''The Virgin Soldiers'' is a 1969 British war

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by John Dexter and starring Lynn Redgrave,

Hywel Bennett Hywel Thomas Bennett (8 April 1944 – 24 July 2017) was a Welsh film and television actor. He had a lead role in ''The Family Way'' (1966) and played the titular "thinking man's layabout" James Shelley in the television sitcom '' Shelley'' (1 ...

, Nigel Davenport,

Nigel Patrick Nigel Patrick (born Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss-Gorman; 2 May 1912 – 21 September 1981) was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family. During the late 1940s and 1950s, he became known as a debonair leading man in Brit ...

and Rachel Kempson. It is set in 1950, during the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

, and is based on the 1966 novel of the same name by

Leslie Thomas Leslie Thomas, OBE (22 March 1931 – 6 May 2014) was a Welsh author best known for his comic novel ''The Virgin Soldiers''. Early life Thomas was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. He was orphaned at the age of 12, when his mariner fath ...

. The film's popularity spawned a 1977 sequel, ''

Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers ''Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers'' is a 1977 British film directed by Norman Cohen and starring Robin Askwith and Nigel Davenport. It is a sequel to '' The Virgin Soldiers'' (1969).Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

along with a squad of naïve new recruits. There he falls for Phillipa Raskin, the daughter of the regimental sergeant major.

Cast

* Lynn Redgrave as Phillipa Raskin *

as Pte Brigg * Nigel Davenport as Sgt Driscoll *

as R.S.M. Raskin * Rachel Kempson as Mrs. Raskin * Jack Shepherd as Sgt Wellbeloved *

Michael Gwynn Michael Gwynn (30 November 1916 – 29 January 1976) was an English actor. He attended Mayfield College near Mayfield, Sussex. During the Second World War he served in East Africa as a major and was adjutant to the 2nd (Nyasaland) Battalion ...

as Col Bromley-Pickering *

Tsai Chin Tsai Chin may refer to: * Tsai Chin (actress) (born 1933), actress from Shanghai, also known as Irene Chow * Tsai Chin (singer) (born 1957), Taiwanese singer {{Hndis ...

as Juicy Lucy * Christopher Timothy as Cpl Brook * Don Hawkins as Tasker * Geoffrey Hughes as Lantry *

Roy Holder Roy Trevor Holder (15 June 1946 – 9 November 2021) was an English film and television actor who appeared in various programmes including '' Ace of Wands'', ''Z-Cars'', '' Spearhead'', the ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Caves of Androzani''. His f ...

as Fenwick *

Riggs O'Hara Riggs is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Anna Rankin Riggs (1835-1908), American social reformer * Arthur Riggs (geneticist) (1939-2022), American geneticist * Arthur Stanley Riggs (1879–1952), American author and hi ...

as Sinclair *

Gregory Phillips Gregory Alan Phillips (born August 17, 1960) is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and former Wyoming Attorney General. Biography Phillips was born on Augu ...

as Foster * Peter Kelly as Sandy Jacobs * Mark Nicholl as Cutler * Alan Shatsman as Longley * Jonty Miller as Forsyth * Jolyon Jackley as Cpl Gravy Browning * Robert Bridges as Sgt Fred Organ * James Cosmo as Waller * Graham Crowden as Medical Officer *

Dudley Jones Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the M ...

as Doctor *

Matthew Guinness Matthew Guinness (born 6 June 1940) is an English actor. He portrayed the part of the Farmer in the 1976 film ''Nuts in May'', appears in Ridley Scott's ''The Duellists'' (1977) and had a small role in 1986's '' Lady Jane''. He has also worked ex ...

as Major Cusper * Naranjan Singh as Sikh * F Yew as 'Hallelujah' * Brenda Bruce as Nursing Sister (uncredited) * Warren Clarke as Soldier (uncredited) * Barbara Keogh as WRAC (uncredited) * James Marcus as Soldier (uncredited) * Jeremy Roughton as Soldier (uncredited) A young and uncredited

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

appears briefly as a soldier escorted out from behind a bar.

Reception

''The Virgin Soldiers'' was the 17th-most-popular film at the U.K. box office in 1969."The World's Top Twenty Films." Sunday Times ondon, England27 Sept. 1970: 27. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. accessed 5 Apr. 2014

References

External links

*
''The Virgin Soldiers''
at TCMDB
''The Virgin Soldiers'' film review
at

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''The Virgin Soldiers'' film review
at ''Variety'' 1969 films 1960s war comedy-drama films British war films British Empire war films Films set in Malaysia Films based on British novels Films set in 1950 British war comedy-drama films Military humor in film Films with screenplays by John Hopkins Films with screenplays by Ian La Frenais 1969 comedy films 1969 drama films Films scored by Peter Greenwell Films about the Malayan Emergency 1960s English-language films 1960s British films Films about the British Army {{war-drama-film-stub