Tunes of Glory (1960)

Discussing the minor Ealing comedy Barnacle Bill I wrote of Alec Guinness:

His genius as an actor means that you believe from his first appearance that he has been a naval officer.

Can we say the same here? Not for a while. You are very aware that you are watching Alec Guinness with a Scots accent, a ginger moustache and a ginger wig. But after a while you do accept him as a hard-drinking, working-class acting Colonel who won his promotion as a hero during World War II.

The film deals with the clash between Guinness's character and the upright, uptight replacement, played by John Mills. it goes out of its way to be fair to Mills's character with the result that, early on, we see  perhaps too much of Guinness behaving like this and not enough of him as a commanding officer.

Tunes of Glory is a gripping film. And that is Dennis Price and Gordon Jackson on either side of Guinness, so you know you are in safe hands.