Jack's the Boy

Last updated

Jack's the Boy
Jack's the Boy (1932 film).jpg
Opening title card
Directed by Walter Forde
Written by W. P. Lipscomb
Sidney Gilliat
Based ona story by Jack Hulbert
Douglas Furber
Produced by Michael Balcon
Starring Jack Hulbert
Cicely Courtneidge
Peter Gawthorne
Cinematography Leslie Rowson
Edited by Ian Dalrymple
John Goldman
Music by Vivian Ellis
Jack Beaver
Lyrics:
Douglas Furber
Musical director:
Louis Levy
Production
company
Distributed by Gaumont British
Release date
  • June 1932 (1932-06)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

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. [1] 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. [2] [3] The film was released in the U.S. as Night and Day. [4]

Contents

Plot

Policeman Jack (Jack Hulbert) attempts to track down a gang responsible for a smash and grab raid, thereby proving his worth to his disapproving father (Peter Gawthorne), a Scotland Yard detective.

Cast

Reception

The film was voted the fourth best British movie of 1932. [5]

British Pictures wrote, "As entertainment, it's curious. Hulbert and Courtneidge clown about nicely but it's hard to see how this film was one of the biggest hits of its year (big enough to be the punchline of a comic song in the following year's The Good Companions ). Opportunities for them to "do their stuff" are poked into the narrative in the oddest places. They search a thief's flat and spontaneously break into a silly dance. It would be charming if it wasn't so bloody irritating. Perhaps the most interesting bits of the film now are the sequences filmed on location both on the streets of London and in Madame Tussauds (though you have to doubt the effectiveness of any film chase sequence in which you get more interested in the passing billboards than the action). All in all, it's a film which has dated badly and which doesn't show off the stars to their best advantage"; [6] while TV Guide wrote that though the "Dialog drags a bit, as though it's being read for the stage. Hulbert saves his performance with a lot of likable charm"; [4] and AllMovie called it a "breezy quota quickie", concluding that "Matching Jack Hulbert laugh for laugh is his wife and longtime stage partner Cicely Courteneidge"; [7] and Screenonline noted that "Jack's the Boy is acknowledged as one of the team's best films." [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>The L-Shaped Room</i> 1962 British film

The L-Shaped Room is a 1962 British drama romance film directed by Bryan Forbes, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Lynne Reid Banks. It tells the story of Jane Fosset, a young French woman, unmarried and pregnant, who moves into a cheap London boarding house, befriending a young man, Toby, in the building. The work is considered part of the kitchen sink realism school of British drama. The film reflected a trend in British films of greater frankness about sex and displays a sympathetic treatment of outsiders "unmarried mothers, lesbian or black" as well as a "largely natural and non-judgmental handling of their problems". As director, Forbes represents "a more romantic, wistful type of realism" than that of Tony Richardson or Lindsay Anderson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Stevenson (filmmaker)</span> British-American film director (1905–1986)

Robert Edward Stevenson was a British-American screenwriter and film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cicely Courtneidge</span> British actress (1893–1980)

Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge, was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Hulbert</span> British actor, director, screenwriter and singer(1892–1978)

John Norman Hulbert was a British actor, director, screenwriter and singer, specializing primarily in comedy productions, and often working alongside his wife (Dame) Cicely Courtneidge.

<i>Not Now, Darling</i> (film) 1973 British film by Ray Cooney and David Croft

Not Now, Darling is a 1973 British comedy film directed by Ray Cooney and David Croft and starring Trudi Van Doorn, Leslie Phillips and Julie Ege. It was adapted from the 1967 play of the same title by John Chapman and Ray Cooney. The film is a farce centred on a shop in London that sells fur coats. A loosely related sequel Not Now, Comrade was released in 1976.

Peter Gawthorne was an Anglo-Irish actor, probably best known for his roles in the films of Will Hay and other popular British comedians of the 1930s and 1940s. Gawthorne was one of Britain's most called-upon supporting actors during this period.

Walter Forde was a British actor, screenwriter and director. Born in Lambeth, South London in 1898, he directed over fifty films between 1919 from the silent era through to 1949 in the sound era. He died in Los Angeles, California in 1984.

<i>Under Your Hat</i> 1940 British film

Under Your Hat is a 1940 British musical comedy spy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge and Austin Trevor.

Happy Ever After is a 1932 British-German musical film directed by Paul Martin and Robert Stevenson, and starring Lilian Harvey, Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Sonnie Hale, and Edward Chapman.

<i>Me and Marlborough</i> 1935 film

Me and Marlborough is a 1935 British comedy film, directed by Victor Saville, and starring Cicely Courtneidge, Tom Walls, Barry MacKay, Peter Gawthorne, Henry Oscar and Cecil Parker.

<i>Jack Ahoy</i> 1934 British film

Jack Ahoy is a 1934 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Jack Hulbert, Nancy O'Neil, Alfred Drayton and Sam Wilkinson. Its plot follows a humble seaman who falls in love with an Admiral's daughter whilst trying to battle Chinese pirates. The film was loosely remade in 1954 as Up to His Neck.

<i>Falling for You</i> (film) 1933 British comedy film

Falling for You is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and Jack Hulbert, and starring Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge.

<i>Everybody Dance</i> (film) 1936 British film

Everybody Dance is a 1936 British musical film directed by Charles Reisner and starring Cicely Courtneidge, Ernest Truex, Percy Parsons and Alma Taylor. The film's sets were designed by Alex Vetchinsky. It was made at Islington Studios.

<i>Love on Wheels</i> 1932 film

Love on Wheels is a 1932 British musical comedy film directed by Victor Saville and starring Jack Hulbert, Gordon Harker, Edmund Gwenn and Leonora Corbett.

<i>Take My Tip</i> 1937 British film

Take My Tip is a 1937 British musical comedy film directed by Herbert Mason, produced by Michael Balcon and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Harold Huth and Frank Cellier.

Sailors Three is a 1940 British war comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert and Carla Lehmann. This was cockney music hall comedian Trinder's debut for Ealing, the studio with which he was to become most closely associated. It concerns three British sailors who accidentally find themselves aboard a German ship during the Second World War.

<i>Miss Tulip Stays the Night</i> 1955 British film

Miss Tulip Stays the Night is a 1955 British comedy crime film starring Diana Dors, Patrick Holt, Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge. It was the last major feature film directed by Leslie Arliss. The screenplay concerns a crime writer and his wife who stay at a country house where a mysterious corpse appears.

<i>The Spiders Web</i> (1960 film) 1960 British film by Godfrey Grayson

The Spider's Web is a 1960 British mystery film directed by Godfrey Grayson and starring Glynis Johns, John Justin, Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert. It is an adaptation of the 1954 play Spider's Web by Agatha Christie, and a rare Technicolor 'A' feature from the Danzigers. It was remade as a television special starring Penelope Keith that was broadcast on 26 December 1982.

<i>The Ghost Train</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

The Ghost Train is a 1931 British comedy thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge and Ann Todd. It is based on the play The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley. The film's art direction was by Walter Murton.

<i>Soldiers of the King</i> (film) 1933 British film

Soldiers of the King is a 1933 British historical comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Cicely Courtneidge, Edward Everett Horton and Anthony Bushell. It was Courtneidge's fourth film, and the first she appeared in without her husband Jack Hulbert. Courtneidge plays the matriarch of a music hall family, in a plot that switches between the Victorian era and the 1930s present.

References

  1. "Jack's the Boy (1932)". Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
  2. Mundy, John (15 July 2007). The British Musical Film. Manchester University Press. ISBN   9780719063213 via Google Books.
  3. "JACK'S THE BOY". Library of Congress .
  4. 1 2 "Night And Day". TVGuide.com.
  5. ""SUNSHINE SUSIE"". The Daily News (HOME ed.). Perth. 19 August 1933. p. 19. Retrieved 4 March 2013 via National Library of Australia.
  6. Absalom, David. "ARCHIVE J – Ja: British Films of the 30s, 1940s and 1950s". www.britishpictures.com.
  7. "Jack's The Boy (1932) – Walter Forde – Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie.
  8. "BFI Screenonline: Jack's the Boy (1932)". www.screenonline.org.uk.