Barnacle Bill (1957 film)

Barnacle Bill released in the US as All at Sea is a 1957 Ealing Studios comedy film, starring Alec Guinness. He plays an unsuccessful Royal Navy officer, and six of his maritime ancestors. This was the last film Guinness made for Ealing Studios. By coincidence, his first Ealing success was Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949, in which he also played multiple roles. The film was written by the screenwriter of Passport to Pimlico.

When he retires from the Royal Navy as a captain, he purchases a dilapidated amusement pier the closest thing to a command of his own with his life savings. The workers are an apathetic bunch, led by an insolent Figg Victor Maddern, who quits as soon as the new owner begins imposing some semblance of discipline. With the assistance of his new secondincommand, Tommy Percy Herbert, and much hard work, Ambrose soon has the pier repaired.Then he has to deal with the local town council, headed by the crooked Mayor Crowley Maurice Denham and the hostile Arabella Barrington Irene Browne, who mistakes him for a peeping tom when they first meet. Every time he comes up with an ingenious way to make his business profitable, they see to it that the council outlaws it. When Crowley decides to confiscate and demolish Ambroses pier and Barringtons bathing huts under compulsory purchase to further his own business interests, she resigns from the council and informs Ambrose. He counters by registering his property as a foreign naval vessel christened the Arabella, under the flag of the easygoing country of Liberama, which puts it outside the towns jurisdiction. He soon attracts many happy, paying passengers for his stationary inaugural cruise. ........

Source: Wikipedia