Light Up the Sky! (film)

Last updated

Light Up the Sky!
Light Up the Sky! (1960 film).jpg
British quad poster by Stevens
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Written by Vernon Harris
Based onPlay:Touch It Light by Robert Storey
Produced by Lewis Gilbert
Starring Ian Carmichael
Tommy Steele
Benny Hill
Cinematography John Wilcox
Edited by Peter Tanner
Music by Douglas Gamley
Distributed by Bryanston Films (UK)
Continental Distributing (USA)
Release date
  • 5 July 1960 (1960-07-05)
Running time
90 mins. [1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£126,318 [2]

Light Up the Sky! (also known as Touch it Light; U.S. title: Skywatch) is a 1960 British comedy drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Ian Carmichael, Tommy Steele and Benny Hill. [3] [4] [5] [6] The film also features Dick Emery in a minor role.

Contents

Light Up the Sky! was based on Robert Storey's 1957 West End play Touch It Light. [7] [8]

Plot

In 1942 during the Second World War, Lieutenant Ogleby is in command of a searchlight and anti-aircraft unit somewhere in England. Ogleby visits only occasionally to check up on the unit. In his absence Lance Bombardier Tomlinson is in charge, but he struggles to maintain some kind of order and he frequently turns a blind eye to the lack of discipline and even their local thieving.

Camp comic Syd McGaffey tries to keep up with the romantic antics of his younger brother Eric, who comes back from a short leave and announces that he has got married. He soon takes up with a local girl and gets her pregnant, falling foul of her father. Ted Green is a widower with a son serving overseas, and he eagerly maintains a correspondence with him. Leslie Smith is lovesick and unhappy over a misunderstanding with his girlfriend and eventually goes AWOL to get to see her. Roland Kenyon is the unit's cook and a father of six children. He has ambitions to get a posting to a catering unit.

One night, they illuminate a German airplane. The plane is hit and dives toward their searchlight. It overshoots and crashes, but Smith is killed while shooting at it.

Cast

Production

Light Up the Sky! was based on the play Touch It Light, which premiered in 1957. [8] [9] Producer and director Lewis Gilbert liked it and arranged for it to be filmed. "There have been countless films featuring heroic officers and I feel it is time the ordinary private is given his due," said Gilbert. [10] [N 1]

The film was developed by Eros Films but then that company decided not to make it after being taken over by Albert Broccoli and Irwin Allen. Gilbert instead arranged finance through Bryanston. [11]

Light Up the Sky! was Tommy Steele's first dramatic role. Lionel Bart who wrote songs for Steele's first three films, wrote a song for this film called, "Touch It Light" which Steele performs with Hill. [10]

Criterion Film Productions provided £22,500 of the budget and Tommy Steele deferred £7,500 of his fee. [12]

Reception

Box office

Light Up the Sky! earned Bryanston a small profit of £4,466. [12] Kine Weekly called it a "money maker" at the British box office in 1960. [13]

Critical

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "No doubt Army life on a home station is a mixture of grim "humour, farce and sentiment, but Lewis Gilbert should have taken the title of the original play Touch It Light more literally. His direction of good comic talent is heavy. The cast, in any case, seem to be fighting a script which moves from one comic situation to the next without any sense of narrative development or cohesion. Benny Hill and Sydney Tafler emerge as sympathetic characters, but the cameraderie which the film purports to show is too often lost in patronising officer-and-men relationships, sketchy characterisation and sheer, crude mawkishness." [14]

The Guardian in 1960 described Light Up the Sky! as a "small, sensible and somehow touching film with a whiff of authenticity about it". [15]

The Radio Times called it a "hackneyed theatrical hand-me-down". [16]

Eleanor Mannikka at Allmovie called it an "unexceptional comedy". [17]

TV Guide called it "pointless", but observed Benny Hill "exhibits the form that would later make him a popular television star in both the UK and US" and admitted to finding the film "occasionally amusing". [18]

Film Threat called it "A great little wartime drama" and asked "Why isn't this gem better known?" [19]

Film reviewer Peter Burnett noted that "for British nostalgia fans and cineastes in general, it will be a fabulous treat". [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benny Hill</span> English comedy actor (1924–1992)

Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill was an English comedian, actor, and scriptwriter. He is remembered for his television programme, The Benny Hill Show, an amalgam of slapstick, burlesque and double entendre in a format that included live comedy and filmed segments, with Hill at the focus of almost every segment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Steele</span> British entertainer (born 1936)

Sir Thomas Hicks, known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Gilbert</span> English film director (1920–2018)

Lewis Gilbert was an English film director, producer and screenwriter who directed more than 40 films during six decades; among them such varied titles as Reach for the Sky (1956), Sink the Bismarck! (1960), Alfie (1966), Educating Rita (1983) and Shirley Valentine (1989), as well as three James Bond films: You Only Live Twice (1967), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).

<i>The Sea Shall Not Have Them</i> 1954 film by Lewis Gilbert

The Sea Shall Not Have Them is a 1954 British war film starring Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde and Anthony Steel. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and is based on the 1953 novel by John Harris, about a North Sea rescue during the Second World War. The musical soundtrack is by composer Malcolm Arnold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Maddern</span> English actor (1928–1993)

Victor Jack Maddern was an English actor. He was described by The Telegraph as having "one of the most distinctive and eloquent faces in post-war British cinema."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joy Shelton</span> British actress (1922–2000)

Joy Winstanley Shelton was an English actress who performed in films, radio and television.

<i>Saturday Night and Sunday Morning</i> (film) 1960 British film by Karel Reisz

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Karel Reisz and produced by Tony Richardson. It is an adaptation of the 1958 novel by Alan Sillitoe, with Sillitoe himself writing the screenplay. The plot concerns a young teddy boy machinist, Arthur, who spends his weekends drinking and partying, all the while having an affair with a married woman.

<i>The Battle of the Sexes</i> (1959 film) 1959 British film by Charles Crichton

The Battle of the Sexes is a 1959 British black and white comedy film starring Peter Sellers, Robert Morley, and Constance Cummings, and directed by Charles Crichton. Based on the short story "The Catbird Seat" by James Thurber, it was adapted by Monja Danischewsky. A timid accountant in a Scottish Tweed weaving company cleverly bests a brash modern American efficiency expert whose ideas threaten his way of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney Tafler</span> British actor (1916–1979)

Sydney Tafler was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s.

<i>The Sandwich Man</i> (1966 film) 1966 British film by Robert Hartford-Davis

The Sandwich Man is a 1966 British comedy film directed by Robert Hartford-Davis starring Michael Bentine, with support from a cast of British character actors including Dora Bryan, Harry H. Corbett, Bernard Cribbins, Diana Dors, Norman Wisdom, Terry-Thomas and Ian Hendry. It was written by Hartford-Davis and Bentine.

<i>Cone of Silence</i> (film) 1960 British film by Charles Frend

Cone of Silence is a 1960 British drama film directed by Charles Frend and starring Michael Craig, Peter Cushing, George Sanders and Bernard Lee. The film is based upon the novel of that name by David Beaty, which is loosely based on a 1952 plane crash in Rome and subsequent investigations into the structural integrity of the de Havilland Comet airliner.

<i>Please Turn Over</i> 1959 British film by Gerald Thomas

Please Turn Over is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Gerald Thomas and starring Ted Ray, Julia Lockwood, Jean Kent, Joan Sims, Leslie Phillips, Charles Hawtrey, Lionel Jeffries and Victor Maddern. It was written by Norman Hudis based on the 1959 play Book of the Month by Basil Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. An English town is thrown into chaos when the daughter of one of the residents publishes a book detailing the supposed secrets of the inhabitants.

<i>Once a Sinner</i> (1950 film) 1950 British film by Lewis Gilbert

Once a Sinner is a 1950 British drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Pat Kirkwood, Jack Watling and Joy Shelton. It was written by David Evans.

<i>Tommy the Toreador</i> 1959 British film by John Paddy Carstairs

Tommy the Toreador is a 1959 British musical comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Tommy Steele, Janet Munro, Sid James, Bernard Cribbins, Noel Purcell and Kenneth Williams.

<i>The Boy Who Stole a Million</i> 1960 British film by Charles Crichton

The Boy Who Stole a Million is a 1960 British comedy thriller film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Maurice Reyna and Virgílio Teixeira.

<i>Wide Boy</i> (film) 1952 British film by Ken Hughes

Wide Boy is a 1952 British second feature ('B') crime film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Susan Shaw, Sydney Tafler and Ronald Howard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Lamb (actor)</span> British actor (1900–1989)

Charles Lamb was a British stage, film and television actor. Previously an engineer, he made his theatre debut in 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryanston Films (UK)</span>

Bryanston Films was a British film company formed by Michael Balcon and Maxwell Setton in mid-1959 following the collapse of Ealing Studios. Neither a production studio, nor a distributor, it released independent British films through British Lion Films In operation until 1963, it was intended to be an unofficial group of independent film producers.

<i>The Impersonator</i> 1961 British film by Alfred Shaughnessy

The Impersonator is a 1961 low-budget black and white British second feature thriller film directed by Alfred Shaughnessy starring John Crawford, Jane Griffiths, Patricia Burke and John Salew. It was written by Cavander and Shaughnessy. An American angle was incorporated to give transatlantic box office appeal.

<i>The Big Day</i> (1960 film) 1960 British film by Peter Graham Scott

The Big Day is a 1960 black and white British "B" drama film directed by Peter Graham Scott and starring Donald Pleasence, Harry H. Corbett, Andrée Melly and Colin Gordon. It was written by Bill MacIlwraith and produced by Arthur Alcott and Julian Wintle for Independent Artists.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Victor Maddern, Johnny Briggs and Harry Locke reprised their roles in the play. [10]

Citations

  1. ↑ "Releases: 'Light Up the Sky!'." British Board of Film Classification (www.bbfc.co.uk), 2019.
  2. ↑ Petrie, Duncan James. "Bryanston Films: An experiment in cooperative independent production and distribution." Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 2017, p. 7. ISSN 1465-3451.
  3. ↑ "Light Up the Sky!". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  4. ↑ " Review: 'Light up the Sky!' (1960)." Bfi.org, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Li, p. 114.
  6. ↑ "Synopsis: 'Light Up the Sky!'." Moviefone, 4 April 2012.
  7. ↑ Reid 2006, p. 146.
  8. 1 2 "Production of Touch It Light | Theatricalia".
  9. ↑ Author's genuine sentiment"'Touch it Light'." The Guardian, 9 September 1959, p. 5.
  10. 1 2 3 Nepean, Edith. "Review: 'Light Up The Sky!'." Picture Show; London, 26 March 26, 1960. p. 6.
  11. ↑ Fowler, Roy (1996). "Lewis Gilbert Side 10". British Entertainment History Project.
  12. 1 2 Petrie 2017, p. 8
  13. ↑ Billings, Josh (15 December 1960). "It's Britain 1, 2, 3 again in the 1960 box office stakes". Kine Weekly. p. 9.
  14. ↑ "Light Up the Sky!". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 27 (312): 114. 1 January 1960 – via ProQuest.
  15. ↑ "Our Film Critic: A case of bigotry." The Guardian, 9 July 1960, p. 3.
  16. ↑ Parkinson, David. "Review: 'Light Up the Sky!'." Radio Times, 2019. Retrieved: 12 May 2019.
  17. ↑ Mannikka, Eleanor. 'Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related: 'Light Up the Sky!' (1960) - Lewis Gilbert." AllMovie, 2019.
  18. ↑ "Review: 'Light Up The Sky!." TVGuide.com, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Why isn't this gem better known?" Rotten Tomatoes, 2019.
  20. ↑ Burnett, Peter. "Review: 'Light up the Sky!' (1960)." peterburnett.info, 2019

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.