A Boy, a Girl and a Bike

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A Boy, a Girl and a Bike
A Boy, a Girl and a Bike (1949 film).jpg
British quad poster
Directed by Ralph Smart
Screenplay by Ted Willis
Story by Ralph Keene
& John Sommerfield
Produced byRalph Keene
Alfred Roome
Starring John McCallum
Honor Blackman
Patrick Holt
Diana Dors
Cinematography Ray Elton
Phil Grindrod
Edited by James Needs
Music byKenneth Pakeman
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors (UK)
Release date
  • 23 May 1949 (1949-05-23)(UK)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Language English
Box office£61,000 (by 1953) [1]

A Boy, a Girl and a Bike is a 1949 British romantic comedy film directed by Ralph Smart and starring John McCallum, Honor Blackman and Patrick Holt, [2] with art direction by George Provis. [3] [4] The screenplay was by Ted Willis. The film is set in Wakeford and in the Yorkshire Dales and features cycle sabotage and cycling tactics.

Contents

Plot

Young couple Sue and Sam are members of a Yorkshire cycling club, the Wakeford Wheelers. Romantic complications ensue when wealthy David becomes smitten with Sue and joins the club to pursue her, much to Sam's dismay.

Cast

Production

The film is based on an original idea by Sydney Box, who was head of production at Gainsborough. Box devised the idea while out for a Sunday drive and assigned the script to Ted Willis, who had worked for Box on the scripts for Holiday Camp and The Huggetts Abroad . Willis had a reputation as a skilled writer for working-class characters. The film was originally titled Wheels Within Wheels. [5] [6]

Richard Attenborough was meant to play a key role but was busy making The Guinea Pig , so Patrick Holt played his part instead. [7]

In March 1948, Smart scouted locations in Yorkshire [8] and filming took place in September 1948 at Lime Grove Studios as well as on location in Yorkshire at places including Wakefield, Hebden Bridge, Skipton and Malham Cove. [9]

Reception

Variety called the film "feeble ... valueless for the US market." [10]

The Monthly Film Bulletin called it a "simple unpretentious story enlivened by flashes of homely Yorkshire humour." [11]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Mild comedy drama with the advantage of fresh air locations." [12]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Homespun humour and romance, with a variety of accents from the Rank Charm School." [13]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "A minor, good-natured British comedy romance ... The cosy enterprise demonstrates why, with certain superior exceptions, the public preferred American films." [14]

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References

  1. ↑ Andrew Spicer, Sydney Box Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 211
  2. ↑ Spicer p.214
  3. ↑ "A Boy, a Girl and a Bike". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
  4. ↑ "A Boy, A Girl and a Bike (1949)". Archived from the original on 26 March 2017.
  5. ↑ Spicer, Andrew (2006). Sydney Box. Manchester University Press. ISBN   9780719059995.
  6. ↑ Ted Willis, Evening All: 50 Years Over a Hot Typewriter (London: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 11, 23.
  7. ↑ "U.S. ACTOR'S FIRST FILM IS BRITISH". The Sun . No. 11948. New South Wales, Australia. 13 May 1948. p. 17 (LATE FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 11 July 2020– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "They'll spend summer outside -- if it's fine". The Sun . No. 2345. New South Wales, Australia. 21 March 1948. p. 35. Retrieved 11 July 2020– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "McCALLUM BACK AFTER HOLLYWOOD HOLIDAY". The Mail (Adelaide) . Vol. 37, no. 1, 900. South Australia. 30 October 1948. p. 3 (SUNDAY MAGAZINE). Retrieved 11 July 2020– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ Review of film at Variety
  11. ↑ BOY A GIRL AND A BIKE Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 16, Iss. 186, (June 30, 1949): 96.
  12. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 135. ISBN   0586088946.
  13. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 195. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.
  14. ↑ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 123. ISBN   9780992936440.

Bibliography

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