Up the Front

1972
Unrated
1h 29m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Frankie Howerd stars as a cowardly boot-boy who goes to war in 1914 after being hypnotized to save England. With a German master plan tattooed, he tries to hand over plans to the British.Frankie Howerd stars as a cowardly boot-boy who goes to war in 1914 after being hypnotized to save England. With a German master plan tattooed, he tries to hand over plans to the British.Frankie Howerd stars as a cowardly boot-boy who goes to war in 1914 after being hypnotized to save England. With a German master plan tattooed, he tries to hand over plans to the British.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.5/10

361

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Debut cinema movie of actor Bob Hoskins.

Goofs
When the sign at Monique's is splattered by mud the N is only partially covered, but in the next shot the N is completely covered.

Quotes
Vincento: [drunkenly] I will take your breath away.
Lurk: [recoiling] I wish you'd take yours away!

Crazy credits
Opening credits prologue: LONDON 1914

Connections
Featured in Those British Faces: A Tribute to Stanley Holloway 1890-1982 (1993)

Soundtracks
Up The Front
(Title Song) (uncredited)
Music by Peter Greenwell
Lyrics by Sid Colin and Ned Sherrin (uncredited)

User reviews8

Review

Featured review

3/10

Lurking around

By the early 1980s Frankie Howerd's brand of comedy went into serious decline. He was frankly unfunny and it was only in the late 1980s he was re-discovered by young students as a cultish live comic.

Up the Front is an inferior version of the Lurk-a-lot films, a boot boy who ends up fighting Harry Hun in the first world war and ends up having some secret plans tattooed on his butt. He ends up meeting Mata Hari who tries to seduce him for the plans.

The film was co-written by the legendary Eddie Braben but it comes across as a low rent Carry On movie with regular amounts of bawdiness even when they are up the front.

The cast includes Zsa Zsa Gabor, Lance Percival, Dora Bryan, Derek Griffiths, Bill Fraser and they are all too good for this material. Bob Hoskins makes a short early appearance.