Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959)

Carlton-Browne of the F.O. is a little less tart and smart in its assault on British diplomacy than the earlier satires by John and Roy Boulting. The much-loved Terry-Thomas plays the idiot son of a great ambassador, given a sinecure in the Foreign Office that becomes a hot seat when crises rock the almost-forgotten former colony of Gaillardia. Clod-hopping "dance troupes" of every world power dig for cobalt, a line of partition is painted across the entire island, and the young King (Ian Bannen) is undermined by his wicked uncle (John le Mesurier) and unscrupulous Prime Minister Amphibulos (Peter Sellers). There's a touch of royal romance as the King gets together with a rival princess (the winning Luciana Paoluzzi), but it's mostly mild laughs at the expense of British ineptitude, with Thorley Walters as the dim army officer, Miles Malleson as the gouty consul, and a snarling Raymond Huntley as the minister. The film finds Sellers's nonspecific foreign accent unusually upstaged, with Terry-Thomas walking off with most of the comedy scenes. It fumbles a bit with obvious targets, especially in comparison with similar films like Passport to Pimlico and The Mouse That Roared, but you can't argue with a cast like this. --Kim Newman Amazon.com

Carlton-Browne

My customer was very pleased that I was able to find this movie for him (since he had been looking for it for some time) Thank you very much! June 3, 2008

Mildly Amusing Political Satire

It's a little disingenuous to promote this film as a Peter Sellers vehicle because he is essentially a bit player here as the corrupt prime minister of the neglected British outpost of Gaillardia. There's nothing here to suggest the immense talent that would emerge in his later work because his part is merely functional. The funniest thing about him is his costume consisting of white suit and hat, droopy mustache, and greasy hair suggesting a stereotyped banana republic corrupt politico. As for the film itself it is a fitfully amusing satire of British imperialism and it's role in the new world order dominated by cold war politics. Terry-Thomas does a nice turn as the bumbling low level Foreign Office functionary sent to quell the winds of change in Gaillardia. The film probably had more resonance upon it's release but now it stands as a time capsule of British politics circa 1958. October 13, 2005

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