South American George (1941) User Reviews

Hoarse Opera

[Spondonman · 7/10 · 13 April 2008]

This was George's first film for Columbia GB after 5 years with ATBP but even with the move from Ealing to Elstree the formula the plot and the cast were reassuringly familiar. Some would say the songs too!

In here though he gets his one and only chance to play 2 roles: Gilli Vannetti the renowned South American tenor and George Butters the unrenowned Northern chap looking for a job. Vannetti departs for Los Palmas in breach of his contract while Linden Travers finds that when George's hair curls he looks just like Vannetti, so a substitution takes place and thus begin their attempts to prevent impresario Ricardo from sacking him. This means also pretending Vannetti has laryngitis so George's Lankey accent won't give the game away. Jacques Brown has some of the funniest lines playing the apoplectic impresario – I certainly wouldn't argue with him that he was entitled to think Vannetti a Stinkeroo! Ronald Shiner and Alf Goddard delightfully play Swifty and Slappy, a pair of laconic cartoony hoodlums who consider themselves honour bound to liquidate Vannetti for Ricardo any way they can. And does George get the girl, even though she has more brains and breeding than usual – "You're the biggest little man I've ever met" is a clue. Songs were Barmaid At The Rose & Crown (to her anger), a rousing Swing Mama (at the very lively Actors' Benovolent Home), I'd Do It With A Smile (crooned to Carol in Vannetti's flat) and My Spanish Guitar (on stage, after the jig was up). Favourite bits: Shiner's and Brown's witticisms; wanting a P when putting up the theatre sign.

It's slightly longer than usual but as well filled out as Rosie at the Rose & Crown and the usual treat for Formby fans.

Looking Like Yourself

[boblipton · 7/10 · 23 June 2006]

This typical farce plot -- easygoing George gets his hair marcelled and looks exactly like a South American opera singer, also played by George -- does not sound like Mr. Formby's usual métier, but he shows himself capable of carrying out the minor exigencies of the role, while singing a few nice songs, a typical "The Barmaid at the Rose & Crown" and a less typical swing song.

Under the direction of farce director Marcel Varnel, George does a lot more shtick than in his usual vehicles, but it is well within his abilities.

His leading lady is Linden Travers, best remembered for her supporting role in THE LADY VANISHES. She performs nicely, but except for George and Felix Aylmer in a small supporting role, it's an unremarkable series of performances. This is not to be sneered at: it is a star vehicle for George, and his usual charm is on full display.

George expands his repertoire in dual roles

[vampire_hounddog · 5/10 · 21 August 2020]

An unsuccessful singer and actor (George Formby) is persuaded to pose as a flamboyant latino opera singer (also Formby, but with curly greased hair and a pencil tash) whom he strongly resembles and is having trouble with his management.

Not among the best of Formby's vehicles, having lost some of their comic edge once he moved over to Columbia Pictures, a decision he did come to regret. This was the first of seven pictures he made for Columbia. The real highlight is the song he sings in a pub: 'The Barmaid at the Rose and Crown'.

A mixed bag! But a glimpse of the real man behind the make-up!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 5 October 2017]

Not copyrighted in the U.S.A. by Columbia British Productions. U.K. release through Columbia: 27 December 1941. Australian release through Columbia: 22 October 1942. 8,552 feet. 95 minutes. U.K. length: 92 minutes. (The cut U.K. version is available on an otherwise excellent – except for an image break-up at the climax – Sony DVD).

SYNOPSIS: An unpopular South American tenor plays to a London theater packed with paper. His manager seeks various ways to break his contract, but a perky little down-and-out who is a dead ringer for the tenor thwarts all the manager's stratagems.

COMMENT: George's first film for Columbia is an odd vehicle that is only intermittently successful. The script seems to have been made up on the run. George plays two roles. At first we find him in his usual comic guise as he tries to round up a few shillings by singing the typically catchy "The Barmaid at the Rose and Crown" (much to her annoyance). Then he disrupts a stage performance by dropping his musket and literally runs into our lovely heroine, Linden Travers. At this point, a great deal of the action is now transferred away from George to Jacques Brown as the tenor's manager and Felix Aylmer, his lawyer. Some of this speechifying is boring, some of it is quite funny (especially the bit with the actor who is not used to working without a script and the later scenes with breezy Ronald Shiner and brain-dead Alf Goddard).

At this stage, someone at Columbia no doubt realized that Formby was being pushed to the sidelines. Austin Melford was brought in to beef up his role and no doubt had the bright idea of borrowing Jiminy Cricket from Walt Disney's 1940 Pinocchio. We don't actually see Jiminy, of course. Instead Formby himself voices his Voice of Conscience. Then there is an amazing scene (if a brief one) with Enid Stamp Taylor in which George is made up to impersonate the missing tenor. This is the only time George ever played a character role on the screen and the only time he was ever photographed (aside from an inside joke appearance in "We'll Meet Again") without his usual make-up.

Indeed, instead of disguising himself as Gilli Vanetti, he simply doffs his disguise as George Formby. True, he has curled his hair (which may have been his practice in real life), but he has removed his false teeth and false nose, is keeping his mouth closed and his eyes open, and is standing up straight. So for this one brief scene we have a glimpse of George as he really was. This departure obviously didn't sit too well with the brass at Columbia. When Vanetti re-appears at the climax, this time he is made up (and costumed) as a dead ringer for George Formby!

As I said, "South American George" is a mixed bag. Certainly it's essential viewing for Formby fans. It would be wrong to say it doesn't work on the whole. It works intermittently. There are probably more misfires (Herbert Lomas is wasted as Formby's dad; Brown takes up far too much footage; "Jiminy Cricket" is a bore; and aside from "The Barmaid", the songs are nowhere in the "Mr Wu" class) than fires (Linden Travers makes a really lovely heroine), but as the first movie at a new studio, maybe we can forgive experimenting and mistakes. Especially when those experiments give us a glimpse of the real man behind the make-up!

Not one of his best

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 5 April 2015]

George Formby signed for Columbia British for more money and more say in production but somehow it did not work out.This film is overlong at 88 minutes and is a rehash of jokes used to better effect in better films.The miming to opera routine had already been flogged to death.the Crazy Gang used it to much better effect in "Alfs Button Afloat".Much of the gags in the opera seem to have come from the classic "A Night At The Opera".Alas Formby,even with curly hair is no Harpo Marx.His songs are tuneful but totally unmemorable.He doesn't get to kiss his love interest at the fade out,clearly Beryl was on the set that day!.This all segued into the fade out of his film career 5 years later.