Over She Goes (1937)

 

Back Row: Stanley Lupino, John Wood & Laddie Cliff
Front Row: Gina Malo, Claire Luce & Sally Grey

 

This is one of those silly, musical comedies that Hollywood seemed to be so successful at making but which the UK was never quite able to compete with. So I'm pleased to say that this is a genuinely funny film. There's nothing outstanding about it: the story is hardly original, the songs (apart from the title song) aren't that memorable, but it's just good fun. And it's only 73 minutes long so no one can complain that can't find time to waste to watch it. Go on, give it a go. You might be pleasantly surprised. It's a good old farce.

 

It tells the story of a vaguely successful vaudeville artiste Harry Drewsden (played by John Wood)  ...

Claire Luce & John Wood

...who inherits a title and a country estate when his uncle goes missing, presumed dead. Everything is going well - he has just proposed to his girlfriend Pamela (Claire Luce) - when his ex-girlfriend Alice (Judy Kelly) turns up wanting to marry him now that he has inherited the title.

 

It falls to his two stage partners Tommy and Billy (Stanley Lupino and Laddie Cliff) to find a way to get rid of her.

Stanley Lupino & Laddie Cliff

 

This being a farce, they try to pretend Harry has lost his title when his 'uncle' reappears - Which is obviously Tommy dressed up as an old man ...

Stanley Lupino

... and this being a farce, you don't need me to tell you what happens next!

 

As mentioned earlier, some of the songs aren't exactly stunning. There is even a curious number about breathing onto windows in order to draw lovehearts:

 

Claire Luce & John Wood

Claire Luce & John Wood

Although the song is hardly memorable, there is a comic song and dance routine when a group of rather inept police arrive at the house, and the lyrics made me laugh:

"We dig up someone's garden, Then call Scotland Yard in, And the case is solved in eighteen months."

 

 

The police sergeant is played by Richard 'Stinker' Murdoch who had a long career, including a period as Arthur Askey's straight man.

Richard Murdoch

There is also a subplot surrounding the arrival of the ex-boyfriend of Tommy's fiancée Dolly (Gina Malo), the rather imposing (and comically named Silas Morner (former world heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer)

Stanley Lupino & Max Baer

Max Baer

 

For those that are into the period fashions, Baer wears a rather nice belt-back sports jacket:

Judy Kelly & Max Baer

Handily for me, it's one of those films that includes reference photos to identify most of the stars:

 

 

Available now on Volume 1 of British Musicals of the 1930s:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gaunt Stranger (1938)

 

 

 

In the story of British cinema, The Gaunt Stranger holds a historic place as the first film produced by Michael Balcon at Ealing Studios. And right from the start we are offered a glimpse of the groundbreaking styles that would soon become apparent. Whilst the story itself is rather standard whodunnit fare, it opens in a rather novel way: We see a policeman walking through the street shining his torch at a wall. The credits are unveiled by the light of the torch. It's a similar device to that used ten years later in Hue & Cry when the credits are shown as chalked graffiti on a bombsite wall.

 

This is the third version of Edgar Wallace’s play ‘The Ringer’ – and the second to star John Longden (who plays Inspector Bliss in this version and played Inspector Wembury in 1930). As one might expect from Edgar Wallace, it’s a strong story with an intriguing twist. Wallace is very much the forgotten man of early 20^th Century British literature: he sold millions of books (publishing 170 novels during the 1920s!), including perennial classics like ‘The Four Just Men’ and was one of the writers credited with creating King Kong (although the level of his input is the subject of debate). Yet if you look in bookshops you can hardly find any of his books and even second hand bookshops (if you can find one these days) seldom have any of his works.

 

This is the story of a master criminal known as ‘The Ringer’ who appears to have come back from the dead to threaten one of his enemies, a rather unsavoury criminal Maurice Meister (played by Wilfred Lawson).

 

Wilfred Lawson

Inspector Wembury (Patrick Barr) sets out to investigate the threats and is joined by a police doctor, Dr Lomond (Alexander Knox) and Sam Hackett (played by Sonnie Hale), a petty criminal released from gaol to help identify ‘The Ringer’. Hale provides the comical relief whilst Patricia Roc (in her first credited screen role) playing Meister’s secretary Mary Lenley, and Louise Henry as the widow of ‘The Ringer’.

Patrick Barr

Alexander Knox

Sonnie Hale

Patricia Roc

Louise Henry

 

 

There are plenty of suspect’s: Inspector Bliss (John Longden) arrives from Australia on the trail of the widow …

John Longden

… then there’s John Lenley (played by Peter Croft) who is recently released from prison and has a score to settle with Meister.

 

Peter Croft

 

I won’t go into details of the plot (what’s the point of knowing the ending of a mystery story?) but it’s an efficient little thriller that has the audience wondering whether ‘The Ringer’ has really returned from the grave or whether someone else is using this to cover their own plans to murder Meister.

 

Some points to note:

 

Louise Henry made 21 films between 1931 and 1939, and was considered to have great potential by those in Hollywood. It was a surprise for many when, in 1939, she gave up acting and returned to her home town of Syracuse, New York and opened a drama workshop which she ran until the 1970s when she retired for a second time. She died in 2011 aged 100.

Louise Henry

 

Peter Croft made just fourteen films between 1935 and 1949 but went on to have a successful career as a television director, working on: Double Your Money, Sexton Blake and Ready Steady Go. He even directed six episodes of Crossroads between 1978 and 1984.

 

Sonnie Hale appears to wear the same suit as worn by Jack Livesey in Penny Paradise (also 1938) - although it seems to be a much better fit on Hale:

Sonnie Hale



Betty Driver & Jack Livesey

Jack Livesey

 

The style of the suit: ridiculously bold stripes, peaked lapels, double breasted waistcoat, slanted hip pockets, combined with bow tie and boldly patterned cap, mark out the wearer as a rather dodgy character – something that would have been instantly recognised by a 1930’s audience.

 

Both Alexander Knox and Patrick Barr had roles in The Longest Day (1962).

 

We are also treated to some comic relief courtesy of a stereotypical drunk Scotsman:

"A Scotsman is never drunk while he can still breathe."

The film is now available to purchase courtesy of the kind folks at Network DVD:

 

Buy it!



Harmony Heaven (1930)

 

Stuart Hall & Polly Ward

 

Most notable as Britain’s first “all talking” colour film (although this version is in black and white), Harmony Heaven is currently available through the kind people at Network DVD as part of Volume 1 of their British Musicals of the 1930s series. 

 

Rumour has it that Alfred Hitchcock worked on the film as co-director although it is believed that if he did, his input was minimal.

 

It’s a story as old as the hills: struggling singer/songwriter (Bob Farrell played by Stuart Hall in his first film role) fails an audition for a part in a revue ...

Stuart Hall

... the leading actress (Billie Breeze played by Polly Ward – whose birth name was Byno Poluski) ...

Polly Ward

 

... takes sympathy on him and romance ensues ...

Stuart Hall & Polly Ward

...he gets his break with her help after the revue’s star (Stuart played by Jack Raine, whose screen career stretched from 1927 to 1971 and whose final film role was in Bedknobs and Broomsticks) ...

Jack Raine

 

...has an accident and he becomes overnight star ...

 

... their love falters after he is targeted by the vampish rich woman (Lady Violet Mistley played by the wonderfully named Trilby Clark in her penultimate screen appearance)...

Stuart Hall & Trilby Clark

...his girlfriend winds him back; they all live happy ever after.

 

It’s corny, and bloody rough quality, but at least the songs are easy to hum along to: title song Harmony Heaven is perfectly good although The Raggedy Romp ... 

"If you feel shivery, Wait for delivery, of the Heat you will meet, When you're doing The Raggedy Romp"

 

... and Prehistoric Blues  are rather silly.

 

It’s fun: Stuart Hall sings a dreadful song at his audition  and dances like a fool - the song is about:

"A woodland glade where the elves sit down to tea."

 

What else?

 

Jack Raine’s character is  supposed to be a super-stylish showbiz superstar – with a group of dancers describing him as “such a swanker.”

Jack Raine

 

Blimey, she’s flexible (which he appears to appreciate!):

 

There’s a curious scene in which one of the revue’s cast give’s a (in modern parlance) gay performance of the line’s (insert lines). The director shouts out “Can’t you say it like a man?” And he replies “No I can’t.”

It’s an odd interlude that seems to say “let’s all laugh at the fairy”.

 

 And finally:

 

It seems that sex was a big selling point in 1930s British cinema. In Harmony Heaven there's a scene in which Polly Ward gets dressed ready to meet Stuart Hall. Shot through a curtained arch, which separates us from the scene and puts the audience in a voyeuristic position, we see her pull on and fix her stockings:

Polly Ward

Polly Ward

It seems that British films of the 1930s had a slightly fetishised view of women’s underwear. Previously I had never imagined that British cinema of this period had been a stepping stone on the gradual sexualisation of cinema. But it seems that in 1930s British films you could hardly get away from women getting dressed, undressed or waving their underwear around:

 

Most famously, there's the scene inThe 39 Steps where Robet Donat flashes Madeleine Carroll's stocking tops as they try to get dry...

... and she has to remove them whilst still handcuffed to him:

 

Whilst that scene is often celebrated as an example of Alfred Hitchcock's voyeuristic tendencies, he wasn't the only director offering his audiences tantalising glimpses of thigh or - if they weren't quite that daring - a view of a lady's undergarments (even if she wasn't wearing them).

In Escape (1930) we watch as a woman hides her stockings and knickers from the gaze of the escaped convict ...

 

...only to wave them at him moments later.

 

The next woman he meets also can’t stop herself from removing her stockings on screen.

 

Over She Goes (1937) also has a scene of man wandering around with the leading lady’s stockings in his breast pocket and her ‘step-in’ underwear hanging off his tailcoat - until he bumps into his girlfriend and gets into trouble:

 

 

In 'Cheer Up' the audience gets to see Sally Gray dancing in her knickers and leaning out of the window in her underwear:

 

And in Brief Ecstasy Hugh Williams seems to have an obsession with Linden Travers’s legs. He’s constantly touching or staring at them:

 

So next time someone refers to the early evidence of voyeuristic tendencies in Alfred Hitchcock's work in The 39 Steps, you can tell them: "Everyone was at it in British films in the thirties ..."

Oh well, I suppose some things never change ...