formby oN film
Ukulele player in the "Dinky-Do" concert party
is mistakenly engaged to play in a
broadcasting ships orchestra, who's leader
sends messages, coded in music, over the air
to Nazi U boats preying on Allied convoy
ships. A fantasy scene in which the star
comes to grips personally with Hitler was
regarded, at the time, as one of the major
morale boosters of the war.
The film was a big success in New York and
Moscow, where it had long runs.
Brendan Ryan
A ukulele player accidentally goes to Bergen
instead of Blackpool and is mistaken for a
spy.
Generally thought to be the best George
Formby vehicle, with plenty of pace, good
situations, and catchy tunes.
Leslie Halliwell's Film Guide
This is it! For me, the best of the bunch. Four
brilliant songs and some sinister Nazis for
George to vanquish - he even treats Hitler to
a taste of the Formby knuckle!
From the start of the film in the blacked out
railway station to the overnight crossing on
the Bergen boat, there is always plenty of
action. and the plot never sags. Interest is
maintanied throughout the film. and then to
cap it all, George makes the trip home via a
submarine torpedo tube!
They don't make 'em like this anymore!
The "catchy tunes" as Leslie Halliwell calls
them are actually all classic Formby songs.
Peter Pollard
This is generally considered George's best
picture, and rightly so - it is the greatest
wartime comedy-thriller.
The film is perfectly written, with plenty of
action for George to get his teeth into, and to
see his comic bumbling and slapstick set right
in the midst of a deadly raging war makes the
comedy more effective than ever.
The scene in which George comes face to
face with Hitler is probably the most famous
moment in any Formby film.
Gary Marsh gives a fine performance playing
Mendez, as does Phyllis Calvert as Mary, but
perhaps the most outstanding feature of this
film is the music - the songs are first class.
The superb, lavishly extended arrangement of
"Count Your Blessings and Smile" really
brings home George's optimistic message
which was badly needed in 1940, but is
equally important today!
Andy Eastwood
LET GEORGE DO IT
USA title: "To Hell With Hitler"
USSR title: "Dinky Do"
Australian title: "Gunner George"
Danish title: George Always Copes"
Ealing/ABFD
Writers: John Dighton, Austin Melford, Angus MacPhail, Basil
Deardon
Producers: Michael Balcon & Basil Deardon
Director: Marcel Varnel
Trade Show: March 6th 1940, Released on: November 11th 1940
Runtime 79 minutes
CAST:
George Formby, Phyllis Calvert, Garry Marsh, Romney Brent, Coral
Browne, Diana Beaumont, Torin Thatcher, Hal Gordon, Donald
Calthorp
SONGS:
Mr Wu's A Window Cleaner Now (Formby/Gifford/Cliffe)
Grandad's Flannelette Nightshirt (Formby/Latta)
Count Your Blessings And Smile (Formby/Gifford/Cliffe)
Oh! Don't The Wind Blow Cold (Formby/Gifford/Cliffe)
Considering the fact that these are dolorous days in England, "Let George Do
It," now at the Globe, is something of a phenomenon, interesting not so much
as entertainment as evidence of the Britisher's incorrigible "thumbs up"
attitude in the face of mortal danger. As a screwball antic of a goofy ukulele
player who, by a prank of fate in a blacked-out London railway station,
suddenly finds himself chasing German spies in Norway, this British
importation is ragged farce, more mad than gay. But the surprising thing is
that it was attempted at all.
As crazily contrived as a Rube Goldberg invention, it is the tale of the hapless
troubadour who embarks for an engagement in Black-pool, but arrives in
Bergen instead, to be greeted as a member of the British espionage. Installed
as stool-pigeon in an orchestra led by the head of the German spy ring,
timorous George eventually unmasks the villain and the means by which he
transmits to waiting submarines the positions of British merchantmen, but not
until he has been subjected to the blandishments of a woman spy, plowed
through the dough of a bakery in search of a lost code and descended in an
enemy submarine, from which he is ejected via the torpedo tube.
The case is somewhat brightened by the presence of George Formby in the
role of the unheroic hero, but most of the scenes have only a sporadic humor
as if the cast and director were half-listening for air-raid sirens at any
moment. Besides, to most Americans with memories of the Harold Lloyd
epics, this sort of comedy is apt to seem dated—or is it simply that only the
English, also incorrigible in their sense of humor, can laugh at their own
jokes?
The New York Times
Published: October 14, 1940