Let George Do It!

In a case of mistaken identity, a big band ukulele player (George Formby) ends up in the wrong band on a ship bound for Bergen, Norway instead of Blackpool. He soon finds himself caught up with a nest of Nazi spies in pre-invasion Norway.

Formby's biggest and most overt propaganda movie of WWII sees him having a crack at Adolf Hitler as well as Lord Haw Haw, even if it is only a wish fulfillment dream sequence. This was also Ealing Studios first propaganda film and has a good pace and plenty of humour. As another bonus, the film also has George singing 'Grandad's Flanelette Nightshirt'. Co-written and produced by Basil Dearden.

Until now, I had only been familiar with British comedian George Formby via a long-ago Italian TV viewing of IT'S IN THE AIR (1938); having recently acquired his entire output on 6 DVDs, I opted to get to know him all over again by way of that vehicle generally considered to be his best. While it is not exactly side-splitting and the star himself a simpleton in the vein of the later Norman Wisdom (though not as raucous or sentimental), the film nevertheless manages to elicit considerable excitement and suspense – a' la Alfred Hitchcock's seminal British thrillers of the 1930s – from its WWII espionage plot; with this in mind, the end result compares favorably with the equivalent Hollywood product. Incidentally, this was a milieu in which virtually all comedians would operate at one time or another: in the case of Britain, we not only got Formby contemporaries such as The Crazy Gang's GASBAGS (1941) and Will Hay's THE GOOSE STEPS OUT (1942) but Wisdom himself, whose most satisfying effort for me personally was THE SQUARE PEG (1958). Of course, Formby was equally well-known for his amiable ukulele-playing (showcased here in a number of passable songs); typical of this kind of film, then, his character is mistaken for a spy (by both sides) but invariably proves his mettle and eventually foils the villains (with the help of a pretty heroine). The latter is played by Phyllis Calvert, while a very young Coral Browne is the obligatory femme fatale; also in the cast are Bernard Lee as the male member of a couple whom George is forever running into, causing no end of trouble in the process, and Torin Thatcher as the captain of the U-boat on which George finally stows away (and is shot out of like a torpedo!). As I said, the film is filled with several tried-and-true, yet wholly delightful, thriller elements: coded messages passed via musical notes, the murder during a recital, and the climactic race-against-time to avert a disaster at sea. To get back to the star's comedy routines, the scene inside the bakery is a bit labored but the dream sequence – culminating with George parachuting into Germany, disrupting a Nazi rally and beating up the Fuehrer! – is truly inspired (for the record, the script was co-written by distinguished future director Basil Dearden).

Mistaken for a spy, a ukulele musician unwittingly becomes instrumental in foiling a Nazi plot in this lively British comedy. The star of the film is George Formby (perhaps best known for 'Keep Your Seats, Please!'), a comedian whose dimwitted mannerisms take some getting used to, however, as the espionage angle of the film begins to ignite, Formby becomes more and more likable with his genuine desire to be a war hero. Not all of the gags work, but with Marcel Varnel (of 'Oh, Mr. Porter!' and 'Ask a Policeman' fame) at the helm, the film is frequently well paced with excellent comic timing in the sequences that do work. The very best of these is an extended sequence in which Formby tries to recover a camera that has fallen out of a window. There is also a superbly edited dream sequence in which all of Formby's memories of his adventures until then play out in a dream he has of flying to Germany and punching Hitler during a propaganda speech! The antagonists here are a little too bumbling for Formby to ever seem in any real danger, but the film remains an entertaining ride with several memorable songs from Formby to cap it all off. 'North by Northwest' it may not be, but it is still easy to appreciate 'Let George Do It!' alongside other such films about ordinary men becoming the super spies they are mistaken for being.

In wartime England, the #1 box-office attraction was George Formby, a chirpy little comedian with a Lancashire accent who sang comic songs while strumming his "banjolele" (a ukelele-sized banjo). His screen character was a virginal simpleton who always caused disasters (through his own incompetence) and then solved them through sheer dumb luck. At the end of each movie, George always got the girl ... but he never kissed her, since his real-life wife Beryl was usually present on the movie set to make sure that no hanky-panky transpired.

"Let George Do It" is Formby's funniest film. He portrays a banjo-player who stumbles into a wartime espionage plot. There's some genuine suspense when the bad guys show up during his nightclub act, planning to murder George ... who (as always) is blissfully unaware of the danger he's in.

Formby's songs often featured double-entendre humour, just slightly smutty. In this film, he sings two of his best songs: "Count Your Blessings and Smile" and "Mister Wu's a Window-Washer Now".

There's a Hitchcock-like plot line, with plenty of action. In one scene, a U-boat full of Nazis rolls over and over underwater, and the film crew came up with a clever way to create this effect convincingly on a low budget. Compare this scene to a similar scene in Frank Capra's "State of the Union", in which Van Johnson is aboard a plane that's rolling in midair. The Capra film had a much larger budget, yet the effect looks completely fake.

Some of the wartime jokes in "Let George Do It" will escape Americans, such as the gag about Lord Haw-Haw. (The G.I.s in the Pacific had Tokyo Rose; the British soldiers in wartime Europe had to deal with Lord Haw-Haw.) There's also a joke about Formby's hometown Wigan. In the same way that Jack Benny (from Waukegan) and Lou Costello (from Paterson, New Jersey) often worked their hometowns into their material, George Formby never forgot his Wigan roots. "Let George Do It" features lots of slapstick comedy and some excellent songs; you'll enjoy it. I rate this film 8 out of 10. Turned out nice again!

In 1940 Britain literally had a knife at it's throat from Nazi controlled Europe who were almost certain to invade at any time. With the country fully mobilized against this onslaught, it was important for the morale of the British Public that they knew all and everyone were playing their part and doing their bit.

And therefore the wartime propaganda machine was set in motion. An array of posters and photos, (My favorite of these has to be Winston Churchill armed with a tommy gun,) billboards and radio shows were producing just as much ammunition for this war as the factories that turned out the aircraft and tanks. Even the motion picture industry was enlisted into the propaganda army in an effort to get the message across and it worked at treat.

The most morale boosting picture of the entire war did not come from Hollywood or feature any significant tough guy of the day. It wasn't a film depicting battles and shell-shocked men risking life and limb for their country. It was a musical comedy starring the Lancashire comedian George Formby who joked and gaffed and basically bumbled his way through to victory over a flock of evil Nazi spies with enough time and coolness of character to give us a few cheery songs along the way on his ukulele. Magic.

At the time Formby was the highest paid and most beloved star in Britain and the message was clear..If George can do it, you can too. And they did.

It was one particular scene in the film which made it the success it was. A dream sequence with George flying to Berlin and giving Hitler a few good wollops on the jaw. A post-war poll showed that this scene alone did more to raise British spirits than any other scene in any other film made during the war on either side of the Atlantic.

Also references were made to Lord Haw-Haw, the German version of Tokyo Rose with George disgruntled at yet another pathetic broadcast shouting, "I'll tell you a few things an' all if I 'ad time." A desire that echoed the sentiment of all Britons in 1940 I'm sure.

George's songs as always are the lynch-pin of any Formby movie and here we have two of his best, 'Granddad's Flanalette Nightshirt' and 'Count Your Blessings and Smile' a song that once again delivers the message about the job that needed to be done. With lyrics like, 'While your playing your part, Keep a song in your heart.....' the audience were left in no doubt as to what he was asking them to do.

The marvelous, glamorous and down right sexy Phylis Calvert plays the love interest, Garry Marsh the British band leader spying for the Nazis, and a young Torin Thatcher as the German U-boat Captain. And look out also for a small part played by Bernard Lee who went on to play M in the first ten James Bond films.

Also it is worth noting that writing credits go to Basil Dearden who went on to direct epic films like Khartoum. It's amazing that from these humble beginnings a true cinematic master was being born. From little acorns etc etc.

Check this one out. It may be a bit dated now but it's a large slice of nostalgia with huge blob of cream on the side and a cherry on top.