Film Review
George Formby singlehandedly takes on the might of Nazi Germany, armed
only with his famous ukulele and a shy schoolboy grin, in this anarchic
propaganda piece from Ealing Studios (or Associated Talking Pictures as
it was known at the time). Formby was at the height of his
popularity when he made
Spare a
Copper, the highest paid performer in Britain and a major box
office draw. This was to be one of his last great film
comedies. After his next film, the classic
Turned Out Nice Again (1941),
Formby's film career would show a sudden and irreversible
decline. This is the only one of the comedian's films to be
directed by John Paddy Carstairs, who subsequently went on to score
many notable successes with another British comedy giant, Norman
Wisdom.
Like many comedies made in Britain during the war,
Spare a Copper served two purposes
- to boost morale and entertain the folks back home at a time of great
uncertainty and distress, and to make the point that everyone had a
part to play in the fight against Fascism. Although popular in
its day, the film is far from flawless - the plot is so convoluted that
in the end you forget who are the good guys and who are the villains,
and back projection is used to a ludicrous extent, presumbly because
the action sequences were too costly or too difficult to shoot for
real.
Yet, despite these failings,
Spare a
Copper still stands as one of Formby's most entertaining
cinematic outings. If the comedian isn't having us rolling in the
aisles with his hilarious slapstick routines (which include a madcap
chase that culminates in a hair raising wall of death duel), he is
knocking us back into our seats with his enchanting musical
numbers. The latter include such memorable Formby hits as
Ukulele Man,
On the Beat and
I Wish I was Back on the Farm -
each of which is a show-stopping delight that instantly transports us
back to a warmer, far less cynical age when innocence was considered a virtue. Was there ever a
more charming comedian than the ukulele-strumming George Formby?
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In 1939, whilst the battleship HMS Hercules is being fitted out at a
Merseyside shipyard, the authorities learn that Nazi saboteurs are
operating in the area and may attempt to wreck the ship before its
launch. McDermott, the head of the shipbuilding company, is
persuaded to secretly bring in a handful of policemen to guard against
the Hercules being sabotaged. This development is soon
brought to the attention of Brewster, the owner of a theatre and
amusement park, who happens to be the head of the Nazi saboteurs.
Brewster arranges that one of his men, Shaw, enters a police motorcycle
trial which will decide who is recruited to protect McDermott's
shipyard. Another entrant in the trial is War Reserve policeman
George Carter, whose dream is to be a member of the Flying Squad.
With a little skulduggery, Shaw triumphs over Carter in the
trial. George is consoled by the fact that he finally gets
to wear his policeman's uniform at a police concert which is attended
by his new girlfriend, Jane Gray. Eager to please, George is
delighted when he is sent off on his first assignment, to distract a
night watchman at a warehouse where the propeller blades for the
battleship are being stored. Unwittingly, George becomes a pawn
in the saboteurs' plan and when the blades go missing he is mistaken
for one of the saboteurs. Determined to clear his name, George
goes on the run and beats a hasty path to the one man he knows he can
trust: Brewster...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.