Music Hall

Today John Baxter is an almost forgotten name.He did have a season at the NFT in the late 80s and the BFI published a book on his career called "The Common Touch".His films are full of warmth and sincerity.Ther is a common thread in his films of the community pulling through adversity together.Of helping out those who have fallen on hard times.In fact this could be said to be a companion piece to "Say It With Flowers" though in this instance it is the Music Hall itself which has fallen on hard times.So the way to bring it round is by staging a new show with lots of name turns.So the last half of the film is a veritable feast of turns of the 30s.There is the immaculate Debroy Somers and His Band,a dog act,a boy tap dancer and a very politically incorrect black face G.H.Elliott.To anyone interested in Music Hall or Britain in the 30s this film is a must see.

Although obviously made on a small budget, I couldn't help but comment on this 1934 curiosity about a group of theatre workers trying to save their jobs and livelihoods during the depression years, by renovating and reinvigorating the theatre they work in which has been losing money and is about to close. It has a few quite funny moments I thought, in the day to day chat amongst the cloth caps who are all salt of the earth types which takes up the first half of the picture. The only actor I recognised by the way was small time but prolific character actor, Wally Patch. The second half of the film is filled with music hall acts of the period, which brings me to my point about the cultural history lesson in my title above. Watching this film really brought home to me how Hollywood movies of the mid 30's must have been like a bombshell hitting audiences in Britain if this film really depicts what people were used to seeing at the theatre. I can imagine that the films for example of Busby Berkeley and Fred and Ginger at this time would have left people transfixed. It's very interesting that in this film there is a discussion where it's talked about that fashions are always changing and that they needed to keep up with the changing fashions or go bust. It's quite astonishing now to think that the music hall acts included were an improvement on what the audiences had been used to then. I was born in the mid 40's and so grew up in the 50's watching some similar acts even then, on TV like dog acts and what are now the uncomfortable black face acts shown here, so in retrospect the advent of rock 'n' roll seems even more pertinent watching this old picture. I really recommend it as a history lesson made at a time when so many changes were about to descend on the entertainment business.