Private's Progress

Private's Progress is a 1956 British comedy film based on the novel by Alan Hackney. It was directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting, from a script by John Boulting and Frank Harvey. The action takes place during World War II and follows the adventures of young undergraduate Stanley Windrush , who is conscripted into the British Army. Unlike his friend Egan , Windrush is a most reluctant soldier and struggles through basic training at Gravestone barracks. Failing his officer selection board, he is posted to a holding unit, under the command of Major Hitchcock. Most of the soldiers there... are malingerers and drop-outs. Windrush is finally posted to train as a Japanese interpreter, where he becomes the prize pupil; he's then contacted by his uncle, now a senior officer in the War Office, to join a secret operation known only as "Hatrack". He is quickly commissioned and the operation is launched, ostensibly to recover looted artworks from the Germans but really to steal them and sell them to two very dodgy art dealers.
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