Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

Privates on Parade

Play trailer Poster for Privates on Parade R 1982 1h 47m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 2 Reviews 35% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
A fey British army captain (John Cleese) recruits fellows for drag song-and-dance shows in post-World War II Singapore.

Critics Reviews

View All (2) Critics Reviews
Eddie Harrison film-authority.com ...a faithful record of a play which was something of a time-capsule, and has some merit as a historical document... Rated: 3/5 Feb 24, 2021 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Jul 16, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (12) audience reviews
martin a I really liked this film, it is a bit mixed up but the cast are outstanding. Basically a group of soldiers and civilians put on shows for groups abroad, the dramas come and go but a corrupt Sergeant who fakes his own death arranges for the troupe to go around the jungle bases, but unknown to the actors he has stashed guns for local terrorists in the vehicles. When they find out disaster strikes, and the final show scenes are very sad, My anger is that the Sergent did not get his just desert, but the film has a happy ending. Not really a comedy, but very enjoyable Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member British satire with witty songs and an uneven story. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Privates on Parade is a little bit of an oddball. It seems to expend all its energy in the first hour before settling for mediocrity in the final stretch. There isnt much of a story to be fair and if it wasnt for Dennis Quigley's inspired turn it would have all been rather flat from the start. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Curious mix of the tragedy of war, bawdy comedy, drag shows and communist rebels, set in southeast Asia. On the whole it doesn't quite work, but I admire the effort. Good performances. It just pulls the viewer in too many directions, and often abruptly. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member wow umn just seen this movie 4 the 1st time n think that this is a good movie 2 watch...its got a good cast of actors/actressess throughout this movie...i think that john cleese, simon jones, michael elphick, patrick pearson, dennis quilley play good roles/parts throughout this movie....i think that the director of this action/adventure/drama/comedy movie had done a great job of directing this movie because you never know what 2 expect throughout this movie...its a great movie 2 watch with a good cast thorughout this movie n its a really enjoyable movie 2 watch Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member It's hard to tell if this is supposed to be a comedy about or just a quirky character study from post-war Malaysia as there is little to laugh about. The actual story is terrible too, not enough to make a song and dance about. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Privates on Parade

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis A fey British army captain (John Cleese) recruits fellows for drag song-and-dance shows in post-World War II Singapore.
Director
Michael Blakemore
Producer
Simon Relph
Screenwriter
Peter Nichols
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 47m