Let the People Sing

"Let the People Sing," released in 1942, is a comedy that blends humor with political undertones, focusing on a comedian and an exiled Czech politician. While exploring Peter Ustinov's filmography was an intriguing goal, this movie turned out to be a frustrating experience. The language and jokes reflect a different era, making it hard to grasp the humor and dialogues. The plot, seemingly centered around saving a concert, felt confusing and unengaging, leaving the impression that the movie requires a level of intelligence or historical context I might have lacked. Unfortunately, it was a challenging watch and failed to resonate with me.

Emigree Czech Alastair Sim and fading music hall comicEdward Rigby are on the run through a misunderstanding, and wind up in an English town where a music hall is a fading tradition, its theater the prize between two groups, one who want to use it for a plastics concern, and the other who want to turn it into a museum. What place has music in such a philistine world?

This adaptation of the J.B. Priestley novel has about 80% of its satire thrown out, and the plot doesn't even begin until the movie is halfway over, because the first half is pleasantly taken up with music and a terrific comic performance by Fred Emney as the local avatar of the Empire: drunk and amiable at night, starched and frightening by morning and, in his own words, "wrong all over the world." Like many a comedy, it's at its best while just being silly and paying as little attention to the plot as possible.

The setting and plot for "Let the People Sing" is somewhat unusual for the time and place. It's a British comedy about people standing up for what's right in their small town, while the country is smack dab in the middle of World War II. There's some small satire in the plot around this theme. And, the war is present mostly on the periphery, which also brings up a couple of wartime situations in England little mentioned in films otherwise. One was the plight of most of the refugees who fled the Nazis on the continent and got to England. The other, connected with the huge influx of immigrants, was the entry of Nazi spies and saboteurs, which the government was trying to prevent.

Those also are the two issues that are the vehicles for the two main leads in this film to meet. Both of them are on the lam, hiding from the police. Alastair Sim plays Prof. Ernst Kronak. He is a Czech refugee who's trying to get to his son in America. But, his permit to stay in England has expired, and there are troubles over his passport and visa. Edward Rigby plays Timmy Tiverton, a long-time comedy performer on the stage. But the cinema theaters are making it harder for him to find employment as the vaudeville theaters are declining. While he was waiting for a train, a strange character sat down beside him and switched valises with him. When a young boy next sits by him and hears his valise ticking, he sees the newspaper headline about bombings. He hurries to a window, tosses the case out, and it explodes, toppling a large hero statue. But before he can tell the police about it, he was spotted and the police began to pursue him, thinking that he's the mad bomber.

The two men meet when they both hide out in a baggage car of the train, and they go off together from there with an adventure that includes much situational comedy, subtle lecture about freedom by the professor, patriotism and some flag waving at the end. It's a film that combines several elements, with a fine cast delivering humor, some satire and playful sarcasm, lessons about standing up and fighting for one's rights and freedom, and even a nice touch of romance. It was quite suitable as a reminder and spirit lifter for the people of what they were fighting for in the war.

Any film that Alastair Sim is in is bound to be good. And all of his comedies are very good to superb. Of course there are other top actors in this film as well - besides Rigby, Fred Emney, Olive Sloane, and others. I'm not as familiar as British fans of older films will be with some of the English entertainers who go way back, such as these three. They, along with Sim, are the core of this comedy, and "Let the People Sing" is a great one.

Sim's Prof. Kronak is a role of a wise professor, who is also very knowledgeable of music and adept at playing the piano. Rigby is the soon-recognized entertainer of many years, and the comic but also wise character who is the glue holding the various players together for the plot. Emney is the riotously and raucously funny Sir George Denberry-Baxter, a great and overly amiable character when drinking, -- or when "bottled" as his butler, Ketley says. When sober, he's the opposite. So when he comes back into the picture about the last quarter, the challenge of all of these and some other good guys, is to get him bottled and keep him that way through the public hearing at which he is to arbitrate the dispute over the town music hall.

It all comes down to a flag-waving finale. Here are some favorite lines from the film.

Train station agent, "Did you come off the train?" Timmy Tiverton, "That's right." Agent, "Oh. You didn't get out here on purpose did you?"

Timmy Tiverton, "Tell me, where is this place?" Station agent, "This? Last place God made. No use anybody coming here."

Sir George Denberry-Baxter, "Am I a suspicious character?" Police Sergeant, "Well, not really, sir." Sir George, "That's where you're wrong. I am a suspicious character. I've always been a suspicious character. If you knew what was going on up here (pointing to his head) you'd have me handcuffed in no time. Have a drink."

Police Sergeant, "Uh, thank you, sir. It's this spy business, sir. All over the place, they are. One blew up a statue this afternoon at Burchester." Sir George, "Good for him. If I had my way, I'd blow up the whole of Burchester. Damned awful place. Blow it up. Blow it all up."

Professor Ernst Kronak, "Never have I been treated in this way before. This man is a democrat in the evening and a Nazi in the morning."

Ketley, "Well, as I told you, he's balmy when he's bottled, but he's a free and easy balminist. But the next morning - well, you've seen a bit of it." Timmy Tiverton, "Yes, with his stay for weeks and his brass elephants, huh! Well, he knows what he can do with them."

Sir George Denberry-Baxter, to Daisy Barley, "Madam, my palate is entirely at your disposal."

Timmy Tiverton, with Prof. Kronak, watching Sir George imbibe, "That's not a habit - it's a gift."

Sir George, "Darn good idea of yours, Foxfield, coming here. I didn't trust your judgement, but I was wrong." Sir Reginald Foxfield, "Oh, thank you, sir." Sir George, "I always admit when I'm wrong. And I've been wrong all over the place - South Africa, Borneo, Fiji. Oh, I was damnably wrong in Fiji. Remind me to tell you about it when we're alone."

The IMDb user rating of 7/10 is well deserved.This title is just one I purchased recently from my DVD dealer contact in north London.Those of you who follow my reviews will know of my love for 1940s films, beautiful raven haired actresses and especially the lovely accents, diction, modulation of vowels and general pronunciation which actresses of that generation were taught in their drama acadamies.The plot of peoples apathy vs big business and the need for certain residents to confront the council with their wishes at council meetings is just as true today as in 1942 when this was filmed.We have a blight of planning orders to fight with the L.B. of Barnet & the Dept. of Environment in our neck of the woods.

It was good to see larger than life comedian, Fred Emney again.I remember him on BBC TV in variety shows in the 1950s smoking a large cigar with his monocle and he performs his act here for us all to enjoy.Patricia Hammond's user critique above describes just what aristocrats in our subconscious should be.After exactly 70 years from when it was filmed, I still find this film very entertaining, funny and relevant today on council issues.All the actors were extremely well cast, principally from the always professorial Alastair Sim, to the attractive Patricia Roc and Edward Rigby as "Tommy Tiverton - music hall comedian".

This film was just the tonic to cheer up a war-weary Britain, keep the morale up and engender an "all in it together" spirit.For the record I am 66 years of age born in 1946.

I was pleasantly surprised to see this film; I'm a Priestly fan and this is one of his lesser-known novels. For such a sprawling story with so many interweaving elements, and considering that there is no central character in the cinematic sense, it's a good adaptation, and several good long chunks of dialogue manage to make their way straight from the pages of the book to the screen. Alastair Sim is excellent as the Professor, fleshing out the character beautifully and giving his wise speeches wonderful depth and humour. Edward Rigby is exactly as I imagined Timmy Tiverton, though without his terribly sad and pathetic back-story, provided at some length in the novel, he is less of a pivotal character and more of a commentator. As in the book, it is Sir George Denberry-Baxter who steals the thing, a gift of a role and appreciated as such by the great Fred Emney. He's just what we want our aged aristocrats to be: drunken, anarchic, artistic, irascible, eccentric and barmy. The central character really is the cause: fighting against corporations and the general apathy of a people controlled by big business and passive entertainment. If only we had films like this now, urging people to get up and get involved, gather in our local town halls and make our own entertainment, using their own talents and brains and energies.