JOHN_REID Very Important Person combines elements of the Carry On films, The Great Escape and Hogan's Heroes to produce a lighthearted low budget British Comedy that is surprisingly effective. Many of the stalwarts from this era are here with John Le Mesurier, Stanley Baxter, Eric Sykes in supporting roles. I wouldn't have been at all surprised to see Sid James turning up somewhere.James Roberson Justice is excellent in his role as the cantankerous Very Important Person. There are lots of stiff upper lips and "tickety boos" from the British and the German officers are typically cast as foolish buffoons. This must have all been an inspiration for Hogan's Heroes but a very long way from the reality of prisoner of war camps.Overall, VIP is a fine example of British Comedy from the 60s and is well worth a look.

cjcampbell37 This comedy-thriller gives an unexpectedly authentic look to a German prisoner of war camp, suggesting a practical knowledge of the subject from some of those involved in the making of the film.I remember seeing this film on TV as a kid, and enjoying it immensely. Recently, it cropped up on UK's Channel Four, and it was still just as entertaining and oddly touching.James Robertson Justice gives a great performance as the grouchy, but underneath it all, sensitive boffin, and it's a real treat to see the young Eric Sykes, Stanley Baxter and Leslie Phillips all relishing their work. Wonderful support also in the always solid and dependable forms of John Le Mesurier and Richard Watiss. Many other familiar faces from films of the era add to the overall success of this movie. A very British little gem of a movie.

ianlouisiana Although Stanley Baxter was principally known as an impressionist he was more versatile than the run-of-the-mill mimic.He had the actor's ability to assume a full personality rather than merely copy a voice or a look.In "Very Important Person" he plays a Scottish POW and his German captor,the latter role being perhaps the more challenging. Since the early 1950s there had been a whole sub-genre of war films featuring resourceful Brit POWs outwitting the plodding German prison guards and making plucky attempts at freedom.At one time there were so many chirpy cockneys digging tunnels that there were hardly enough left to stoke the boilers or peel the spuds. Normally the Germans were amazingly sanguine about it all,being sportsmen,but when the decidedly unsporting SS became involved things rapidly changed ."The Great Escape" marked the end of the "POW as naughty schoolboy" cycle of movies with its cold-blooded slaughter of dozens of unarmed British officers.That this film is a Christmas perennial says something rather disturbing about the British psyche - or the BBC.Rather daringly the Escape comedy was revived a few years later by American TV with "Hogan's Heroes". In 1961 we were just about on the cusp.Our boys were not having it all their own way - the Germans were clamping down - no more Herr Nice Guy. So when the wonderful James Robertson Justice is shot down and imprisoned under a false identity effecting his escape is going to require a bit of thought. Fortunately the Escape Committee,comprising a comforting number of British actors with experience in other POW movies is able to get him out so he can get on with his hush-hush war work back in Blighty. That is the bare bones of the plot,but the pleasures in "Very Important Person" are in the writing and the performances.It dates from the time when British movies were still made with craft and care and the audience able to recognise intelligence and wit in a screenplay without a laughtrack to tell them.Nobody thought they were making "Citizen Kane",but they took pride in what they were doing and the finished product is joined-up comedy film-making. 1960 saw the birth of the British Satire Movement - "Private Eye" began its existence,"Beyond the Fringe" opened in Edinburgh and soon the floodgates would open to a tide of Oxbridge men and women queueing up to be very rude to politicians and Royalty and be very handsomely paid for doing it - well it was more fun than working in a Merchant Bank I suppose.In some respects "Very Important Person " is a last hurrah for quality British comedy before OUDS or "Footlights" got their clever-clever cold-hearted hands on it. It was funny in 1961 and it is funny today.Far funnier than some onanist in a college scarf imitating Harold Macmillan.I think it's fair to say that Messrs Justice,Baxter,le Mesurier et al will be remembered with far more affection long after all the satirists have gone to that big JCR in the sky.

Libretio VERY IMPORTANT PERSON (USA: Coming-Out Party) Aspect ratio: 1.66:1Sound format: Mono(Black and white)Internees at a German POW camp plot the escape of a high-ranking British scientist (James Robertson Justice) who has fallen into enemy hands.Entertaining mixture of comedy and drama, directed with cut-throat efficiency by Ken Annakin (later responsible for blockbusters like BATTLE OF THE BULGE and CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG), and headlined by some of the most popular names in contemporary British cinema, including Leslie Phillips and Jeremy Lloyd as upper-class comic relief, and Stanley Baxter playing dual roles as a temperamental Scottish prisoner and an unpleasant Nazi officer (when the German calls him a 'British swine', Baxter retorts with haughty pride: "SCOTTISH swine!"). Robertson is at his most gruff and lovable here, initially appalled by the company he's forced to keep in the POW camp, then quietly appreciative of the lengths these 'idiots' will go to secure his safety. The tone is pretty low-key, which means the film isn't always as funny or as suspenseful as it could have been, but it's a hugely enjoyable treat nonetheless. Eric Sykes, Richard Wattis and John Le Mesurier are featured in supporting roles.