Touch and Go

Like the previous reviewer I had never seen this film before until it was shown on London Live.It was made at a time when Australia was offering nine pounds assisted passages to people prepared to emigrate.This was an offer taken up by many people.This was long before TV programmes showed prospective emigrants what their new life would be like.Also in those days it seems to have been the husband who made important decisions unilaterally.Jack Hawkins plays the husband and it is so unusual to find him playing a role of this type.It is an amiable sort of film shot in a rather garish Eastman colour.This film came towards the end of Balcons reign at Ealing.

Jack Hawkins is "Fletcher" who is tired of working at a furniture company which refuses to adopt his new designs. When he finally reaches the end of his creative tether, he, wife "Helen" (Margaret Leighton) and daughter "Peggy" (June Thorburn) decide to emigrate to Australia! All goes well enough, he quits his job and they start to plan, but soon the daughter falls for a young man, and "Helen" starts to get cold feet... It's a bit of a one-joke film, this, but Hawkins is on good form as was writer William Rose and director Michael Truman and the story moves along, quite wittily on occasion, at one heck of a pace towards an increasingly obvious conclusion. Certainly worth a watch.

Touch and Go, a light and airy comedy from Ealing Studios is probably not one of the legendary company's best known films. It doesn't seem to have been included in any of the British box sets that feature titles like The Titfield Thunderbolt or Passport to Pimlico. That fact notwithstanding, Touch and Go is unmistakably Ealing in its plot, pacing and execution. The story finds Jim Fletcher (Jack Hawkins) planning to emigrate to Australia after a row with his employer (James Hayter). As one might expect, the decision to move lock,stock and barrel to another continent is not without pitfalls. Jim's wife is less than enthusiastic about the move, and with two days to go before the trip, his daughter meets a young man. Like most Ealing films, Touch and Go features a quirky storyline, though admittedly not AS quirky as,say, Man in the white suit. The social polemic is here (20th century everyman takes a stand against bureaucracy)and the above par acting, right down to the casting of the extras seems absolutely right. Although by no means a great film, Touch and Go, in lovely Technicolor, eschews belly laughs for gentle comedy and does so with style and wit.

Jack Hawkins who is usually associated with action/adventure films in the British cinema gets a change of pace in Touch And Go. Hawkins stars in this Ealing comedy about a man who feeling unappreciated at his job decides to throw it all overboard and move bag and baggage and family to Australia. All except the family cat Heathcliff a black cat who crosses many paths and proves the catalyst for a lot of events in the film.

Wife Margaret Johnston dutifully goes along, but daughter June Thorburn really has doubts when she meets the boy of her dreams John Fraser on one of the Thames River bridges. In fact Heathcliff is most certainly the catalyst there in a very funny but touching sequence.

I could really identify with how they felt about Heathcliff. When I made the move from New York City to Buffalo it cost me a lot of extra money to take Simba with me. This family was going a lot farther and Hawkins just wanted to give him away. Heathcliff does have a few tricks up his sleeve.

James Hayter has a nice turn as Hawkins's pompous oaf of a boss. He's enough to drive anyone to quit.

This Ealing comedy has not dated a bit if the fashions in dress and music have changed a lot. Family pets are universal.

Today Sunday 2nd/August/2015 I saw an Ealing comedy I had never seen before.I am 69 years old, a life long British resident and thought I had seen most of the Ealing film comedies but never this one - "Touch and Go" (1955) - it was a first.The commercial TV station "London Live" is currently showing a season of BFI works of Ealing Films distributed by the Rank Organisation.What a treasure trove the BFI must have in their vaults! The late Jack Hawkins plays the head of design for a furniture factory and has modern ideas for production.Unfortunately his boss (James Hayter) is stuck in the past and dismisses Jack's modern designs.Jack lives in Chelsea (his house would be worth millions now!) with his wife, teenage daughter played by the tragically short lived June Thorburn and their black cat Heathcliffe.After falling out with his boss he feels a better career would be his in Australia and proceeds to move there with his family.The cat however sets them a problem because of quarantine laws in OZ.Taking the cat to a lady who will look after it for a while June Thorburn loses it from its basket on Chelsea Bridge and a young engineering student played by John Frazer rescues it for June.Of course the inevitable romance ensues between them putting Jack into a dilemma since the young man and his daughter want to wed.Remember in 1955 there was still an acute housing shortage after WWII and Jack after first blustering, calmly outlines the practical problems for young people getting married.

I won't provide a spoiler and am surprised this film is not on a commercial vintage DVD.Suffice it to say all ends happily for all concerned as this is a gentle British comedy.London Live have lately been repeating showing of these Ealing films so watch out and you may catch it too.