Down Among the Z Men (1952)

Now that the Undersea Kingdom serial is over, it's time to enjoy some comedy. This movie stars the Goon Show, a famous British comedy radio show. This was one of their few incursions into visual media. Enjoy.


Harry Jones (Secombe) is a clerk in Mr. Crab's general mercantile store and an amateur actor in community theatre, where he is currently playing a Scotland Yard inspector, "Batts of the Yard". When the absentminded Prof. Osrick Purehart (Bentine) leaves a secret military formula in the store, mayhem ensues as two suspicious secret agents, who have been shadowing the professor, question Harry regarding the formula. In an attempt to return the formula to the professor, Harry goes to an Army post, Camp Warwell, where he is mistakenly enlisted in the Z Men, ostensibly an elite unit guarding atomic secrets but in reality a ragtag group of reservists, retreads, and others of marginal (at best) competence. One of the "secret service men", in reality the enemy spies, kidnap and impersonate an adjutant newly assigned to the camp. The post?s commander, Colonel Bloodnok (Sellers), has been assigned for security purposes a supposed "daughter" (Carole Carr) who is actually a female MI5 operative. Harry soon becomes smitten with the "daughter," and they work together to foil an attempt by the secret agents to purloin Prof. Pureheart?s formula.