London Town (1946)

An aging music hall performer returns to London believing he's the star of a new show. When he discovers that he's only slated to be the understudy, his daughter sabotages the revue's star ... See full summary »

Director:

Wesley Ruggles

Writers:

Val Guest (additional dialogue), Sig Herzig,

Stars:

Sid Field, Greta Gynt, Petula Clark

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sid Field	...	Jerry Sanford
Greta Gynt	...	Mrs. Eve Barry
Petula Clark	...	Peggy Sanford
Kay Kendall	...	Patsy
Sonnie Hale	...	Charlie de Haven
Claude Hulbert	...	Belgrave, Charlie's dresser
Mary Clare	...	Mrs. Gates
Tessie O'Shea	...	Herself
Jerry Desmonde	...	George
Beryl Davis	...	Paula
Scotty McHarg	...	Bill
W.G. Fay	...	Mike
Reginald Purdell	...	Stage Manager
Alfie Dean	...	Heckler
Charles Paton	...	Novelty Shopkeeper

Storyline

An aging music hall performer returns to London believing he's the star of a new show. When he discovers that he's only slated to be the understudy, his daughter sabotages the revue's star in order to get him back into the spotlight.

---

Plot Keywords:

revue | music hall | vaudeville | variety

---

Genres:

Comedy | Musical

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 July 1953 (USA)

Also Known As:

My Heart Goes Crazy

Filming Locations:

River Thames, Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rank Organisation, The, Wesley Ruggles Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was Britain's first major Technicolor musical and also became the most notorious critical and box-office flop of the postwar British cinema and the largest bomb ever for its production company, the famed J. Arthur Rank Organisation.

---

Quotes

Belgrave: [to Peggy] God help the male population when you grow up!

---

Connections

Featured in David Suchet on Sid Field: Last of the Music Hall Heroes (2011)

---

Soundtracks

"Any Way the Wind Blows"
Music by Jimmy Van Heusen
Lyrics by Johnny Burke
Performed by chorus

User Reviews

Charming but pretty bad.

Over here in the UK, we frequently see scenes from this film on programmes like 'heroes of comedy' or 'Music Hall heroes' - that type of thing. The films star, Sid Field was a very popular (and funny) comedian at the tail end of the variety period before TV appeared and very little film of him was made. So the sketches and 'turns' from London Town are shown as an illustration of him in action. We recently bought the DVD of this film purely to see the snatches of Sid Field in action, as we both find him hilarious in a rather old-fashioned and unsophisticated way. What we weren't prepared for was the pure awfulness of the rest of it - the plot is almost non-existent, the writing and script are poor and the direction is all over the place. Happily, Sid Field in full flow makes up for all of this. OK, I admit that someone tripping up on stage is not the height of comedy class, but he does it so well, and the scene with the camera has me hooting with laughter. So three cheers for Sid, a resounding raspberry for the rest of it!