Folly to Be Wise

1952
Approved
1h 31m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Janet Brown and Alastair Sim in Folly to Be Wise (1952)

Newly arrived Army chaplin Captain Paris (Alastair Sim) attempts to book various acts for the entertainment of a troop of soldiers.Newly arrived Army chaplin Captain Paris (Alastair Sim) attempts to book various acts for the entertainment of a troop of soldiers.Newly arrived Army chaplin Captain Paris (Alastair Sim) attempts to book various acts for the entertainment of a troop of soldiers.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

371

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 1 nomination total

Trivia
The title comes from Thomas Gray's poem "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" (1768). The actual lines (the last two lines of the poem) are ".... Where ignorance is bliss, /'Tis folly to be wise".

Goofs
Just before Walter gives Captain Paris a message for the Doctor, Captain Paris bangs the gavel on the table and then places the gavel next to his glasses. He then receives the message with his left hand. In the next shot he is holding his glasses with his left hand and holding the message with his right hand.

Soundtracks
The Whelk Song
(uncredited)
Written by John Temple West, Johnny Johnston and Louise Kulma

User reviews12

Review

Featured review

9/10

Whilst being a good comedy........

The Intelligence Corps Field Security Police would have in a field day writing out the report of the whole proceedings of the Brians Trust set-up for the troops camp concert entertainment. Sim plays his beleagued camp padre role beautifully well, with his typist WRAC girl, persisting in asking the crucial question about marriage to its very extreme detail answer. She typed out the suitable questions for the BT, so in practice, had editorial control of the proceedings & the direction the show took.

For those that do not remember or never heard of the Brians Trust, it was a development from a WW II BBC radio programme, which had wide audience appeal.

George Cole who plays the soldier nervously offering his "vote of thanks" to the padre for his efforts in organising the show, at the end of the film, was by this time, the adopted Barnado boy son of Sim.

For some good innocent Ealing comedy of the era, then this will kill 90 mins for you.

John Locke