Ha'penny Breeze

This is a long forgotten B feature about the revival of a yacht building harbour.The story is a bore.The acting is amateurish.A lot of footage is devoted to a yacht race,so if you don't like watching such things then you will find viewing this film a chore.

The River Orwell ran through Ipswich - mentioned occasionally in this film as the big place up river - were my family lived during the late sixties (at the same time as Veronica Lake, I later learned) and early seventies. I remember visiting Pin Mill in 1968, and this charming little sub-Ealing anecdote was already nearly twenty years old even then.

As usual none of the speaking cast even attempt the local accent. But it makes good use of the Orwell foreshore (which my family occasionally drove out to to stroll), and Aussie hero Don Sharp (who shows promise, I wonder what became of him?) is seen reading the local paper 'The Evening Star' in one scene at the local pub selling Cobbald ales (before they merged with Tolly in 1957. My father always preferred Adnams).

A pleasant sub Ealing little film about villagers of a long forgotten fishing village. The hero returns from the second world war with an Aussie pal & extols the virtues of his home village, only to find it run down & virtually deserted. They decide to renovate the old boat but get no help from the locals until a yachting competition comes up. They all rally behind the main character to rebuild a boat & trying to turn it into a race winning yacht. A rare starring role for Edwin Richfield, a familiar face in films & tv shows of the 1950's 60's . The boat builders Harry King & Sons is still there in Pin Mill. This film is regularly shown on Talking Pictures TV.

I recall seeing this old movie back in the 1950's when I was living in UK. It was particularly interesting at the time since the action takes place at Pin Mill in Suffolk on the River Orwell which is just up the river from where I lived at the time.

As mentioned by the other reviewer, it is b&w and involves yachts and I believe barges are also part of the action. I would love to see a release of this on late night TV or in a collection of B-movies since it has the kind of appeal which so few movies have today.

DVD now on sale from Amazon at £4.69, just in time for the Christmas trade!