The Boulting Brothers remembered: Lucky Jim - 1957

Kingsley Amis' best-selling novel Lucky Jim, about a junior history professor at a redbrick university, was first published in 1954. Its hero, Jim Dixon, predates such 'angry young men' as Jimmy Porter (Look Back in Anger, first performed 1956) and Joe Lampton (Room at the Top, published 1957). By the time the Boulting Brothers came to film Lucky Jim, however, the 'new wave' in British culture had made an indelible impression. Both Amis' novel and their own films, following the excellent reaction to their satirical look at army life in Private's Progress (1956), could be seen, if not wholly accurately, as a part of this breakthrough.

The Jim Dixon of the film is without doubt a rebel. Our first sight of him is lying in bed smoking, when he should be at a meeting. On the wall by his bed is a girlie pin-up; on the opposite one a drawing of his departmental head, Professor Welch, at which he is throwing darts. His methods, encouraging students to question received wisdom, bring him into conflict with his stuffy, tradition-bound seniors, who are as rooted in the past as the subject they teach: Welch at one point picks up the telephone and says, sonorously, "History speaking".

The overall impression, though, is that neither the Boultings nor Ian Carmichael, making his third appearance as their lead actor, were quite sure how far to categorise Jim as an 'angry young man'. Sometimes he seems like a breath of fresh air in an antiquated world of academic and social rituals; sometimes like a risible fish out of water. Carmichael's performance likewise veers from the breezy, if guileless, impudence of, for example, a Tom Courtenay characterisation, to his own hapless Stanley Windrush persona from Private's Progress (and later I'm All Right Jack, 1959).

As in other Boulting Brothers comedies, there is much broad humour among the jibes, including slapstick fights, drunk scenes and a chase finale. Yet the mix here is less successful than elsewhere in their work, and for once the policy of taking pot shots at both sides does not quite come off. The general inconsistency of tone may stem from the somewhat ambivalent relationship of Amis' novel to the 'new wave'. Perhaps, too, the academic environment is just too rarefied, too unrelated to a recognisable outside world, to be satirically relevant.

THE

MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN

Published by

THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

Volume 24, No.286, November 1957, page 135

LUCKY JIM (1957)

Jim Dixon, junior history lecturer at a provincial university, is bored with the frustrations of his job and affronted by the atmosphere of sham culture with which Professor Welch, head of the history department, smugly surrounds himself. Visiting Welch's house for the weekend, Jim quarrels with his son Bertrand, an arrogant pseudo-intellectual; falls in love with Christine, Bertrand's fiancée; escapes with difficulty from Margaret Peel, a neurotic and clinging colleague; and further damages his relations with the Welches by burning large holes in his bedclothes with a cigarette end. Further moderately disastrous incidents follow, including the wrecking of a ceremonial university occasion and culminating in Jim's delivery of a public lecture for which he is instructed to base his text on Welch's book Merrie England. Preparing for the ordeal on whisky and tranquillisers, Jim drunkenly attempts to indicate his real contempt for this theme to the audience, then collapses on the platform. His resignation is immediately demanded. Jim is rescued, however, by Christine's industrialist uncle, who offers him a job in London; and he finally wins Christine herself from Bertrand.

Kingsley Amis's novel was a tough, funny and irascible piece of contemporary social comedy. The Boulting brothers' screen version broadens the comedy into farce, introduces a few elements of its own (a final slapstick car chase, a solemn boxer dog), and turns the whole thing into an amiable joke in the line of Private's Progress and Brothers in Law. The characters have lost contact with Redbrick reality (compare, for instance, Jim's relationship with Margaret Peel in the novel and film) and in the process the book's social satire has been jettisoned. Lucky Jim has become broader, milder and softer; from the screen version, with its thoroughly traditional humours, one would never suspect that the novel had become the symbol of a new movement in English fiction.

There are moments during the disastrous weekend at the Welches and the alcoholic defiance of the Merrie England lecture which come within striking distance of the mood of the original. Too often, though, potentially comic scenes are spoilt by faulty timing, a determination to hammer home the joke and play for an easy laugh. This also affects the performances. As Jim Dixon, Ian Carmichael remains the amiable, likeable light comedian of the other Boulting comedies; funny enough in his own right, he scarcely suggests Amis's hero. Terry-Thomas makes heavy weather of the fatuous Bertrand, a thorough-going piece of caricature; and Sharon Acker is a guileless and ingenuous heroine.

---

The Monthly Film Bulletin was published by the British Film Institute between 1934 and 1991. Initially aimed at distributors and exhibitors as well as filmgoers, it carried reviews and details of all UK film releases. In 1991, the Bulletin was absorbed by Sight and Sound magazine.

The Arabian Knights - Episode One

The Arabian Knights was a core cartoon of the Banana Splits. It was a time of magic and mystery and concerned the adventures of a group of rebels who were trying to overthrow a tyrant, free the people and bring truth and justice for all.

The Main Characters:

Prince Turhan

Princess Nida

Fariek (?) the Magician

Rasime (?) the Great

Bez - Size of a.....

Zazuum the Donkey

Bakaar the evil Sultan

Episode 1

In the very first episode the city of Baghdad was ruled by a young Prince called Turhan. His city is taken from him by the the evil Sultan Bakaar and his loyal big bad guy Vangar (spelling may be incorrect here). Turhan escapes from the city with the help of a magician called Fariek who changes them both to blue wisps of smoke. They then make their escape via a flying low table - Fariek was fresh out of carpets.

After escaping the baddy guards once more the pair find themselves in a vast cave where they are met by an unfriendly colossus called Rasime the Great. He is a huge man with elephant like strength. After first being hostile to the pair he soon becomes friends when he finds out that they are enemies of the Sultan Bakaar. All three decide to try and find Turhan's cousin Princess Nida and his Uncle the Kalif. They travel to the city on a small donkey called Zazuum. On this journey we find out that Zazuum's tail must not be pulled as he goes berserk and becomes a small tornado. They arrive at the city to find both are prisoners of the Sultan. The Princess is being sold in the market but is quickly rescued. The four find themselves trapped by guards but are rescued by a new friend called Bez. Bez has the ability to change shape into any animal. He transforms himself into an elephant and so the five escape the guards. As Zazuum tries to escape a guard grabs his tail and what a mistake that was.

Remembering Stanley Holloway - 1890 - 1982

One of the best-loved British entertainers of the 20th century, Stanley Holloway first trained for opera, then, post-World War I infantry service, became a seaside concert artist and music hall performer, making his London stage debut in 1919, enduringly famous for his classic monologue, "Albert and the Lion".

He made one silent film, The Rotters (d. A.V. Bramble, 1921), but entered films in earnest in the 1930s, revealing a huge demotic appeal that was noticeable in an essentially middle-class cinema.

His first talkie was a film version of his concert-party revue, The Co-Optimists (d. Edwin Greenwood, 1929), and some of his other 1930s movies enabled him to film his famous monologues (e.g., the animated films Sam and His Musket and Drummed Out, both d. Anson Dyer, 1935), but his real fame as a character star came in the 1940s.

He brings a bluff lower-middle to middle-class solidity and authenticity to such roles as the former Parliament House stoker in The Way Ahead (d. Carol Reed, 1944), the next-door neighbour in This Happy Breed (d. David Lean, 1944), the police sergeant in Wanted for Murder (d. Lawrence Huntington, 1946), the bottom-smacking porter in Brief Encounter (d. David Lean, 1945), the shopkeeper-councillor in Passport to Pimlico (d. Henry Cornelius, 1949), Alec Guinness's souvenir-making colleague ("Anne 'athaway cottages for string") in The Lavender Hill Mob (d. Charles Crichton, 1951), the embattled householder in The Happy Family (d. Muriel Box, 1952), the turning-worm husband in Meet Me Tonight (d. Anthony Pélissier, 1952, "Fumed Oak" episode), the true Labour man who tells MP Peter Finch "You learnt the words but not the music" in No Love for Johnnie (d. Ralph Thomas, 1961) - and so on.

As well, there are cherishable breaks with realism in, say, his Vincent Crummles in Nicholas Nickleby (d. Cavalcanti, 1947) and the Gravedigger in Hamlet (d. Laurence Olivier, 1948).

And, for many people, the crowning achievement of a great career was his originating of Doolittle in My Fair Lady (US, d. George Cukor, 1964), his famous song from which, "Wiv a little bit of luck", provided the title for his 1969 autobiography. By then, he'd become an institution on stage, screen and TV. He was the father of Julian Holloway.

World War II documentaries

When World War 2 started in 1939, Holloway was 49 and deemed too old to be sent on active service, so he decided to make his contribution in boosting morale for Britain in short propaganda pieces on behalf of the British Film Institute and Pathe News. He would narrate documentaries on behalf of film makers on subjects which were aimed at lifting morale in a war-torn Britain. So successful were these that he used his character's "Sam Small" and "Albert Ramsbottom" in a few pieces including "Albert's savings", written by Marriott Edgar and "Albert Evacuated". At the start of the war, Holloway became one of a list of actors, including Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, John Gielgud and Noel Coward, who would regularly narrate morale campaigns for the family of serviceman at home in Britain, while their loved ones fought the war abroad. The stories were written by a host of poets and writers who included Arthur Koestler, Rudyard Kipling, E.M Forster and Marriott Edgar. Holloway's stories included;

• Albert's Savings - an 'Albert'-style monologue which instilled the nation of the importance of investing in Savings Certificates for the war effort, in a script written by Marriott Edgar in (1940)

• Worker And Warfront No.8 - About a worker who was to scared to get his wounds checked - and who then contracts blood poisoning in a script written by E.C Bentley in (1943)

These were later compiled into a DVD entitled 'Britain's Home Front At War: Words For Battle.

Post-war and into the 1950s, he was approached by Warner Bros, who were the new owners of Pathe News, and was asked to record several morale-boosting documentaries in a series called "Time To Remember", where he narrated over old news reels from significant dates in history. These included:

• Your country needs you! depicted 1915 - which looked at the training of Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener volunteer army.

• The better 'OLE depicted 1916 - which both looked at life in the trenches, and viewed coverage of the Eastern, Western and Home fronts abroad during World War 1

• Enough of Everything depicted 1917 - which looked back at the Russian Revolution, the US entry into the War and women at work.

• Short Sharp Shower depicted 1926 - which touched on the events of 1926 including the General Strike, international politics, weather, record breaking feats, the death of Rudolph Valentino and life in post war Britain.

• The end of the Beginning depicted 1942 - which was about the events of 1942 and America's entry into World War II.

Personal life

• 

• Holloway was married twice, the first being to Alice 'Queenie' Foran. They had met in June 1913 in Clacton - On - Sea, while he was performing in a concert party and she was selling charity flags on behalf of the RNLI. Queenie was orphaned at the age of 16, something which Holloway felt he and Queenie had in common, as his mother had died that year and his father had seemingly disowned him and his sister Millie. He married Queenie in November 1913.

  They had four children: Joan, born on Stanley's 24th birthday in 1914, Patricia (b. 1920), John (b. 1925) and Mary (b. 1928). Years previously, Queenie had inherited some property in Southampton Row, London from her wealthy mother and upon her death in 1908, she would receive regular payments from the tenants who lived there During the First World War, while Holloway was away fighting in France, Queenie began to have money troubles as the tenants' cheques were not being received. Out of desperation, she approached several loan sharks in order to survive, thus incurring a huge debt about which Holloway knew nothing. By this time she had started to drink heavily, as the pressures from the war and being a lone parent with virtually no money had taken its toll. Upon Holloway's return from the war, the debt was paid off and they lived semi-happily until Queenie's death in 1937, at age 45, from Cirrhosis of the Liver

  Little is known about the children from his first marriage, although it is known that his youngest daughter Mary worked for British Petroleum for many years and elder son John worked as an engineer in an electrics company.

  Later life and death

  Holloway was still performing well into his 80s, touring Asia and Australia in 1977 with the Pleasure of His Company, a Noel Coward tribute show, and made his last appearance performing at the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium in 1980 aged 89. He died of a stroke 18 months later at the Nightingale Nursing Home in Littlehampton, Sussex, on 30 January 1982, aged 91. He is buried along with his wife Violet, at St. Mary the Virgin Church in East Preston, West Sussex.

  

  ( Stanley Holloway with wife Violet and Son Julian arriving at an American Airport in 1962)

Corrie at 50! The musings of Mavis -Remembering Thelma Barlow.

Over the course of the past half decade Coronation Street has delighted in serving up some of the greatest double acts ever to grace the small screen. Mavis Wilton (nee Riley) was one half of the funniest and warmest double acts during the Street's past fifty years. I am of course referring to that Of Mavis Riley and Rita Fairclough. I pay homage to the great Thelma Barlow whom, as Mavis, made dithering a well inspired art form!

Although born in Weatherfield, Mavis was brought up in Grange-Over-Sands where her parents, despite being tee-total, ran an off licence. Mavis first appeared in the Street in 1971 at Emily Nugent and Ernest Bishop's engagement party as a friend and colleague of Emily's from the mail order warehouse. Mavis was later a bridesmaid at Emily and Ernest's wedding. She was later to secure jobs at the local vets as a receptionist and the corner shop, but a more lasting job came when she was hired by Rita Littlewood to work at The Kabin newsagents at 14 Rosamund Street (around the corner from Coronation Street itself). Mavis and Rita were complete opposites - Rita, sexy and self assured, Mavis mouse-like and dowdy - but they worked together very well and a genuine bond of love and affection was formed between them. And one of the greatest Coronation Street double-acts was born. Rita often despaired at the wrong choices Mavis made in life, particularly when it came to men, and outsiders might have thought that Rita bullied her; in reality, Rita was only looking out for her.

In 1983, the unspeakable happened when not one but two men wanted to marry her. She wanted both of them, but had to choose between Victor Pendlebury or Derek Wilton. In the end she choose Derek, but jilted him at the altar as she wasn't convinced of the strength of her feelings for him. Her guilt at having done this turned to indignation when she learned that Derek had jilted her too, as he felt the same.

However, Mavis decided Derek was the man for her, after she found that he indeed did have functional XY Chromosomes. When Mavis finally said "I do" to him in September 1988, she meant it. Her marriage to Derek was a surrealist one - the other residents of Coronation Street looked upon them as something of a joke, but neither cared as they had each other. They would spend evenings reading aloud to each other reading the newspapers and discussing the events of the day. Their happiness was cut short in 1997 when Derek died suddenly. Mavis was quick to hit out at his funeral, at the people who had considered them a joke, saying that they had loved each other and that was all that mattered.

Mavis surprised Rita when she suggested that they should go into business together. They discussed the possibility of running a guest house in Cartmel, a town in the Lake District. Rita went along with this for a while, but both realised it was a bad idea - as Rita said "We'd end up throttling each other before t'week were out." Mavis went ahead with the idea, bought the guest house, and Mavis and Rita had an emotional farewell, ending a partnership of 25 years.