In 1948 the British are fighting a Communist insurrection in the Malayan jungles. For the British Army in Malaya, WWII has hardly stopped. Acting Captain Terri Dennis (Denis Quilley) heads up a ragtag group of inept soldiers whose job it is to improve morale by staging song and dance shows for the troops. Since there are few women available, most of the troupe doubles in full drag, including--with great enthusiasm and queenly putdowns--Dennis. The troupe performs routines that parody Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Marlene Dietrich, Carmen Miranda, marching production numbers, and Vera Lynn-type ballads. There is some obscenity, and the dialogue is full of sexual innuendo, bawdy one-liners, and gay stereotyping, especially in Denis Quilley's great performance. But in between the numbers are bitter messages targeting the British empire, the behavior of British officers, the repression of gay love, and the hypocrisy of some men toward women.
The troupe is under the command of rigid Major Giles Flack (John Cleese), a Bible quoting anti-communist Army man who is more inept than the soldiers under him. He likes to give impromptu seminars to his troops on the two principal causes of the decline of the West, ''luxury and blasphemy'', and to toast ''the victory of Christian enlightenment". In a serious subplot British arms are being stolen from a depot and being sold to the guerrillas. The ringleader is Sergeant Major Reg Drummond (Michael Elphick), a treacherous coward in the group who gets the only real woman in the troupe pregnant and then abuses her. He steals armaments and information to give to the enemy. In the end, a terrible battle ensues at his hands. One thing leads to another and soon the troupe is on a tour of remote outposts in the northern jungle. Unknown to them, they are transporting one last big haul of rifles and ammunition.
"Privates on Parade" at times is funny, witty, and very black, but can't seem to decide which sacred cows it wants to gore or which messages it wants to deliver. It's something of a curiosity piece, a melodramatic farce adaptated from Peter Nichols' stage play. The actors are good, including John Cleese who plays John Cleese to give this movie star power. Denis King composed the music, Peter Nichols wrote the screenplay from his own play, and Michael Blakemore directed.
