PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Here Come The Huggetts 1948

Here Come The Huggetts is the first of three sequels about the Huggett family from Holiday Camp. HCTH came out in 1948 and it was directed by Ken Annakin. He directed Holiday Camp in 1947, the following year he directed Miranda, Broken Journey, The Colonel's Lady segment of Quartet, and HCTH. There were two more Huggett family films in 1949 as well as a movie called Landfall. I've seen Miranda and enjoyed it quite a bit, Glynis Johns is a mermaid, there's a sequel called Mad About Men, it's entertaining but it's not directed by Ken. All four of the Huggetts films are collected in a DVD set in the UK. You can buy one on Amazon for $12.54 with free shipping but you'd need to be able to play region 2 DVDs.

Back to HCTH, the screenplay was written by Mabel Constanduros, Denis Constanduros and Peter Rogers. Muriel Box and Sidney Box are given an uncredited writing credit on the IMDb. Muriel and Sidney were husband and wife film makers, Betty Box was Sidney's sister. At the time of HCTH they were working at Gainsborough Pictures which was part of The Rank Organization. They shot their pictures at Islington Studios and later Lime Grove Studios. When Gainsborough got closed in 1949 the BBC bought Lime Grove and eventually made Doctor Who there.

Jack Warner plays Joe Huggett and Kathleen Harrison plays his wife Ethel. Joe's moved up at the Campbell's cereal company and he's decided they need a phone for work purposes. Kathleen's not too keen but her three daughters are more than happy to have a phone. The Huggetts have three daughters in this series, unlike Holiday Camp in which they had a son and a daughter.

That's the three daughters, left to right are Susan Shaw, Jane Hylton and Petula Clark. When I saw Petula Clark on TV singing Downtown back in 1964, I didn't have any idea she'd been singing for 20 years. She was 16 when she was in HCTH, in the previous four years she'd already sang on BBC Radio and appeared in 8 films.

Jane has a dilemma, her boyfriend has been away at the war and he's coming home with marriage in mind, she's not too sure. Her friend David Tomlinson would like to see her walk up the aisle with him, she's not too sure of him either. There's another wedding in the film, Princess Elizabeth is marrying Prince Phillip, the Huggetts want to go. They camp out overnight near Buckingham Palace to get a good place.

Diana Dors plays the Huggett family's niece, she's pretty much a selfish asshole who can't do much of anything other than coast on her looks. Diana was the youngest student at LAMDA and she would have a fairly lengthy career, starting in 1947 and ending with her death in 1985, she was only 52 years old.

No one's happy to have Diana in the house but her mother is sick so they muddle on. Ethel gets Joe to get Diana a job at the Campbell company and she screws up stuff for Joe. Lucky for him that all works out well in the end. It's a nice easy going comedy with fun characters and a good solid script. I was glad to have seen it and it will be one I will want to watch again.

Holiday Camp 1947

Holiday Camp is a British comedy about the goings on at a holiday camp. The movie came out in 1947 and the camp used in the film is the Butlins Holiday Camp in Filey North Yorkshire. I've heard of Butlins before this, British comedians have worked at the camps as entertainment staff. I think the American equivalent would be the holiday resorts in the Catskills. The camps are pretty well contained, there are little cabins to stay in, the food is included, there's a pool, dancing, entertainment and many, many, many people. It looks very crowed there, I doubt I would like it.

Holiday Camp is the first of four movies with the Huggett family and they came packed in a 4 disc set from the UK. You need a special all-region DVD player to play them, or a copy of VLC Player on a PC with a DVD player. I had the one in my PC fail recently and purchased a LG DVD player that plugs in with a USB cable. It plays fine and was only $27. There isn't a US release but you can find them on YouTube from time to time.

The Huggett family aren't the main characters in this film, many other characters share their story lines. Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison play Mr and Mrs Huggett, Hazel Court plays their daughter Joan and Peter Hammond plays their son Harry. Flora Robson plays a spinster who decides she wants a change in vacation spots, Dennis Price plays a bit of cad, Esma Cannon plays a spinster with a tragic future. There's a couple who aren't married but will soon need to be, a pair of card sharps who take and be taken, a murderer who's being chased by the law and a camp announcer with a tragic past.

It's a well crafted story with a nice mix of comedy and drama, it get sentimental but never too melodramatic. Godfrey Winn came up with the original story, he and director Ken Annakin stayed at the camp in the movie to see what it was like. Producers Sydney and Muriel Box wrote the screenplay with Peter Rogers. The was also additional dialog from Mabel Constanduros, Denis Constanduros and Ted Willis.

Holiday Camp was Ken's first movie, his career started with the 1943 short London 1942 and ended in 2009 with Genghis Khan: The Story Of A Lifetime. He directed a good number of hits and some live action films for Disney. He directed Miranda right after HC, that was an entertaining movie too. I enjoyed the first Huggetts film and look forward to the rest of the series.

My Learned Friend 1943

My Learned Friend is Will Hay's last movie, it came out in 1943. Angus MacPhail and John Dighton wrote the screenplay and Basil Dearden and Will Hay directed. Will got cancer and he didn't work in films anymore. It's too bad, it's one of my favorites of Will's films.

That's Claude Hulbert, Mervyn Johns and Will Hay, left to right. Will's a shady barrister, we first meet him in court where he talks his way out of trouble, Claude is the barrister trying to convict him. Mervyn is a forger who had Will for his defense. Will had lost that case and Mervyn went to jail. Now he's out and he tells Will and Claude he's interested in executing those who put him behind bars. At first he convinces Will he's joking but then he sends Will a newspaper with a story about the very same Judge at the trail being drowned in a river. The note from Mervyn asks if the judge fell or was pushed.

For some reason Claude joins Will in trying to warn the other victims before Mervyn gets his hands on them. They aren't very successful and there are 3 more murders. Now Mervyn is after Claude and Will. There's plenty of running about and activity with the trio winding up inside Big Ben. Mervyn has rigged the clock to blow up boxes of dynamite under the Houses of Parliament. At one point they've all crawled out onto the face of the clock. Lucky the Bobbies arrive to save Will and Claude from death.

It's nicely dark and there's a great mix of crime and comedy. Some say that it was the template for future, darker Ealing comedies like The Lady Killers and Kind Hearts and Coronets. There's plenty of killing and some of the murders are rather inventive. Will and Claude are fun together and Mervyn does a nice murderous lunatic. There's plenty of other enjoyable characters for them to interact with, their dialog is entertaining and so their physical comedy. There's some action and one of the better bar room brawls that isn't in a western. It would have been nice to have several more Will Hay comedies that were as good as this. It wasn't too be so I'll have to be happy with the lot I have. Glad I picked this up, I'll run it again.

It's That Man Again 1943

It's That Man Again is a 1943 British film. It's directed by Walter Forde, the screenplay is by Ted Kavanagh and Howard Irving Young. It's based on a radio show. Tommy Handley is the mayor of a town, he gambles with the town's treasury, he wins a bombed out theater. He tries to run the theater school that existed there before he won what's left of the building. He tries to put on a play and there's lots of problems. It's kind of entertaining but there's always that nagging idea, that mayor is real shit bag. He's affable and he persuades people around him to do things bit he's still a crook. I thought he should have been punished more. One of the least interesting of the DVDs that are part of The British Film series.

Where's That Fire 1940

Where's That Fire is a 1940 Will Hay movie. It's written by Marriott Edgar, Val Guest and JOC Orton. Marcel Varnel is the director. Will is joined for the last time by Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. The only other cast member I knew was Charles Hawtrey.

Will is the head of an incompetant fire brigade. One day they can't find the fire and then they let the town hall burn down. The townies give them one more chance to put out a fire. Will and the boys head for London to look at a real fire station.

Will tries some of his own ideas to improve the service, most of them result in chaos, but he does invent a good fire suppression foam. In another subplot, some criminals try to hire the stations fire engine, an old horse drawn cart type, they want to use it to steal the crown jewels. It's similar to the Tower Of London fire engine.

There's plenty of noise and collateral damage. The trio at the fire station are the most destructive bunch but they do foil the robbery in the end. There's a bunch of jokes and some are funny, that's augmented with some slapstick and hitting. It was fun to watch, I laughed. The film was thought to be lost until the BBC discovered a copy in 1975. It's in the public domain and though it's not had an official release there are DVDs available.

The Chiltern Hundreds 1949

The Chiltern Hundreds is a 1949 British movie that was released in the US as The Amazing Mr Beecham. John Paddy Carstairs is the director, William Douglas-Home and Patrick Kirwan shared the script writing. The story appeared on British TV first, in a play by William Douglas-Home. It was later adapted to the radio on the BBC. John Paddy spent 30 years directing, 1933 to 1963, he passed away in 1970 at age 60. In the last couple of years he directed a couple episodes of The Saint and 4 episodes of The Sentimental Agent. I haven't seen the latter show but it's now on my Wanted List. I know those two episodes, I do love The Saint, I've watched the series several times over the years.

David Tomlinson is a young Viscount, he's been called up to the Army but takes leave to run in the local election. His family have always held the seat. He loses to the Labour candidate and the Viscount decides to run as a Socialist. Cecil Parker is Mr Beecham, the family butler, he also runs for the seat. It's got a good number of goofy characters and some jokes. I enjoyed it. Keep an eye out for small bits by Desmond Llewelyn and Richard Wattis.

The Black Sheep Of Whitehall 1942

The third Will Hay movie in the three film set is The Black Sheep Of Whitehall. It's a 1942 film that was co-directed by Will Hay and Basil Dearden. Angus MacPhail and John Dighton are responsible for the story and screenplay. John would go on to write Kind Hearts And Coronets, The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, The Man In The Ice Cream Suit, Who Goes There!, and Roman Holiday to name a few I've seen. Angus wrote the screenplay to The Ghost Train starring Arthur Askey and the Hitchcock film Spellbound. I've seen very little of his other work.

Besides Will I only knew a couple in the cast: John Mills and Thora Hird. That's Will and John above. Will is a Professor at an unsuccessful correspondence school, John is his only student. Will is broke and John thinks he can get him a job at Whitehall. There Will gets mistaken for an economist and gets interviewed by the BBC. The real economist shows up, the viewers know he's a fake, put there by the Nazis, and somehow Will stumbles on the fifth columnists plot. Now he's got to get some proof and catch those baddies. I laughed several times and was happy to have picked it up. I'll be watching it again someday.

The Ghost Of St Michael's 1941

The Ghost of St Michael's is a 1941 Hill Hay comedy that's directed by Marcel Varnel. He's a Frenchman who started directing comedies on the Paris stage. He moved to New York in 1925 to direct on Broadway for the Shubert family. He made his way to Hollywood where he directed Chandu The Magician in 1932. He moved to England in 1934 where he would direct a lot of comedies for big stars like Will Hay, Arthur Askey and George Formby. He died in 1947.

Angus McPhail and John Dighton wrote the story and screenplay. They worked together and separately on many movies, some of which I've seen. Here they've got a murder mystery comedy with Will Hay as a teacher who gets sent to a school recently relocated to the Isle of Sky in Scotland. It's war time and the many young people were moved into the remote country to keep them from getting blown up in the cities. I liked the little miniature harbor and boat. No location shooting here, probably couldn't have gotten the gas to get them there.

The ghost of St Michael's returns after Will gets there and the Head Master is killed. That's Will with Charles Hawtrey and Claude Hubert above. Other than those three the rest of the cast were unfamiliar except for John Laurie. Some might know him from Dad's Army but he did a lot of films before that popular TV series. After the second Head Master is killed Will works out what is going on and eventually gets the baddies caught. There's some fun scenes and some OK jokes. Rapidly becoming one of my favorite Hay movies.

Forgotten Noir Volume 5

Two OK movies in Forbidden Noir Volume 5, the first up on the disc is F.B.I. Girl. It's a 1951 crime film that was written by Dwight V Babcock and Richard Landau with William Berke directing. Dwight wrote original stories or screenplays for 2 dozen movies and over 3 dozen TV episodes. You might have seen The Mummy's Curse, House Of Dracula, House Of Horrors, The Brute Man or She-Wolf Of London. Not all great films but entertaining. Richard has a few less movies and even more TV scripts than Dwight. I know I've seen Secret Of The Whistler, Spaceways, The Quatermass Xperiment, The Black Hole and Lost Continent. I know I've seen even more of his TV writing. William directed 86 movies and I've seen a few of them.

A sad story of a governor who murdered a man twenty years ago. Raymond Greenleaf plays the governor and he's managed to keep the secret so far. He fears a crime crackdown might lead to his getting fingerprinted and exposed. His pal, or sorts, Raymond Burr is a sleazy scumbag who is helping the gov get his fingerprints out of the FBI. He had a gal all primed and she fails, unfortunately Burr finds out after his goons have killed the woman. Since the woman worked for the FBI they take notice and put Cesar Romero on the job.

Audrey Trotter plays another woman at the FBI, Cesar uses her to get evidence on Burr. She's rumbled in the act and it's touch and go there. A nice solid story that moves along well. There's a good cast and they do the script right. A bit of film on a TV had a bit of the comedy styling by Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall. Peter would do himself right and get out of comedy and get into hosting Hollywood Squares. All in all a nice entertaining film.

Tough Assignment is the second feature and it came out in 1949. Don "Red" Berry and Marjorie Steele are a newly married couple, they've just returned home from their honeymoon. They stop off to get some groceries only to find the man at the butcher's has been attacked by hoodlums. They inadvertently snap a pic of the thugs as they leave and the thugs follow them home to get the film. A bit of rough and tumble leaves the couple alive but annoyed.

Don gets the idea that there's something fishy at the butchers and he's thinking protection racket. None of the butcher's in town will talk to him but he finds out that the problem is a gang has been forcing the butcher's to buy their illegally harvested beef products. The rustler's have a ranch and a meat factory. Quite a set up and they aren't none too happy to have the newspapers doing a story on stolen beef. They send some thugs after the couple but they manage to get away in time. The rest of the movie has the reporters going undercover at the ranch. Don maneuvers the crooks right from the get go.

There's a bit of jeopardy and some fun characters. I liked Don and Marjorie, too bad she only made four films. Marc Lawrence, Steve Brody and Sid Melton are among the crooks. Fun to watch. Glad to have it.

The Mystery Of The 13th Guest 1943

I found a copy of The Mystery Of The 13th Guest on YouTube today. I hadn't seen it before and after watching a few minutes I decided to continue to the end. It's directed by one of my favorite directors, William Beaudine, and the screenplay is by Tim Ryan, Charles R Marion and Arthur Hoerl. It's based on a novel by Armitage Trail called The 13th Guest. The book was adapted in 1932 as The Thirteenth Guest with Ginger Rogers. I've seen that and it was OK. Trail also wrote the novel Scarface.

In the 1943 movie the Morgan family meets at the bequest of the rich patriarch. They all sit at a table with 13 chairs but there are only 12 of them. Morgan shows the 8 year old granddaughter an envelope and says she will see it again in 13 years, when she's twenty one. Only then will the rest of the family know who gets the cash. Thirteen years later the girl is a young woman, played by Helen Parrish, and on her birthday she's given the envelope. She's supposed to go to the closed up Morgan mansion to open the envelope. She does and some weird things happen. Later she's found dead and the police arrive. Tim Ryan and Frank Faylen play Lt Burke and his dopey sidekick. Dick Purcell plays Johnny Smith, a detective hired by one of the Morgan family. More suspicious stuff starts happening, the family lawyer is found electrocuted and Helen comes back from the dead.

There's a bit of mystery, some creepy old house stuff, and a good bit of humor. It's just about an hour and it moves along quickly, no wasted time there. I enjoyed the thing and would recommend it to those that like that sort of thing. It's pretty much a B programmer but it was fun and I'd be happy seeing it again someday.