Film Preview – Bognor Regis Observer – Saturday, 26 July 1952

PAVILION, SELSEY. PARAMOUNT'S "AT WAR WITH THE ARMY," which is showing for the first three days of next week at the Pavilion, Selsey, is a riotous tale of army camp life. Starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the craziest pair of comics that ever peeled a cookhouse potato, the film introduces lovely young songstress, Polly Bergen, and is punctuated by a hit-bound score of Mack David-Jerry Livingston tunes. Jerry, as a bedraggled private, blunders his way from one uproarious catastrophe to the next, and Dean plays a romancing sergeant who gets Lewis into the trouble he can't stir up himself. Before the mirthful complications are untangled, the army has cause to consider the feeding and housing of these two madcaps a bad investment, and their commanding officer is left tottering on the verge of collapse. "CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER, R.N." the giant British production in Technicolor, starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo is showing for the second half of the week. A glowing and generous tribute to the glorious traditions of the British Navy, the picture brings to the screen all the pageantry, action and excitement of one of the greatest eras of English sea history. " Captain Horatio Hornblower, RN.," represents a triumph of British studio craftsmanship. Most of the film was shot at Denham and Elstree studios with location work at Portsmouth and Villefranche in the South of France, the fast-moving action of the romantic story ranging from the Spanish Main to France and from England to the Mediterranean. The story tells of Hornblower's secret mission to South America to stir up trouble against the Spaniards, the allies of Britain's enemy, Napoleon. It follows him as he daringly captures a Spanish man-o-war, through his return to England where he is ordered to help in the blockade of French ports and shows how he carries out a reckless plan to sink, unaided, four enemy vessels. A charming and poignant love story is interwoven into the dominant action.