Sadly Over-hyped

good back-story, and good acting

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Sir Ernest Pease is sucked out of an aeroplane and captured by the Germans, and promptly interred at a POW camp. Naturally he refuses to give the Germans any information, and carrying his surly approach into his bunking quarters doesn't endear him to his fellow prisoners. But word comes thru from the hierarchy that Pease is so important on account of his scientific knowledge, he must escape at all costs. Thus this odd group of people must unite to get the old curmudgeon free.Written by the men behind some of Norman Wisdom's most well known offerings {Henry Blyth & Jack Davies} and starring such British comedy luminaries like James Robertson Justice, Leslie "Hello" Phillips, Stanley Baxter, John Le Mesurier and Eric Sykes. Well it isn't rocket science to work out what type of film you are in for. Competently made at Beaconsfield Studio for Independent Artists,Very Important Person is practically a goofy version of the Great Escape {made two years later I hasten to add}. The Germans are of course portrayed as clueless dunderheads, and the British prisoners get by with a stiff upper lip and using humour as ultra sharp defence mechanisms.So nothing new here for those that have sat thru many a 50s and 60s British war comedy, but the cast and writing is so engaging it's easy to forgive the familiarity of it all. Carried easily by the broad presence of James R Justice as Pease {fans of the Doctor franchise will love him here}, it's a film that knows it's a simple piece. It exists purely to induce a giggle, maybe even stir a bit of pride, and with its ending-actually has something to say as regards its main character. It's real light stuff that isn't the least bit dramatic {as some on line reviewers have suggested}, kind of like like a light wafer biscuit, you know it's a snack and that's really all you need to make you temporarily fulfilled. 6.5/10

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.

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.

A funny film which has maintained its humour since being made in 1961. James Robertson Justice is excellent as an morose and unfriendly POW who must be helped to escape back to England. Well made and with some excellent exchanges between James Robertson and the other POWs.