Alistair Sim is a recently arrived Army chaplain in charge of providing the troops at a receiving center with counseling and entertainment. He walks into a situation that is a natural disaster. The soldiers are constantly leaving the base to patronize downtown pubs because that's where the action is. Sim's introduction to base entertainment is a string quartet -- four sweet old ladies sawing away at their instruments and producing a sound known to no human ear.
So, to keep the soldiers on the base, Sims arranges for a panel of smart people to provide the audience with a "Brain Trust." They'll answer any questions submitted by the soldiers and the female personnel of the base. "How is the house?" he asks. Half empty. "Ah, good -- half full!", exclaims Sim. That's the kind of guy he is.
The Brain Trust program takes up about half the film's running time. It consists of half a dozen people, mostly reluctant, who have problems of their own. The doctor is deaf. The society lady is giddy and out of it. The MP is a truculent Marxist. The artist is a drunk and his wife is having an affair with a mathematician, all of them on the panel. Sim is the "Question Master." The questions aren't the sort that "Mister Memory" answered in "The 39 Steps." They're more general. "Is there any evidence of life on the moon?" The surly mathematician replies, "No", period, and a long awkward silence follows while Sim fidgets, waiting desperately for expatiation.
The artist gets drunker, the politician more arrogant, the mathematician growlier, and a fight almost breaks out when one of the questions turns out to be, "Is marriage a good idea?" It ought to be funnier than it is. Granted that a chaplain on an army base isn't necessarily the most promising material yet more has been done with less. (What's funny about a guy who invents an indestructible thread in a textile plant?) Maybe it would have been more amusing if set in Victorian England instead of the 1950s. Sim is so rattled he almost falls to pieces while trying to field that question about whether marriage is a good idea, because marriage isn't a fit subject to discuss in front of young people. I've always admired Alistair Sim with his indecent smile and he does what he can with this role, but the lamentable fact is that there's not much to be done with it. He plays the chaplain as a well-intentioned nervous wreck. He's done better.
So, to keep the soldiers on the base, Sims arranges for a panel of smart people to provide the audience with a "Brain Trust." They'll answer any questions submitted by the soldiers and the female personnel of the base. "How is the house?" he asks. Half empty. "Ah, good -- half full!", exclaims Sim. That's the kind of guy he is.
The Brain Trust program takes up about half the film's running time. It consists of half a dozen people, mostly reluctant, who have problems of their own. The doctor is deaf. The society lady is giddy and out of it. The MP is a truculent Marxist. The artist is a drunk and his wife is having an affair with a mathematician, all of them on the panel. Sim is the "Question Master." The questions aren't the sort that "Mister Memory" answered in "The 39 Steps." They're more general. "Is there any evidence of life on the moon?" The surly mathematician replies, "No", period, and a long awkward silence follows while Sim fidgets, waiting desperately for expatiation.
The artist gets drunker, the politician more arrogant, the mathematician growlier, and a fight almost breaks out when one of the questions turns out to be, "Is marriage a good idea?" It ought to be funnier than it is. Granted that a chaplain on an army base isn't necessarily the most promising material yet more has been done with less. (What's funny about a guy who invents an indestructible thread in a textile plant?) Maybe it would have been more amusing if set in Victorian England instead of the 1950s. Sim is so rattled he almost falls to pieces while trying to field that question about whether marriage is a good idea, because marriage isn't a fit subject to discuss in front of young people. I've always admired Alistair Sim with his indecent smile and he does what he can with this role, but the lamentable fact is that there's not much to be done with it. He plays the chaplain as a well-intentioned nervous wreck. He's done better.