The Lucky Number

Clifford Mollinson has been kicked out of football (the British variety) because he kicked a fan by accident. A couple of years later, he finds himself in Highbury with a ticket for a French lottery. He uses it to pay a bar bill to Gordon Harker, then discovers it is the winning ticket -- fourteen thousand pounds, and only Joan Wyndham to help him recover it.

I was struck that this movie, directed by Anthony Asquith, looked like a Hitchcock comedy -- if Hitchcock ever directed a sentimental musical comedy. Part of the reason is the dark cinematography, a lot of it shot around Highbury after dark, by German cameraman Gunther Krampf and Hitchcock camera operator Derick Williams. It's far too silly for Hitchcock, whose comedies tended towards the lugubrious, but charming for all of that. For Arsenal fans, there is a closing montage of a game with several of the current players on the field. Joe Hayman also has a funny turn as a very Jewish pawn broker named MacDonald.

For any supporters of Arsenal this film is a real treat.Not so much for the content of the film itself,but for the views of Highbury in 1932/3 and of the famous team of that era.These are contained in the opening and final 5 minutes of this film.In between is a fairly undistinguished comedy with one catchy musical number.We see the players coming out before the start of the match.Arsenal are playing in all red shirts,no this is not a colour film.The famous clock is on the South Terrace.The famous East and West Stands have not yet been constructed and there is no cover over the North Bank.We see some of the match.I have no idea who the opposition might be.They are playing in white shirts and black shorts.At half time we move into the dressing room.The first most recognizably figure is Tom Whittaker,who was then trainer.We then see Arsenal players,the most recognizably being Eddie Hapgood and Cliff Bastin.Then at the end of the film we see the main character being chaired off by Arsenal players.I think that i recognised Bob John.There are other players but i am not sure who they are.This was released as part of the "British Classics Collection".Some years ago.I managed to purchase a copy on ebay.Copies do come up for sale from time to time.So if you are a Gooner then you must buy it.It will be even more nostalgic next year when we move away from Highbury.

Percy, an ex-footballer, has his pocket picked, which is seen only by young Winnie (not Minnie) so when he goes to pay for his drink in a pub, finds he can't, and the bartender takes as insurance the one thing he does have of worth, a lottery ticket.

Naturally the ticket wins and for the next hour and a half, he and Winnie have to figure out how to raise the 5 and 6 from scratch to get the ticket back! She gets fired from her job when her boss catches her with her fingers in the till getting the money from there, but then Percy "accidentally" buys another man a drink in the pub with it anyway. They try busking but drop the money when the pickpocket is spotted - they chase after him and find he's put all of Percy's money on a winning greyhound, but he gets away before they can claim half. The movie will make you want to throw rocks at the TV out of sheer frustration, but in retrospect it's actually really good. The lead actors make a gorgeous couple, and their singing is very enjoyable. 9/10 - just don't lose your temper!

This was the seventh film directed by Anthony Asquith, though I would say seven in this case was not his lucky number. It is a frivolous bit of British comedy and musical entertainment intended to cheer up the masses. One would never know from the mediocre quality of the film that had Asquith directed it, having proved his early brilliance with the spectacular UNDERGROUND (1928, see my review). The stars of the film are Clifford Mollison, Joan Wyndham, and Gordon Harker. Joan Wyndham (aged 21) is a real charmer here, and it is a pity that she only appeared in twelve films, eleven of them between 1930 and 1936, when she effectively retired; she came back in 1949 for a TV film of a Somerset Maugham play (a film which is apparently lost), and that was that. Although she lived to be 88, she disappeared from the cinema early on and we know no more about her. Her birth name by the way was Joan Eileen Weil, and she was a Londoner. We could have done with more of her on screen. She was a 'good 'un'. The story of this film concerns the struggle over possession and ownership of a lottery ticket which has unexpectedly won a huge prize. This makes for many comedic and also many fraught episodes. But as was the manner of the times, the characters keep bursting into song at the most unexpected moments, which may have been considered entertaining to audiences then, but to us is a considerable distraction. Oh well, it is amusing, and apart from that, what can one say: it was the early thirties in England, and a trip to 'the pictures' for some light relief was one of the few things to keep people sane. Oh yes, I should mention that the film features a considerable amount of a real 1932 football game by the Arsenal team, and Arsenal fans, who tend to be wildly enthusiastic folk, will certainly love this film for that reason.

The Observer's critic incredibly declared this "unquestionably Asquith's best film to date", which means the youthful Anthony Asquith's frantic desire to draw attention to himself by outrageously over-directing a basically very simple retread of 'Le Million' had had the desired result.

The film is full of close-ups worthy of Sergio Leone crashing together, and Alex Vetchinsky's art direction, Gunther Krampf's photography and - above all - Mischa Spolianski's score all combine to bludgeon the audience in the service of a rather simple story that ceases to interest long before the film ends.