# The Night We Dropped a Clanger

The Night We Dropped a Clanger (released in the US as Make Mine a Double), is a 1959 black and white British comedy film directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Cecil Parker, William Hartnell and Leslie Phillips. It was written by John Chapman.
The title comes from the British expression "to drop a clanger", meaning to make a big mistake. It links in the title to the secondary meaning of "clang", the noise of a metallic object hitting the floor.
A British secret agent is sent on a secret operation in occupied France during the Second World War but a diversionary tactic turns into a farcical tale of mistaken identity.
Andrew Sachs made his film debut in a minor role.

## Plot

When mysterious, unpiloted, midget aircraft start landing in southern England during the Second World War, secret agent Wing Commander Blenkinsop, VC and bar, is chosen for a top-secret mission to occupied France to investigate. Meanwhile, as a diversionary tactic to deceive the Germans, his exact look-alike, Aircraftsman [sic] Atwood, is reluctantly recruited to go to North Africa. However, through a farcical mixup, Blenkinsop finds himself in Africa and Atwood ends up in France.
By far more luck than judgement, Atwood returns to England in one of the buzz bombs and, with everyone (including Blenkinsop's girlfriend Lulu) believing he is Blenkinsop, he becomes a national hero, while the real Blenkinsop desperately tries to regain his identity and his life. Atwood continues the impersonation, but when he meets Lulu's mother, his future mother-in-law, he begins to have doubts. Accidentally meeting Blenkinsop, they swap back to their real identities.

## Cast

* Brian Rix as Aircraftman Arthur Atwood/Wing Commander Blenkinsop
* Cecil Parker as Air Vice-Marshal Sir Bertram Bukpasser
* William Hartnell as Warrant Officer Bright
* Leslie Phillips as Squadron Leader Thomas
* Leo Franklyn as Belling
* John Welsh as Squadron Leader Grant
* Toby Perkins as Flight Lieutenant Spendal
* Liz Fraser as Lulu
* Charles Cameron as General Gimble
* Vera Pearce as Madame Grilby
* Julian D'Albie as Air Marshal Carruthers
* Sarah Branch as WAAF Hawkins
* Irene Handl as Mrs. Billingsgate
* Andrew Sachs as Briggs
* Hattie Jacques as Ada
* Arthur Brough as Admiral Bewdly
* Ray Cooney as Corporal
* Oliver Johnston as Air Commodore Turner
* Merilyn Roberts as 1st WAAF
* Sheila Mercier as 2nd WAAF
* Christine Russell as 3rd WAAF
* Larry Noble as farmer
* John Langham as Ricky
* Rowland Bartrop as Smythe
* Julie Mendez as dancer
* Patrick Cargill as Fritz

## Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A Whitehall Theatre-style farce that moves slowly and unfunnily to a weak, skimped climax. Its ancient jokes, commonplace shouted dialogue, predictable situations, stock caricatures and unimaginative direction give it the tired air of a routine that has gone on far too long. Perhaps its principal distinction among British films is that it has three scenes set in men's lavatories."
Variety wrote: "The Night We Dropped Clanger emerges as one of the unfunniest screen comedies in several years. Chapman's screenplay is contrived and strains desperately for laughs which not even a very competent cast can provide on account of lack of fuel. Daroy Conyer's direction is plodding and again depends largely on material that just isn't there. Maybe the public will fall for this trite, lumbering stuff but one way and another the whole affair is a disaster. ... Dialog Is labored and cheap: situations are predictable. So the whole thing fizzles out. Rix does a workmanlike job in two very different roles and clearly bas a screen future as a light comedy actor even though the idiot type is now becoming slightly out-of-date. Cecil Parker is wasted as a fatuous, absent-minded highranking Air Force officer, and Leslie Phillips, Liz Fraser John Welsh and William Hartnell are others who struggle in vain against their material."
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "This identity switch picture set during the Second World War tends to stretch its comic notions to breaking point. More disciplined comic timing would have provided an effective cure for the problem. However, farce king Brian Rix is a sensible choice for this wartime foolishness and he switches convincingly from military rigour (in one guise) to gormlessness (in the other)"
Sky Movies wrote, "a typically rickety British farce of the late Fifties, a time when the Carry On's were gaining their first foothold. This is a sort of Carry On Flying: Brian Rix has a field day in a dual role and there's even William Hartnell, giving his comic all as yet another barking NCO. Broad, unpolished, lowbrow fun."