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One of the recurring findings of the many detailed reports into Britain's
everyday life published by the influential Mass Observation movement in the
early war years was the popularity of comedy among cinema audiences. Films that
took the war as their main theme or bore strong topical elements were
consistently well-received, with those that depicted the lighter side of service
life of particular appeal - in large part, no doubt, because many in the
audience would themselves soon be in uniform. To prepare such potential recruits
for their own possible riotous and fun-packed life in the Royal Navy, Sandy
Powell had already taken the shilling in All At Sea (d. Herbert Smith, 1939)
before Tommy Trinder did likewise with Sailors Three, following his comic
misadventures in the army in Laugh It Off (d. John Baxter) earlier that same
year. Sailors Three was the first of Trinder's films for Ealing Studios, the
company with which he was to be most closely associated. Along with its
semi-sequel, Fiddlers Three (d. Harry Watt, 1944), it is in a much broader comic
vein than his other Ealing productions - beginning with the stirring wartime
drama The Foreman Went to France (d. Charles Frend, 1942) - in which Trinder
appeared either as comic relief or as a quasi-dramatic leading man.
With a story clearly inspired by the recent Battle of the River Plate and the scuttling of
the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, Sailors Three was, at least
according to the film's press book, written especially for Trinder, although
some sources claim it was John Mills the writers had in mind. While the early
scenes in Brazil, with Trinder and Michael Wilding competing over leading lady
Carla Lehmann, can be rather slack in their pacing, once our hapless heroes
actually find themselves on board the Ludendorf the pace picks up, and from then
on the film never puts a foot wrong. The triumvirate of Trinder, Wilding and
Claude Hulbert works remarkably, if surprisingly, well (with the lugubrious
Hulbert in particular succeeding in preventing Trinder from dominating the comic
proceedings), and the supporting cast adds vitality and sparkle; even the
frequently irritating Julien Vedey manages to be amusing. Trinder may have made
more distinguished films at Ealing, but Sailors Three was not only a promising
start at the studio but the film that would remain his most successful outright comedy.
John Oliver
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Production stills
Monthly Film Bulletin review
