Own the rights?
Until now, I had only been familiar with British comedian George Formby via a long-ago Italian TV viewing of IT'S IN THE AIR (1938); having recently acquired his entire output on 6 DVDs, I opted to get to know him all over again by way of that vehicle generally considered to be his best. While it is not exactly side-splitting and the star himself a simpleton in the vein of the later Norman Wisdom (though not as raucous or sentimental), the film nevertheless manages to elicit considerable excitement and suspense – a' la Alfred Hitchcock's seminal British thrillers of the 1930s – from its WWII espionage plot; with this in mind, the end result compares favorably with the equivalent Hollywood product. Incidentally, this was a milieu in which virtually all comedians would operate at one time or another: in the case of Britain, we not only got Formby contemporaries such as The Crazy Gang's GASBAGS (1941) and Will Hay's THE GOOSE STEPS OUT (1942) but Wisdom himself, whose most satisfying effort for me personally was THE SQUARE PEG (1958). Of course, Formby was equally well-known for his amiable ukulele-playing (showcased here in a number of passable songs); typical of this kind of film, then, his character is mistaken for a spy (by both sides) but invariably proves his mettle and eventually foils the villains (with the help of a pretty heroine). The latter is played by Phyllis Calvert, while a very young Coral Browne is the obligatory femme fatale; also in the cast are Bernard Lee as the male member of a couple whom George is forever running into, causing no end of trouble in the process, and Torin Thatcher as the captain of the U-boat on which George finally stows away (and is shot out of like a torpedo!). As I said, the film is filled with several tried-and-true, yet wholly delightful, thriller elements: coded messages passed via musical notes, the murder during a recital, and the climactic race-against-time to avert a disaster at sea. To get back to the star's comedy routines, the scene inside the bakery is a bit labored but the dream sequence – culminating with George parachuting into Germany, disrupting a Nazi rally and beating up the Fuehrer! – is truly inspired (for the record, the script was co-written by distinguished future director Basil Dearden).
You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.
