Jack's the Boy

Chisel-chinned Jack Hulbert starred in a number of comedy adventures, in which he invariably played the same kind of unlikely, gangling hero. This is one of those in which his real-life wife, Cicely Courtneidge co-starred, but although Jack made an odd-looking leading man, Cicely would have made an even odder-looking heroine, so she played up the comedy, while a younger actress was wheeled in for Jack to win. This is 1932, and it is British, and it is creaky, but it's entertaining for all that. I saw it more than ten years ago, and I have to say that one scene remains burned in my memory. Jack and Cicely have to search a room, and for some reason, they turn the procedure into an eccentric dance. I played this part of the tape to some friends of mine who were unfamiliar with these actors, and this realm of films, and it got a huge laugh. I was pleased to see, some years later, that that sequence was on a video loop, and was being played all day long at the Museum Of the Moving Image in London. The film is itself a museum piece, because it's more curious than funny most of the time, especially as the medium of film doesn't really seem to have captured the essence of whatever made Cicely Courtneidge such a national treasure, although she's jolly enough. I remember the photography being rather good, and although it creaks, some of the timing is spot on. This film is eccentric fun, and while there is a sense of theatrical performers being constrained by the cameras, it's ultimately uplifting, and worth keeping an eye out for, even if just for that room-searching scene.

This was the film that made Jack (and wife Cicely) famous, studio boss Michael Balcon although initially convinced it would be a flop gave him a three year star contract on its success. Later Jack light-heartedly blamed Fred Astaire for his eclipse but ultimately of course his range was shown to be very limited, what kept the pair of them near the top was their sheer vivacity - gaiety if you like - and love of performing in front of the public.

The script would have us believe police commissioner's son surreptitiously joins the force as lowly constable to carve out a career in crime-busting to make his dad proud. Along the way he falls in love with a dubious character's girlfriend, and strikes up a friendship with a frenzied female café owning fellow crime buster. The bizarre room search is a gem and the bits at Madame Tussard's memorable but the hit scene at the time was the chaos caused by the ladder across the (Gainsborough-built) road and the lugubrious gentleman offering advice to Jack on point duty. When the filming was complete HMV records pestered Jack to record The Flies Crawled Up The Window (at the beginning of the film) but as he was off to Monte Carlo with Cicely he demurred. They persevered and surprised him on the beach there - he eventually recorded it for them in his hotel in his swimming trunks.

Overall for devotees like me, a dated but extremely enjoyable piece of once-popular nonsense. Sadly also ideal for clever people studying how poor simple British working class minds worked in such primitive barbarous times. On the other hand if you don't like old (non-geologically speaking) non-heavy films such as this but sat through the 70 minutes anyway you probably have too much time on your hands.