Cardboard Cavalier

Last updated

Cardboard Cavalier
Cardboard Cavalier (1949 film).jpg
Directed by Walter Forde
Written by Noel Langley
Produced byWalter Forde
Culley Forde
Starring Sid Field
Margaret Lockwood
Jerry Desmonde
Cinematography Jack Hildyard
Edited by Alan Jaggs
Music by Lambert Williamson
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release date
  • 29 March 1949 (1949-03-29)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Cardboard Cavalier is a 1948 British historical comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Sid Field, Margaret Lockwood and Jerry Desmonde. [1]

Contents

It was the last film for Forde and Field. Field died of a heart attack shortly after the film was released. [2]

Plot

In an England under the rule of Oliver Cromwell, London barrow boy Sidcup Buttermeadow is unwittingly used as a spy for the exiled Charles II to deliver messages to his royalist supporters, and is aided by the object of his affection, Nell Gwynn. [3]

Dressed as a Cavalier, Sidcup is pursued by Roundhead troops, but evades them with the help of a variety of people and a ghost.

When Charles is eventually restored as king, Sid is knighted and gets to kiss Nell Gwynn.

Cast

Production

The film was part of an ambitious production programme from J. Arthur Rank to meet an increased quota for British films. His intent was to make 60 over 12 months. [4]

Sid Field's casting was announced in June 1948. [5] He made the movie after a six-month tour of the US. Field's first film, London Town , had been a big flop but his popularity on stage encouraged Rank to try him again in films. [6]

Pat Roc was meant to play the role of Nell Gwynn but reportedly turned it down and was replaced by Margaret Lockwood, who was keen to play comedy again after making a number of dramas. [7] [8] Field's son was born during filming on 5 August. [9]

Filming started in June 1948. It was made at Denham Studios. Production of the film was interrupted by a strike from crew members in protest over recent sackings of film workers. [10] Cast member Alfie Dean died as the result of an off-set accident during the period of filming. [11]

Filming ended in January 1949. [12] Lockwood wrote in her memoirs that "we had a romp of a time with Sid Field." [13]

Reception

The film was a critical and box-office disappointment.

"I was terribly distressed when I read the press notices of the film", wrote Lockwood. [14]

Some reviews have been much more positive. The critic Derek Winnert noted that the film was "well timed, sprightly and funny, and exuberantly played by a welcome vintage cast, as well as amusingly written by Noel Langley and nicely directed by the comedy expert Forde." [15] Variety spoke of Langley's script "blend[ing] comedy, bathos and sheer slapstick with skill and ingenuity" and also highlighted Lockwood as playing her role with "great gusto...verve and vivacity". [16]

The film was banned in Syria in 1953. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sid Field</span> English comedian (1904–1950)

Sidney Arthur Field was an English comedy entertainer who was popular in the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Wilding</span> English actor

Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950); and he guest starred on Hitchcock's TV show in 1963. He was married four times, including to Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he had two sons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Lockwood</span> British stage and film actress

Margaret Mary Day Lockwood, CBE, was an English actress. One of Britain's most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, her film appearances included The Lady Vanishes (1938), Night Train to Munich (1940), The Man in Grey (1943), and The Wicked Lady (1945). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress for the 1955 film Cast a Dark Shadow. She also starred in the television series Justice (1971–74).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude Hulbert</span> English actor (1900–1964)

Claude Noel Hulbert was a mid-20th century English stage, radio and cinema comic actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Kent</span> English actress

Jean Kent, born Joan Mildred Field was an English film and television actress.

Arthur Crabtree was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthur Askey and several of the Gainsborough Melodramas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Desmonde</span> English actor (1908–1967)

Jerry Desmonde was an English actor and presenter. He is perhaps best known for his work as a comedic foil in duos with Norman Wisdom and Sid Field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Wilcox</span> Film producer and director from Britain

Herbert Sydney Wilcox CBE was a British film producer and director.

Leslie Arliss was an English screenwriter and director. He is best known for his work on the Gainsborough melodramas directing films such as The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady during the 1940s.

<i>The Perfect Woman</i> (1949 film) 1949 British film

The Perfect Woman is a 1949 British farce comedy film directed by Bernard Knowles and written by George Black, Jr and J. B. Boothroyd, based upon a play by Wallace Geoffrey and Basil Mitchell. The screenplay concerns a scientist who creates a robotic woman in his lab.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Roc</span> English actress (1915–2003)

Patricia Roc was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945), though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage (1946). She also appeared in Millions Like Us (1943), Jassy (1945), The Brothers (1947) and When the Bough Breaks (1947).

Adam and Evelyne, released in the U.S. as Adam and Evalyn, is a 1949 romance film starring Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons. Based on a storyline written by Granger and Noel Langley, it was both directed and produced by Harold French. According to Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, the leads suited the stars, as they were romantically involved at the time, despite their age difference. They married the next year.

<i>Bitter Springs</i> (film) 1950 film

Bitter Springs is a 1950 Australian–British film directed by Ralph Smart. An Australian pioneer family leases a piece of land from the government in the Australian outback in 1900 and hires two inexperienced British men as drovers. Problems with local Aboriginal people arise over the possession of a waterhole. Much of the film was shot on location in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia

<i>The Magic Bow</i> 1946 film

The Magic Bow is a 1946 British musical film based on the life and loves of the Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini. It was directed by Bernard Knowles. The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>Jacks the Boy</i> 1932 film

Jack's the Boy is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Francis Lister and Peter Gawthorne. It became well known for its song "The Flies Crawled Up the Window", sung by Hulbert, which was released as a record and proved a major hit. The film was released in the U.S. as Night and Day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Huth</span> British actor and film producer

Harold Huth was a British actor, film director and producer.

<i>Laughing Anne</i> 1953 film by Herbert Wilcox

Laughing Anne is a 1953 British adventure film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Wendell Corey, Margaret Lockwood, Forrest Tucker, and Ronald Shiner. It was adapted from Joseph Conrad's short story, "Because of the Dollars" and from his 1923 two-act play, Laughing Anne. The film was shot at Shepperton Studios outside London. The film's sets were designed by the art director William C. Andrews and costumes were by Elizabeth Haffenden.

<i>Look Before You Love</i> 1948 film

Look Before You Love is a 1948 British drama film directed by Harold Huth and starring Margaret Lockwood, Griffith Jones and Maurice Denham.

John Forde Cazabon was an English actor and stage writer whose career began in Sydney, Australia.

<i>Woman Hater</i> (1948 film) 1948 British film

Woman Hater is a 1948 British romantic comedy film directed by Terence Young and starring Stewart Granger, Edwige Feuillère and Ronald Squire. The screenplay concerns Lord Datchett, who, as a consequence of a bet with his friends, invites a French film star to stay at his house but pretends to be one of his employees while he tries to romance her with the help of his butler. When she discovers his subterfuge, she decides to turn the tables on him.

References

  1. ↑ BFI.org
  2. ↑ "Comedian Sid Field Dies Suddenly". The Advertiser . Vol. 92, no. 28, 494. Adelaide. 4 February 1950. p. 2. Retrieved 26 October 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ "CARDBOARD CAVALIER". The Australian Women's Weekly . Vol. 17, no. 31. 7 January 1950. p. 34. Retrieved 26 October 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ "SIXTY NEW BRITISH FILMS: Programme for Year Beginning October". The Scotsman. Edinburgh, Scotland. 10 June 1948. p. 5.
  5. ↑ "Of Local Origin". New York Times. 23 June 1948. p. 32.
  6. ↑ "Sid Field to make new film". The Sun . No. 2350. Sydney. 25 April 1948. p. 27. Retrieved 26 October 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "Landis Film Shown On Suicide Day". The Mail . Vol. 37, no. 1, 885. Adelaide. 17 July 1948. p. 3 (Sunday Magazine). Retrieved 26 October 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "Talking of TALKIES". Truth . No. 2515. Queensland, Australia. 6 June 1948. p. 20. Retrieved 30 April 2016– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "Rank studios close for holidays". The Mail . Vol. 37, no. 1, 892. Adelaide. 4 September 1948. p. 3 (SUNDAY MAGAZINE). Retrieved 30 April 2016– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "FILM STRIKE". The Sunday Times . Perth. 31 October 1948. p. 12 Section: The Sunday Times Sporting Section. Retrieved 4 March 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ Aaron Neathery, "Who are Collinson and Dean?", The Third Banana, 8 November 2005. Retrieved 22 February 2021
  12. ↑ "SCREEN AND ITS STARS". Warwick Daily News . No. 9177. Queensland, Australia. 3 January 1949. p. 3. Retrieved 30 April 2016– via National Library of Australia.
  13. ↑ Lockwood, Margaret (1955). Lucky Star: The Autobiography of Margaret Lockwood. Odhams Press Limited. p. 143.
  14. ↑ Margaret Lockwood, "Was I Difficult?", Picturegoer, 22 April 1950 p 15
  15. ↑ "Cardboard Cavalier *** (1949 Sid Field, Margaret Lockwood, Mary Clare, Jerry Desmonde, Claude Hulbert, Irene Handl) – Classic Movie Review 8599". www.derekwinnert.com. 17 June 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  16. ↑ https://archive.org/details/variety174-1949-04/page/n6/mode/1up?view=theater, Variety, April 1949. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  17. ↑ "Syria Bans British Film". The Mercury . Vol. CLXXIII, no. 25, 606. Tasmania. 15 January 1953. p. 2. Retrieved 30 April 2016– via National Library of Australia.
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.