Alec Guinness was a weird star of British films of the 1950s - a sort of other-wordly smugness/vagueness. This persona works well here, in this comedy about a ship's captain with two wives, one a stuffy British type in Gibraltar, the other a hot sexy thing in Spanish Morocco... because Guinness is so sexless it's not too full on. (I remember this worked for Dirk Bogarde in those doctor comedies - his lack of interest in women on screen made the films more charming, but when the cast obviously straight Michael Craig the film seemed sleazy).
The basic story is clever - it strikes at a universal theme - I think Australian Alec Coppel deserved his Oscar nomination.
It's been cast well - not just Guinness but Celia Johnson and Yvonne
de Carlo are ideal. De Carlo was beginning to look her age here - or
maybe it's more the gang at London Films didn't know how to give her the
full beauty treatment.
It perhaps lacks a bit of development - a villain, say, or some through line. Gangsters or a missing set of jewels, or something to build. Maybe a bigger part for the love rival?
For a farce it's very spread out time-wise - the film covers a bunch of years (Johnson has children - we hardly see them - and the kids grow up and go to boarding school!) There is a second act - the wives start to want what the other one has (De Carlo wants to be domestic, Johnson wants to party), he which is fun... but it feels as though it lacks a third act.
Also I found the ending confusing - why Guinness was arrested and faced a firing squad. I had to look up what happened - he took the blame for a murder committed by de Carlo (why did she do it by the way? Hot blooded African-ness? why did he feel he had to take the blame? if he was so guilty about what he did he looked pretty smug paying off the firing squad? Personally I think Coppel just thought of that cool opening and didn't really work out how to justify it.)
Still it is fun - I loved Guinness' reactions to things, like dancing with de Carlo at a nightclub and being quiet and relaxed on Gibraltar with Johnson. De Carlo is having a good time as is Johnson and the support cast includes reliables like Peter Bull.
Some Australian touches (Coppel was Australian) - a relative of Guinness' character says he spent a year in Australia "among the aboriginals" as a desire to find the meaning of life.
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