Sailor Beware (1956)

Battle-axe Emma Hornett (Peggy Mount) dominates her hen-pecked husband Henry (Cyril Smith), their daughter Shirley (Shirley Eaton) and Henry’s meek spinster sister Edie (Esma Cannon).

Shirley is to marry young sailor Albert Tufnell (Ronald Lewis) who was raised in an orphanage and he and his best man Carnoustie (Gordon Jackson) stay with the Hornetts on the eve of the wedding – although Emma makes sure the stag night is a brief one.

Albert fails to show up for the wedding the next day and eventually turns up at the house and confides to the vicar (Geoffrey Keen) that if family life with Shirley would be anything like the Hornetts he wants no part of it.

Emma admits she has been a “very wicked woman” and vows to mend her ways but as the young couple eventually marry and move into their own house, one wonders how long her change of heart will last.

Based on a hit play of the mid-1950s, the film is basically a vehicle for Peggy Mount to shout a lot. Thora Hird appears as a nosey neighbour and the film features the uncredited movie debut of Michael Caine as an unnamed sailor.

Released in the US as Panic In The Parlor.

The film was remade by Hammer in 1961 as Watch It, Sailor! with Cyril Smith repeating his role as Henry Hornett. Marjorie Rhodes is no match for the original star, Peggy Mount, and the version is inferior in every way.

Emma Hornett
Peggy Mount
Shirley Hornett
Shirley Eaton
Albert Tufnell
Ronald Lewis
Henry Hornett
Cyril Smith
Edie Hornett
Esma Cannon
Carnoustie Bligh
Gordon Jackson
Reverend Purefoy
Geoffrey Keen
Mrs Lack
Thora Hird
Daphne Pink
Joy Webster
Uncle Brummell
Eliot Makeham

Director
Gordon Parry

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