GAIETY GEORGE

Grahame N's Web Pages

GAIETY GEORGE

Cinema poster

T.9755 (9 reel 9.5mm sound release by Pathéscope March 1955)

"GAIETY GEORGE"                 GB July 1946     Dir: George King, Leontine Sagan
---------------                 George King Productions
98mins B/W Cert "A"             Produced by: Embassy Pictures
(Approx 80mins on 9.5)          Distributed by: Warner Brothers
Produced at D. & P. Studios
Screenplay: Basil Woon
Story: Peter Creswell, Richard Fisher, Katherine Strueby
Associate Director: Mark Evans
Photography: Otto Heller
Continuity: Tilly Day
Art Direction:       Make-Up: 
Film Editing: Hugh Stewart      Sound Recordist: 
Music composed by: Jack Beaver, Eric Rogers

      
  Richard Green           Ann Todd            Hazel Court

Cast:   Richard Greene .......... George Howard
        Ann Todd ................ Katherine Davis
        Peter Graves ............ Henry Carter
        Morland Graham .......... Morris
        Hazel Court ............. Elizabeth Brown
        Charles Victor .......... Danny Collier
        Jack Train .............. Hastings
        Leni Lynn ............... Florence Stevens
        Ursula Jeans ............ Isobel Forbes
        Daphne Barker ........... Miss de Courtney
        Maire O'Neill ........... Mrs. Murphy
        Frank Pettingell ........ Grindley
        Phyllis Robins .......... Chubbs
        John Laurie ............. McTavish
        Frederick Burtwell ...... Jenkins
        Anthony Holles .......... Wade 
        David Home .............. Lord Mountsbury
        Patrick Waddington ...... Lt Travers
        Claud Allister .......... Archie
        Graeme Muir ............. Lord Elstown
        Evelyn Darvel ........... Maisie
        Paul Blake .............. Lord Royville
        John Miller ............. Rosie
        Richard Molinas ......... Laurient
        Gerhard Kempinski ....... Muller
        Wally Patch ............. Commissionaire
        Cark Jaffe .............. Kommandant
        Everley Gregg ........... Landlady
        Roger Moore ............. Member of the Audience
        Hugh Morton ............. King (on stage)
        Maxwell Reed ............ Prince (on stage)

George Howard from Dublin buys the Princess Theatre in London. He finds their shows crude and shabby., artistes lifeless and audiences sparse. Howard introduces a new format - the Musical Comedy, a combination of music, dancing and spectacle. After many setbacks and personal problems, the shows become a success. (Maurice Trace - 9.5mm sound film catalogue)

The life of Irishman George Howard who buys an English theatre and strives to improve the standard of musical entertainment. Set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and loosely based on fact. (IMDb)

During the second half of the 1940s a number of biographical films were made about personalities of the Victorian music hall. This film is based on the life of impresario George Edwardes. He is played by Richard Greene, with a truly awful attempt at an Irish accent. Ann Todd plays his female lead and she comes across as a rather second rate Anna Neagle. Hazel Court plays a chorus girl jilted by a Lord. This leads to a rather dull story line and the film becomes rather dreary. It also has to be said that the musical score and production numbers are unmentionable and lacklustre. Maybe if the producer had made the film in colour it would at least have that going for it. The film then uses the 42nd Street plot device of the star not being available for the opening so an unknown steps in and becomes a star.
(hack review by Malcolmgsw - London on IMDb)

Difficult to know what category this movie falls into, since there is some singing, drama and also a little comedy thrown in for good measure! All those genres are applicable here. However; this is a very entertaining movie starring Richard Greene, Ann Todd and a handsome John Laurie. (pre - 'Dad's Army' fame).
Not too sure about the title for today though - but then these were of course very different times!
Richard Greene plays a Theatre Owner (perhaps a little out of his depth here - role wise) who has ideas, but little money and a very proud attitude. He ends up marrying an actress (played by Ann Todd) he encounters on his stage after having purchased the Theatre itself. From then on, the movie goes on to tell the rise and fall of his life as a Producer of a number of successful Plays and Musicals that go world-wide.
Sometimes attempting to be overly-sentimental, this does have some good performances; particularly the scene in the Theatre with the pack of hounds featuring the great character actress 'Everley Gregg' is extremely entertaining. She plays Greene's character's landlady. (a more positive review on Amazon)

Pathéscope Monthly magazine Feb-March 1953

Music includes:-

Audition - "Pretty Girls From Nowhere", sung by Phyllis Robins (not in the 9.5mm print)

From the "Tally-Ho Girl" show:
"Look What The British Can Do" - sung by Ensemble
"Maytime Waltz" - Ann Todd & Patrick Waddington
"One Love" - Ann Todd & Patrick Waddington

Audition - "One Love" - sung by Leni Lynn

From the "Tom Boy Princess" show:
"We Are Waiting For Julietta" - sung by Ensemble
"Awake My Heart" - sung by Leni Lynn

Watch Ann Todd sing "Maytime Was Made For Love" on You Tube: https://youtu.be/2ahYkTIUr2k

Watch a short clip of Richard Greene scenes on You Tube: https://youtu.be/6mQoNvm5ozs

Available on a
(Odeon) DVD
try MovieMail, Amazon UK etc.

Notes:

   1. Released in the USA in 1948 as "Showtime". 
      Released in Portugal in 1950 as "À Hora do Espectáculo"

   2. The opening credits announce that the film is "inspired by the memory of
      George Edwardes, that great figure of Theatreland". The plot is based on
      his career, but apparently legal considerations stopped the producers
      following more clearly the known facts or using his name.

   3. The musical Comedies "Tally-Ho Girl" and "Tom Boy Princess" were specially
      written for the film by Katherine Strueby, Music by George Posford,
      Lyrics by Eric Maschwitz.

   4. In her autobiography ("The Eighth Veil"), Ann Todd reveals that her singing
      voice was 'dubbed' - the vocalist was not named. She added about the film 
      that "It was all very glamorous and great fun .... It was a pity I couldn't
      sing or dance".

   5. The opening credits incorrectly name actor Antony Holles as "Anthony".

   6. The American PCA (the film industry's censors), passed the film after the
      shortening of the "Can Can".

(Info from gln, Maurice Trace & the late Denis Gifford)     ZT-9755/gln/31.05.2017

Pre-production advert

 
Sheet music

Return to: 9.5MM PATHESCOPE SOUND FILM CATALOGUE ........... ALPHA .......... NUMERIC