Out of curiosity and because it was very close to where i once lived, I paid a visit where this film was made: Worton Hall Studios, Isleworth . The original grand Worton Hall remains but is now in the middle of an uninteresting housing estate. Actual film stages of the era were often crude-looking crosses between warehouses and early aircraft hangers so I guess are not much missed.
Robert Morley in later years tended to play rather stereotyped roles - corpulent with an upper class accent. He let himself be frequently cast as, I guess an American audiences' vision of a rather ridiculous type of Englishman, possibly harking back to George lll In The African Queen he played a fat, pompous preachy but ineffectual and flaky colonial missionary. Morley was a very intelligent, talented and witty man yet this was not always used in his roles. Here a young Morley - sleek and corpulent - plays the young struggling down at heel composer Leslie Stuart not modifying in the slightest his native plummy Southern English accent to play Stuart who was of working class Irish origin (Charles Victor plays his father with a strong Irish accent), born in Lancashire. Stuart never, judged from photographs, appeared corpulent. Here Morley was simply miscast, silkily gliding through the role, nevertheless, as always, a pleasure to watch.
To me the redeeming feature and revelation is the quality of Stuart's music - at times very beautiful, at times brisk and stirring (the patriotic Soldiers of the King), and other times quirky taking on various current fads - American minstrel music for one. Others, catchy hit songs, I'm not sure any British composer has had this versatility and success. Is he to be compared to Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame? It is surprising to read that he had been the composer of so many still familiar hit songs of his era.
