With Father's Day coming up,I decided last week to take a look around Ebay with the hope of tracking down a movie that my dad could enjoy watching on the day.Taking a look at a seller's page on the site,I was thrilled to discover a rare film by director Carol Reed which was made decades before his high-kicking musical Oliver,and and a few years before Reed's Film Noir Spiv classic The Third Man,which led to me excitingly getting ready to take a glimpse at the very early days of Reeds's career.
The plot:
Hiding in the bed of a fellow student in an all-girls boarding school as two teachers walk by late at night,a girl (who gives herself the fake name of Leslie James,so that she can pretend to be the daughter of a currently big name actress) is helped by her fellow students to escape from the school by climbing down a rope made of all of the bed sheets,so that James can go and search for the stardom which she has been dreaming about.
Finding herself to have very little money,Leslie decides to stay in a low-rent building that is filled with low rung cabaret performing women.Getting caught up in the groups training,James soon finds herself being given a lead role in the cabaret performance's,due to the manager of the group seeing Leslie as a shining star.As James just begins to get used to all of the routines,she finds herself caught up in an engulfing gossip,due to having recently been photographed with a strange man,is actually the wealthy (and single) Earl of Pangborough,who with having been on a travelling adventure for a number of years,is currently looking for the hand of a fine young lady.
As Leslie tries to calm the tensions down in the group,James begins to suspect that along with the mass in-fighting over getting the chance to become the future Mrs.Earl of Pangborough,one of her fellow dancers may also be a highly skilled,pickpocketing thief.
View on the film:
For their adaptation of Emery Bonnet's novel,writers Frank Launder,Austin Melford and Michael Pertwee create a screenplay which attempts to combined a Screwball,double-meaning Comedy centre,with a more dramatic heist edge.Whilst the writer's do attempt to fully join up the elements of the movie,the Screwball Comedy and heist elements never quite gel in a totally comfortable position,with the wonderfully,rather daring for its time catchy dialogue being unable to deliver a knock out final punch line,due to the more dramatic heist parts offsetting the wonderfully direction that the hilarious dialogue is building towards.
Whilst his directing is not as stylish as it would become a few years later with the classic Film Noir The Third Man,director Carol Reed shows a real relish in pushing the must risqué parts of the film right to the very front,with each of the dancers that Leslie joins wearing the tightest clothes possible and Reed also show a real tongue for some light satire of the times (from every woman going crazy for the "returning hero" Pangborough,to the main back of the all girls cabaret group being an "opp North" business man").Along with the Comedy parts of the movie,Reed also gives the heist sections some much needed style by shooting each of the scene in an atmospheric,low-lit appearance.
Entering the movie hiding under a school girl's bed, the beautiful Margaret Lockwood gives an excellent,charismatic performance,with Lockwood showing James to be someone,who despite being new to the business is still able to deliver a sharp,witty put down,whilst also having an endearing desire to become part of the group,which along with a great Hugh Sinclair as the overly flamboyant Earl of Pangbourgh,make this girls live performance one that is worth savouring.
The plot:
Hiding in the bed of a fellow student in an all-girls boarding school as two teachers walk by late at night,a girl (who gives herself the fake name of Leslie James,so that she can pretend to be the daughter of a currently big name actress) is helped by her fellow students to escape from the school by climbing down a rope made of all of the bed sheets,so that James can go and search for the stardom which she has been dreaming about.
Finding herself to have very little money,Leslie decides to stay in a low-rent building that is filled with low rung cabaret performing women.Getting caught up in the groups training,James soon finds herself being given a lead role in the cabaret performance's,due to the manager of the group seeing Leslie as a shining star.As James just begins to get used to all of the routines,she finds herself caught up in an engulfing gossip,due to having recently been photographed with a strange man,is actually the wealthy (and single) Earl of Pangborough,who with having been on a travelling adventure for a number of years,is currently looking for the hand of a fine young lady.
As Leslie tries to calm the tensions down in the group,James begins to suspect that along with the mass in-fighting over getting the chance to become the future Mrs.Earl of Pangborough,one of her fellow dancers may also be a highly skilled,pickpocketing thief.
View on the film:
For their adaptation of Emery Bonnet's novel,writers Frank Launder,Austin Melford and Michael Pertwee create a screenplay which attempts to combined a Screwball,double-meaning Comedy centre,with a more dramatic heist edge.Whilst the writer's do attempt to fully join up the elements of the movie,the Screwball Comedy and heist elements never quite gel in a totally comfortable position,with the wonderfully,rather daring for its time catchy dialogue being unable to deliver a knock out final punch line,due to the more dramatic heist parts offsetting the wonderfully direction that the hilarious dialogue is building towards.
Whilst his directing is not as stylish as it would become a few years later with the classic Film Noir The Third Man,director Carol Reed shows a real relish in pushing the must risqué parts of the film right to the very front,with each of the dancers that Leslie joins wearing the tightest clothes possible and Reed also show a real tongue for some light satire of the times (from every woman going crazy for the "returning hero" Pangborough,to the main back of the all girls cabaret group being an "opp North" business man").Along with the Comedy parts of the movie,Reed also gives the heist sections some much needed style by shooting each of the scene in an atmospheric,low-lit appearance.
Entering the movie hiding under a school girl's bed, the beautiful Margaret Lockwood gives an excellent,charismatic performance,with Lockwood showing James to be someone,who despite being new to the business is still able to deliver a sharp,witty put down,whilst also having an endearing desire to become part of the group,which along with a great Hugh Sinclair as the overly flamboyant Earl of Pangbourgh,make this girls live performance one that is worth savouring.