Based on a hit play of the mid-1950s, SAILOR BEWARE contains a barnstorming performance by Peggy Mount as the dominant mother Emma Hornett. The plot is straightforward: Emma's daughter Shirley (Shirley Eaton) is about to marry sailor Albert (Ronald Lewis), but Albert gets cold feet on the wedding-day. He is only persuaded to agree to the marriage by the vicar Purefoy (Geoffrey Keen). The film is redolent of mid-Fifties attitudes towards marriage and the family, where women stayed at home and looked after their husbands, while the men's sole responsibility was to bring home the wages and ensure there was sufficient finances for the family to survive. Produced by Jack Clayton - who was later to become the director of classics such as ROOM AT THE TOP and THE INNOCENTS - SAILOR BEWARE contains a positive gallery of character cameos, from Esma Cannon as Emma's put-upon sister-in-law, Gordon Jackson as a nervous and sexually naive sailor, Thora Hird as a nosy neighbor, Alfie Bass as an organist more concerned with sneaking a crafty drag at a cigarette, and Cyril Smith as Emma's put-upon husband.