Holiday Camp | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Ken Annakin |
Written by | Peter Rogers Muriel Box Sydney Box addit. dialogue Mabel Constanduros Denis Constanduros Ted Willis |
Story by | Godfrey Winn |
Produced by | Sydney Box |
Starring | Flora Robson Jack Warner Dennis Price Hazel Court |
Cinematography | Jack Cox |
Edited by | Alfred Roome |
Music by | Bob Busby |
Production company | |
Distributed by | General Film Distributors |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £150,400 [1] [2] |
Box office | £184,300 [1] or £166,400 [2] |
Holiday Camp is a 1947 British comedy drama film directed by Ken Annakin, starring Flora Robson, Jack Warner, Dennis Price, and Hazel Court, and also features Kathleen Harrison and Jimmy Hanley. [3] It is set at one of the then-popular holiday camps. It resonated with post-war audiences and was very successful. It was the first film to feature the Huggett family, who went on to star in "The Huggetts" film series.
Set in a Butlin's-style holiday camp on the English coast in contemporary post-war Britain, a working class London family have their first visit to a summer holiday camp. It was the first film to feature the Huggett family, who went on to star in "The Huggetts" film series. The film is a kaleidoscope of events involving the Huggetts and others, including a pregnant young girl and her boyfriend, a sailor whose girlfriend has jilted him, a girl looking for a husband, a spinster, a pair of dishonest card sharps, and a murderer on the run. [4] [5] It captures the round of organised leisure activities at the crowded camp and the ever present camp announcements.
As one of the more unusual subplots Esther, a woman holidaying alone and sharing with a stranger Elsie, recognises the voice of the camp announcer, as a former boyfriend. When she eventually finds him, she discovers the correct person, but he was blinded in the First World War. He explains he lost his sight and memory in 1918.
Joan Hugget wins the beauty contest and is immediately targeted by Binky, who appears to be one of the more upper-class campers. He then claims to be an investigator looking for the "Mannequin Murderer" but ultimately proves to be the actual killer.
Harry Hugget loses a lot of money playing cards against two swindlers, ending up owing them more money than he has. However, his dad Joe wins all the money back a few days later.
The film was directed by Ken Annakin, who had made a number of documentaries for producer Sydney Box, including one that involved him directing actors. When Box took over Gainsborough Pictures he hired Annakin to make Holiday Camp as part of a ten-picture contract with the director. [6] It was part of Box's initial slate of pictures for the company, others including Jassy and Good Time Girl . [7]
The idea was to make a film about a week in a holiday camp consisting of six separate stories. The original story was by magazine writer Godfrey Winn. He went to a Butlin's holiday camp at Filey with Annakin to research. Annakin remembers Winn "put together a very good story" but Sydney and Muriel Box "decided we should add extra elements". [8] He says Muriel Box worked on the Dennis Price character, inspired by the Heath Murders, then they held a round table conference with Ted Willis, Peter Rogers and Mabel Constanduros. "Godfrey wasn't terribly happy about it because he thought he was going to have a single screen credit", says Annakin. [8]
Peter Rogers had worked as Muriel Box's assistant. He says he wrote "the screenplay and most of the stories... but Mabel Constanduros and one or two other people had little ideas. Sydney [Box] was always on the side of writers and always gave writers credit, even if they just had two lines in the script." [9] Rogers claims it was his idea to introduce the Dennis Price character and "the only bit that Mabel Constanduros contributed was the scene between Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison on the cliffs." [9]
Camp exteriors were shot at Butlin's, Filey. The opening scenes of a train arriving at a seaside cliff-top station and of the passengers boarding buses outside the station were filmed at Sandsend railway station. [10]
Sydney Box used the film to introduce several new actresses, including Susan Shaw and Hazel Court. It was Diana Dors' second film appearance. [11] She was only fifteen years old and Annakin says "she had terrific joi de vivre and radiated sex... she was bursting with love for everyone and every living thing." [12]
Some brief moments of Warner and Harrison exercising from the film, and Michael Shepley playing golf, were re-used at the beginning of Into the Blue .
Annakin says the release of the film was threatened by Billy Butlin, who was unhappy with the plot about a murderer frequenting the camp, and said he would cause legal trouble. However, Annakin discovered that people often drowned in the pools at Butlin’s Camps and threatened to leak this information to the press. Butlin then backed off. [13]
The film was the sixth most popular movie at the British box office in 1947. [14] According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1947 Britain was The Courtneys of Curzon Street , with "runners up" being The Jolson Story , Great Expectations , Odd Man Out , Frieda , Holiday Camp and Duel in the Sun . [15] According to one account, the producer's receipts from the UK were £141,900 while those from overseas were £24,500. [2] Annakin said the film went into profit within three months of its release. [16]
Annakin attributed the film's success in part "perhaps because I had come from documentary and British cinema at that time was very artificial. The Huggetts absolutely caught the spirit and feeling that existed after the war... People didn't want more fairy stories; they wanted something in which they could recognise themselves. Being of lower-middle-class origins myself, I felt at home with these people who were having a fine holiday in a very cheap place which provided wonderful entertainment. I think I caught the spirit of the holiday camps and we had a very warm, natural cast." [8]
Peter Rogers thought the film was a hit "the same way that the Carry On s caught on – you've got ordinary people doing amusing things." [17]
The film made a reported profit of £16,000. [1]
Time Out wrote, "Time has mellowed the documentary quality of the film, and location shooting and authentic detail now seem less important than the presence of the whole range of British acting talent, from Dame Flora Robson to Cheerful Charlie Chester, among the cast of thousands." [18]
"I'm not embarrassed about Holiday Camp", said Annakin years later, "although the later Huggett films don't hold up well." [8]
Annakin later said he was approached to make a similar sort of film set in Las Vegas but it was never made. [19]
Jack Warner, OBE was a British actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played in the 1950 film The Blue Lamp and later in the television series Dixon of Dock Green from 1955 until 1976, but he was also for some years one of Britain's most popular film stars.
Butlin's is a chain of large seaside resorts in the United Kingdom, incorporated as Butlins Skyline Limited. Butlin's was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families.
Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin was an entrepreneur whose name is synonymous with the British holiday camp. Although holiday camps such as Warner's existed in one form or another before Butlin opened his first in 1936, it was Butlin who turned holiday camps into a multimillion-pound industry and an important aspect of British culture.
Violette Muriel Box, Baroness Gardiner, was an English screenwriter and director, Britain's most prolific female director, having directed 12 feature films and one featurette. Her screenplay for The Seventh Veil won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Frank Sydney Box was a British film producer and screenwriter, and brother of British film producer Betty Box. In 1940, he founded the documentary film company Verity Films with Jay Lewis.
A holiday camp is a type of holiday accommodation, primarily in the United Kingdom, that encourages holidaymakers to stay within the site boundary, and provides entertainment and facilities for them throughout the day. Since the 1970s, the term has fallen out of favour with terms such as holiday park, resort, holiday village and holiday centre replacing it.
Kathleen Harrison was a prolific English character actress best remembered for her role as Mrs. Huggett in a trio of British post-war comedies about a working-class family's misadventures, The Huggetts. She later played the charwoman Mrs. Dilber opposite Alastair Sim in the 1951 film Scrooge and a Cockney charwoman who inherits a fortune in the television series Mrs Thursday (1966–67).
Kenneth Cooper Annakin, OBE was an English film director.
Betty Evelyn Box was a prolific British film producer, usually credited as Betty E. Box.
Penychain railway station, commonly known by its former name, Butlins Penychain railway station, is located by an over bridge at Pen-ychain on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales. This railway station is an unstaffed halt on the Cambrian Coast Railway with passenger services to Pwllheli, Porthmadog, Harlech, Barmouth, Machynlleth and Shrewsbury. For many years the station served the large Butlins Holiday Camp at Penychain.
Filey Holiday Camp railway station was a railway station built by the London and North Eastern Railway to serve Butlin's Filey Holiday Camp just south of Filey, in the then East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Here Come the Huggetts is a 1948 British comedy film, the first of the Huggetts series, about a working class English family. All three films in the series were directed by Ken Annakin and released by Gainsborough Pictures.
Easy Money is a 1948 British satirical film about a modern British tradition, the football pools. It is composed of four tales about the effect a major win has in four different situations in the post-war period. Written by Muriel and Sydney Box, based on the play "Easy Money" written by Arnold Ridley, and directed by Bernard Knowles, it was released by Gainsborough Pictures.
Susan Shaw was an English actress.
Caravan is a 1946 British black-and-white drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas and is based on the 1942 novel Caravan by Eleanor Smith.
Vote for Huggett is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Susan Shaw and Petula Clark. Warner reprises his role as the head of a London family, in the post-war years.
The Huggetts are a fictional family who appear in a series of British films which were released in the late 1940s by Gainsborough Pictures. The films centre on the character of Joe Huggett, played by Jack Warner, the head of a working class London family. Along with the Gainsborough melodramas, the Huggett films proved popular and lucrative for the studio. All four films were directed by Ken Annakin and produced by Betty E. Box.
The Huggetts Abroad is a 1949 British comedy drama film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Petula Clark and Susan Shaw. It was the fourth and final film in The Huggetts series.
Home and Away is a 1956 British drama film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison. It depicts the life of an ordinary working-class man after he wins the football pools. The film reunited Warner and Harrison who had previously appeared together in the Huggetts series of films.
Filey Holiday Camp was a Butlin's holiday camp near Filey, North Yorkshire, England, built for Billy Butlin's holiday organisation. Construction of the camp began in 1939. From 1939 to 1945, the camp was used as a military training base, as RAF Hunmanby Moor. The camp closed in 1983.