Lucky Jim (1957)

Jim Dixon feels anything but lucky. At the university he has to do the bidding of absent-minded and boring Professor Welch to have any hope of keeping his job. Worse, he has managed to get ... See full summary »

Director:

John Boulting

Writers:

Kingsley Amis (novel), Patrick Campbell (screenplay),

Stars:

Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Hugh Griffith

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ian Carmichael	...	Jim Dixon
Terry-Thomas	...	Bertrand Welch
Hugh Griffith	...	Professor Welch
Sharon Acker	...	Christine Callaghan
Jean Anderson	...	Mrs. Welch
Maureen Connell	...	Margaret Peel
Clive Morton	...	Sir Hector Gore-Urquhart
John Welsh	...	The Principal
Reginald Beckwith	...	University Porter
Kenneth Griffith	...	Cyril Johns
Jeremy Hawk	...	Bill Atkinson
Ronald Cardew	...	Registrar
Penny Morrell	...	Miss Wilson
John Cairney	...	Roberts
Ian Wilson	...	Glee Singer

Storyline

Jim Dixon feels anything but lucky. At the university he has to do the bidding of absent-minded and boring Professor Welch to have any hope of keeping his job. Worse, he has managed to get entangled with unexciting but neurotic Margaret Peel, a friend of the Professor's. All-in-all, the pub is the only friendly place to be. His misery is completed at a dreadful weekend gathering of the Welch clan by the arrival of son Bertrand. Not so much that Betrand is loud-mouthed and boorish - which he is - but that he has as companion Christine Callaghan, the sort of marvellous and unattainable woman Jim can only dream about.

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Plot Keywords:

based on book | based on novel

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Taglines:

A Rollicking Lampoon of University (High) Life!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 1957 (UK)

Also Known As:

O tyherakias

Filming Locations:

MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Charter Film Productions, Boulting Brothers, British Lion Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ian Carmichael was 37, playing a 24-year-old.

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Soundtracks

"Lucky Jim"
Sung by Al Fernhead
By Fred V. Bowers and Charles Horwitz

User Reviews

The material lacks laughs and bite leaving a plot that not even the names involved can do anything with

Jim Dixon works in that most protected of places – a redbrick university! However his natural laziness and clumsiness sees him forced to keep in the favour of the dull and absentminded Professor Welch in order to protect his job. With his natural affinity for bad luck, Jim struggles to find a quiet life and a unwanted romance with Margaret (the professor's friend) just make things more difficult. Things get worse when he is put in charge of organising things for the new chancellor but Welch's son arrives in the company of a beautiful young woman, Christine, who Jim finds very attractive but totally unattainable.

With people like the Boutling brothers, Carmichael and Thomas involved I was definitely going to watch this film when they showed it last week as part of the normal cycle of black & white films on daytime TV afternoons, however I must admit not to be entirely won over by this. I have not read the book on which this is based, but I am told that it is a great deal sharper than this film, not a surprise since the film surprised me by having absolutely no satirical edge to it whatsoever and instead seemed to be aiming to be a vague farce. The plot has no sharp edges to it and it only has a very basic sense of humour that involves more pratfalls than witty dialogue and, as a result, I found little here that I actually cared enough about to get into the film. The laughs weren't forthcoming, the plot was rather shallow and uninteresting and the characters were thin.

With all these problems it is no real surprise that even the talent in this cast struggle to make anything of it. Carmichael plays it all too foppish and clumsy and he never really gets a character out of the film. Even Terry Thomas seems unsure of what he is supposed to be doing with this stuff and he doesn't make any memorable impact. Acker is very pretty and Griffith is suitable cast but generally the cast are let down by the material.

Overall this is an average film that doesn't compare to the many better films that the main cast members, producer and director have all done. Usually I would say that any film with these people involved would be worth seeing but unfortunately I can say it about this outing.