The Baby and the Battleship

The Baby and the Battleship
The Baby and the Battleship
	British theatrical poster
Directed by	Jay Lewis
Screenplay by	Jay Lewis
Produced by	Antony Darnborough
Starring	John Mills; Richard Attenborough
Cinematography	Harry Waxman
Music by	Humphrey Searle
Production; companies	Jay Lewis Productions; British Lion Films
Distributed by	British Lion Films; Distributors Corporation of America (US)
Release dates	10 July 1956 (London, England); 30 September 1957 (New York, USA);
Running time	96 minutes
Country	England
Language	English
Box office	£258,845 (UK)

The Baby and the Battleship is a colour 1956 British comedy film directed by Jay Lewis and starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough and André Morell.^[2] It is based on the 1956 novel by Anthony Thorne with a screenplay by Richard De Roy, Gilbert Hackforth-Jones and Bryan Forbes. The Royal Navy provided much cooperation with sequences filmed aboard HMS Birmingham and in Malta.

Plot

When a group of Royal Navy sailors go ashore on leave in Naples, they go to visit an old friend who is a baker. He is the father of 12 daughters and, to his great pride and relief, an infant son. So that one of them can take the eldest daughter out that night, they are required to take the son with them to an outdoor dance. 'Puncher' has a reputation for fighting and drinking and, despite his best efforts to live up to his pledge to reform his behaviour, he is provoked by two sailors from another ship and starts a fight while his friend 'Knocker' is dancing with the eldest daughter. During the brawl, Puncher Roberts is knocked unconscious while Knocker and the sister run away on the arrival of police, abandoning the baby in the square. Puncher regains consciousness and finds the square empty, except for the baby. Unable to find his friend Knocker, or the child's adult sister, he smuggles the baby aboard their ship, leaving a message in chalk on the wharfside telling Knocker he has taken 'Number 13' on board. He elicits the help of his fellow sailors to care for the baby while hiding it from their superiors, all while in the midst of a series of joint operations with Allied navies off the coast of Italy. Knocker seeks the help of his rather casual shore-based senior officer but to little avail as the ship also maintains radio silence. Knocker makes the most of the unexpected time among the baker's extended family which becomes tense as the return of the baby is delayed. When Puncher's ship is about to have to surrender to superior forces during training exercises, the Captain is able to use the presence of the baby to extricate himself from an embarrassing loss. The ship returns to port and the entire family is re-united on board.^[3]

Cast

John Mills as Puncher Roberts
Richard Attenborough as Knocker White
André Morell as Marshal
Bryan Forbes as Professor Evans
Michael Hordern as Captain Hugh
Ernest Clark as Commander Geoffrey Digby
Harry Locke as Chief Petty Officer Blades
Michael Howard as Joe
Lionel Jeffries as George
Clifford Mollison as Sails
Thorley Walters as Lieutenant Setley
Duncan Lamont as Master-at-Arms
Lisa Gastoni as Maria
Cyril Raymond as PMO
Harold Siddons as Whiskers
D. A. Clarke-Smith as The Admiral
Kenneth Griffith as Sub-Lieutenant
John Le Mesurier as The Marshal's Aide
Carlo Giustini as Carlo Vespucci
Ferdy Mayne as Interpreter
Vincent Barbi as Second Brother
Gordon Jackson as Harry
Vittorio Vittori as Third Brother
Martyn Garrett as The Baby
Barry Foster as Sailor at Dance
Robert Ayres as American Captain
Sam Kydd as Chief Steward

Reception

Critical

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This predictable script strenuously exploits all the humour to be derived from such situations as the officer/ordinary seaman relationship, the Cambridge "intellectual" who reads Freud and Berenson, and language misunderstandings. Consequently, the slender nature of the joke causes the film to peter out after its early stages. Those involved put on a brave front and the baby is quite endearing, but flair and sparkle are, for the most part, absent."^[4]

Box office

The Baby and the Battleship was one of the ten most popular films at the British box office in 1956.^[5]^[6]

References

^ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p509
^ BFI.org
^ "The Baby and the Battleship(1956)". Yahoo Movies. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
^ "The Baby and the Battleship". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 23 (264): 102. 1 January 1956 – via ProQuest.
^ BRITISH. FILMS MADE MOST MONEY: BOX-OFFICE SURVEY The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959) [Manchester (UK)] 28 Dec 1956: 3
^ Thumim, Janet. "The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry". Screen. Vol. 32, no. 3. p. 259.

External links

[1] Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p509

[2] BFI.org

[3] "The Baby and the Battleship(1956)". Yahoo Movies. Retrieved 31 May 2012.

[4] "The Baby and the Battleship". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 23 (264): 102. 1 January 1956 – via ProQuest.

[5] BRITISH. FILMS MADE MOST MONEY: BOX-OFFICE SURVEY The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959) [Manchester (UK)] 28 Dec 1956: 3

[6] Thumim, Janet. "The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry". Screen. Vol. 32, no. 3. p. 259.

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