real identity and importance becomes known to the Senior British Officer (
Norman Bird ), orders are given that the men in his hut cooperate to help him escape.Pease initially views his somewhat happy-go-lucky fellow prisoners, especially Jimmy Cooper (
Leslie Phillips ), Everett (Stanley Baxter ) and "Bonzo" Baines (Jeremy Lloyd ) with disdain, but comes to understand and appreciate their optimistic attitudes under the prison system they find themselves in, even if he remains as pompous and arrogant as ever.Pease/Farrow concocts a plan whereby he is believed to have escaped "through the wire". In fact, he plans to go into hiding and later walk out of the camp, disguised as one of three visiting
Swiss Red Cross observers. Crucial to the escape plan is that the scotsman (Baxter) looks exactly like the camp Commandant (even though he describes him as "hideously ugly"). He must pretend to be the Commandant if Pease/Farrow is to escape.Whilst the prisoners busy themselves with organising camp concerts and sports, the plan goes ahead. But it nearly comes unstuck at the last moment, when one of the prisoners, "Grassy" Green (John Forrest) is revealed as a real
Luftwaffe officer and spy. He is "dealt with", and Pease, Cooper and Baines calmly walk out of the camp and eventually make their way back home.The escape plan, to walk out of the camp dressed as Red Cross observers, actually happened. It was briefly mentioned in
Paul Brickhill 's book "The Great Escape".The story is told in flashback when, long after the war, Pease is the subject of a TV show based on "
This Is Your Life " during which he is re-united with the other ex-POWs and even gets to meet the former Commandant, who now runs aholiday camp .Cast
*
James Robertson Justice - Sir Ernest Pease; aka: Lt. Farrow RN
*Leslie Phillips - Jimmy Cooper
*Stanley Baxter - Jock' Everett/Kommandant Stamfel
*Eric Sykes - Willoughby, Sports Officer
*Richard Wattis - Woodcock, Entertainments Officer
*John Le Mesurier - Piggott, Escape Officer
*Norman Bird - Travers, Senior British Officer
*Jeremy Lloyd - 'Bonzo' Baines
*Godfrey Winn - Himself
*John Forrest - 'Grassy' GreenQuotes
Sir Ernest Pease to the others in his hut:
"Cooking requires no intelligence. Were it otherwise women would be no good at it."
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