Production supervisor: Hal Mason. Associate producer: John Croydon. Producer: Michael Balcon. Photography: Wilkie Cooper. Film editor: Charles Hasse. Art director: Michael Relph. Original songs from the 1860s including "The Man on the Flying Trapeze", "Champagne Charlie" and "Strolling in the Park" by Alfred Lee, George Leybourne. New songs and lyrics by Una Barr, T.E.B. Clarke, Lord Berners, Noel Gay, Frank Eyton, Billy Mayerl, Angus Macphail. Music director: Ernest Irving.
An Ealing Studios (London) Production. Not copyrighted in the U.S.A. New York opening at the Park Avenue: 6 August 1948 (sic). U.S. release through Bell Pictures: 6 August 1948. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 6 November 1944. Australian release through British Empire Films: 15 November 1945. 105 minutes. Cut to 100 minutes in Australia, 72 minutes in the U.S.A.
SYNOPSIS: Music hall proprietors fight to keep their houses open.
NOTES: This "visual feast" is available on an excellent Optimum DVD, either as a single or in a Tommy Trinder box set. Film debuts of Hazel Court, Kay Kendall and James Robertson Justice.
COMMENT: Little more than an excuse for turning loose Tommy Trinder and Stanley Holloway with some delightfully comic songs — including an amusingly extended feud which serves as the means of stringing together a whole series of drinking songs — this tribute to the 19th century music halls is rich in atmosphere, nostalgia and revelry.
In the main, director Cavalcanti is content to let the sets, the cleverly ambient photography and the music speak for themselves. Trinder is superb, but he is almost pipped by Holloway. Both performers are absolutely terrific!
Produced by Michael Balcon's Ealing Studios as a wartime morale booster, the reception for this prestige, no expense-spared- production was surprisingly lukewarm, both from professional critics and even a public that was generally highly supportive of Trinder's vehicles. His previous film, "The Bells Go Down" (1943) had been a sensational success. Trinder was overwhelmingly disappointed with this result. And when I was talking with him, many years later, he told me that he was "still shattered" by this film's lukewarm reception.
An Ealing Studios (London) Production. Not copyrighted in the U.S.A. New York opening at the Park Avenue: 6 August 1948 (sic). U.S. release through Bell Pictures: 6 August 1948. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 6 November 1944. Australian release through British Empire Films: 15 November 1945. 105 minutes. Cut to 100 minutes in Australia, 72 minutes in the U.S.A.
SYNOPSIS: Music hall proprietors fight to keep their houses open.
NOTES: This "visual feast" is available on an excellent Optimum DVD, either as a single or in a Tommy Trinder box set. Film debuts of Hazel Court, Kay Kendall and James Robertson Justice.
COMMENT: Little more than an excuse for turning loose Tommy Trinder and Stanley Holloway with some delightfully comic songs — including an amusingly extended feud which serves as the means of stringing together a whole series of drinking songs — this tribute to the 19th century music halls is rich in atmosphere, nostalgia and revelry.
In the main, director Cavalcanti is content to let the sets, the cleverly ambient photography and the music speak for themselves. Trinder is superb, but he is almost pipped by Holloway. Both performers are absolutely terrific!
Produced by Michael Balcon's Ealing Studios as a wartime morale booster, the reception for this prestige, no expense-spared- production was surprisingly lukewarm, both from professional critics and even a public that was generally highly supportive of Trinder's vehicles. His previous film, "The Bells Go Down" (1943) had been a sensational success. Trinder was overwhelmingly disappointed with this result. And when I was talking with him, many years later, he told me that he was "still shattered" by this film's lukewarm reception.