Please Turn Over

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Please Turn Over
Please Turn Over FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by Gerald Thomas
Written by Norman Hudis
Basil Thomas (play)
Produced by Peter Rogers
Starring Ted Ray
Leslie Phillips
Julia Lockwood
Cinematography Edward Scaife
Edited byJohn Shirley
Music by Bruce Montgomery
Color process Black and white
Production
company
Beaconsfield Productions
Distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors
Release date
  • December 1959 (1959-12)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Please Turn Over (also known as P.T.O.) 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. [1] It was written by Norman Hudis based on the 1959 play Book of the Month by Basil Thomas [2] 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.

Contents

Plot

In a quiet English town, seventeen-year-old Jo Halliday lives a fairly boring life working as a hairdresser and living at home, with her nagging mother, pompous father, and fitness-obsessed aunt. Her father, an accountant, continually wishes that his dreamy, untidy daughter could be more like his secretary, Miss Millicent Jones.

One morning, the local newspaper reveals that Jo has written a book—Naked Revolt—which is an instant bestseller. It tells the story of a young girl who discovers the truth about her family and neighbours, and flees to London to become a prostitute.

Unfortunately, the town's residents believe the book to be a true portrait of the family. Her father finds himself under suspicion at work, as his colleagues believe he has been stealing money, and her mother is regarded as a harlot who has been conducting a twenty-year affair with a retired army officer who gives her driving lessons and is Jo's real father. Her local doctor is portrayed as a philanderer who is sexually involved with a number of his patients while ignoring the desperate advances of his drunken assistant, Jo's aunt.

In fact, none of this is true: her father is scrupulously honest and in love with her mother; the local doctor is a shy man, and the former army officer is simply a family friend. Jo has left town for London with a young playwright, Robert Hughes, who is interested in turning her book into a play. After discovering they are kindred spirits, the two become engaged.

When they return home, Jo is confronted by her angry family and neighbours. The doctor is threatening to sue, and her father and mother have begun questioning each other's fidelity. But when he hears of the Doctor's planned lawsuit, Jo's father rises to her defense; stating that he approves of her talent if not her methods. Aunt Gladys further calms the Doctor by confessing her unrequited love for him, and they become a couple.

Cast

Reception

Box office

Kine Weekly called it a "money maker" at the British box office in 1960. [3]

Critical

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Though the complementary plot-within-a-plot construction of this stage farce aims its satire at middle-class life, precocious writers and current fashions in writing, the material is for the most part rather thin and uncinematic. Several of the characters, too, fail to come off, though Joan Sims is enjoyable in the small role of a daily help, and Lionel Jeffries extracts the maximum amount of comedy from a driving lesson scene." [4]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Notwithstanding its Carry On credentials, this gentle comedy of embarrassment could not be further from the bawdy humour of the celebrated series. Adapted by Norman Hudis, it boasts Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims and Charles Hawtrey among those aghast at the revelations contained in a potboiling novel populated by local luminaries. It's a one-joke affair, but director Gerald Thomas ensures the cast keeps it light and frothy." [5]

Precedent

The literary theme had been used before, by D. E. Stevenson, in the 1934 novel Mrs.Buncle's Book.[ citation needed ] The 1881 novel Cape Cod Folks by Sarah Pratt McLean Greene, a semi-fictionalized account of the characters she met during her two years teaching in Cedarville, Massachusetts, also caused offence among some of the residents for the way they were depicted in the novel, and some sued for libel.

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References

  1. ↑ "Please Turn Over". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  2. ↑ Gifford, Denis (1 April 2016). British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film. Routledge. ISBN   9781317740636 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ Billings, Josh (15 December 1960). "It's Britain 1, 2, 3 again in the 1960 box office stakes". Kine Weekly. p. 9.
  4. ↑ "Please Turn Over". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 27 (312): 25. 1 January 1960 – via ProQuest.
  5. ↑ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 725. ISBN   9780992936440.
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