Next to No Time!

Not up the usual standard of film featuring Mr More as this one is thin on real comedy, and laughs, and is more of a sitcom. The makers seemed to have been unable to decide what type of film this was supposed to be, comedy, fantasy or what?

It is interesting as it's a film made in 1958 in glorious colour which helped to get me through to the end and the plot is unusual but it's just not entertaining enough to be worth looking out for.

Watch it if you can but be prepared to be disappointed, not much of it seemed to have actually been filmed aboard the Queen Elizabeth and the on board ship sets are not all that convincing.

Kenneth More is cast as planning engineer David Webb, a bland and mild mannered individual, who finds himself on board the Queen Elizabeth sailing to New York. The storyline involves our timid engineer trying to negotiate a high powered loan for his company from wealthy businessman, Roland Culver. More is in my mind miscast as the engineer who initially blunders around the ship, but then undergoes a character transformation, losing his 'stuffed shirt' persona during the voyage, becoming bright, breezy and confident. He looks and sounds too middle aged and one dimensional, hence it beggars belief he was able to win the admiration of so many passengers. His role would have suited a younger man like Donald Sinden or even Jack Lemmon, who both excelled in light comedy. More also tries too hard and his 'it's all jolly good fun' demeanour becomes tiresome. With a thin storyline, it's cardboard characters and woeful dialogue, the film quickly becomes a yawn. The two shining lights are Sid James, who plays the matter of fact, canny and astute ship's steward. Also, credit to John Welsh, who plays the Irish barman. However, despite these two exceptions, the film can only be classified as an underwhelming and tedious comedy!

Based on a story by the prolific story teller Paul Gallico (Poseidon Adventure, Mrs. 'arris series, Thomasina, and Lili, to name a few), Next To No Time is an entertaining, enchanting, and good natured fantasy / drama about a shy, self-effacing man David Webb (Kenneth More) who has to clinch a high profile deal while on a West bound voyage on an ocean liner before the ship reaches New York. Aboard the vessel with his prospective clients, although he is bright and personable he lacks the self confidence to approach them with his proposal. His only source of support and encouragement is a photograph of his adoring fiancee with the inscription "keep on keeping on" - a testament to her unflinching faith in his ability to accomplish the task and her unwavering encouragement that he can count on. One night, sitting at the bar, David Webb notices that the clocks on the West bound ship are stopped for one hour each night to compensate for passage through the time zones. A steward jokes about how time stands still for an hour each night when nothing that one does during that time really "happens" or "registers". Webb realizes that this "timeless zone" - Next To No Time - may be the perfect time and quite possibly, his only chance, to pitch his proposal - for, if he fails, it wouldn't really be "happening". From then on, Webb is a changed man - at least for one hour every day - when he is most confident and persuasive in approaching his clients with the proposal. In a Cinderella-like way, he must accomplish what he must within the confines of the "enchanted hours" before it is too late. Does his plan work? If it does, is it magic? Or did he have it in him all along? And why don't they make simple movies like this one anymore?

Worth the viewing just for Kenneth More filmed in glorious Eastmancolor. No worse than other movies of that era, & certainly better than some of the boring & lethargic mega money Hollywood releases nowadays. I think some people who review vintage movies fail to to recognise that sometimes we just want to be entertained, not having to grapple with complicated, multiple & mind numbing plots. On that score, I found the movie a treat to watch & bought the recently released DVD to watch again. I suppose the setting on the Queen Elizabeth liner assumes a historic interest in the movie. The bar scenes were actually filmed in the Veranda Bar Restaurant, the authentic Smiths clock seen in it. No attempt to spend money unnecessarily, unlike Ridley Scotts multi- million dollar sets for Prometheus......added nothing to a boring movie anyway...except hype maybe. Betsy Drakes performance compliments More's lead...more intensity than Charlize Theron in said Prometheus lol ! Akin to More's Genevieve for entertainment value & presence. Go watch it.

An escapist fantasy in cheerful fifties Eastmancolour (sic) that reunited the director and star of 'Genevieve' aboard the then ultra-modern and glamorous backdrop of the Queen Elizabeth recreated at Shepperton.

Described by the late David Shipman as "an odd mixture of farce and whimsy" it all gets rather wearisome. Kenneth More is his usual charming self, but Betsy Drake (then Mrs Cary Grant) is too sweet and demure to be playing a Hollywood diva temporarily "through with men", while Georges Auric's score is unusually poor.