Lonely Road

Most of them in the 'The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection I have found absolutely dire, but this one (despite other reviews) is one of the few I have found watchable. Accents are ridiculous of course, AND WHAT IS THAT CAR Clive Brooks drives in the film !!!?!??

FOUND IT! Should have searched it first ;>)

It is a 1935 Auburn 851 Supercharged Phaeton Sedan Convertible

Quota quickies usually get short shrift from film historians, but 'Lonely Road' does a pretty slick job, aided by plush & mobile photography by Jan Stallich and some nice night-for-night exteriors.

Actually conceived by Nevil Shute with Clive Brook in mind, who he personally approached to play the lead role of retired naval Commander Malcolm Stevenson who (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) stumbles across the path of a pair of gun runners.

In a nod towards the realities of the hungry thirties one scene depicts a little old lady selling flowers in the middle of the night, while the political troubles of the period intrude in the form of a wild-eyed fanatic smuggling tommy guns - in cases identifying the contents as vacuum cleaners - to facilitate a scheme to influence the coming general election to bring about a "five year plan to save England under patriotic government".

Basil Dean was the production chief of Ealing Studios until1938' He fell out of favour with the Courtauld family who financed the studios because he made unsuccessful films starring his wife Victoria Hopper.In this film she is supposed to be a dance hall hostess in Leeds but talks with a Mayfair accent.Clive Brooks plays a former naval commander who becomes friendly with her.He has been asked by the police to use her to trace her brother who has an involvement with an arms smuggling gang.The head of the gang wanting to create anarchy during a general election campaign.The gang members kill the leader and then use a Tommy gun to shoot Hopper and the brother.The story becomes more and more fanciful.

Nora Swinburne turns down Clive Brook's proposal, so he he gets drunk, goes driving, and runs his car into a ditch by the coast. He gets out, where a man talks about carpet sweepers, and then another man knocks out Brook. He wakes in a hospital, where he's told he was in a bad crash. When he gets out, he decides to drive to Scotland. Stopping in Leeds, he goes to a dance hall, where taxi-dancer Victoria Hopper and he spend the evening. She was on the stage, but the work was too irregular; this work is steadier. Her brother has his own truck, and is near paying her back the money she lent him. Most of the work happens at night, when he moves carpet sweepers and such.

When Brook returns to London, Norman Ramage comes to see him. Someone has been smuggling in machine guns; Miss Hopper's brother is involved. If he can get information out of her, well and good; otherwise, she'll be brought in. Brooks reluctantly agrees to help.

It's one of those movies in which the coincidences leave you slightly agog, but the performances are good. Miss Hopper is a cute young thing, and Brook's personal issues come out gradually and naturally. It's all too smoothly and swiftly operating a story to be utterly convincing, but director James Flood handles the story efficiently enough that the audience is carried away to the inevitable happy ending.

LONELY ROAD offers Clive Brook at his suave best as a man who drives drunk and crashes on a beach where a smuggling operation is underway. He's beaten up and left on the beach. When he's found, it is assumed his injuries are from the crash. After recovery he is driving to Scotland to rest and spends the night in Leeds where, at a dance hall, he meets a girl (a radiant Victoria Hopper) and the plot goes on from there. I suppose there are too many coincidences for the plot to really hold together, but the joy here is in the performances of Brook and Hopper. Also good are the snarling thug played by Charless Farrell (not the Hollywood star), the housekeeper played by Ethel Coleridge, and Lady Anne played by Nora Swinburne. The alternate title is "Scotland Yard Commands," which is pretty awful. Hopper gets to sing the title song "Lonely Road." And love that car!