Let George Do It!

In 1940 Britain literally had a knife at it's throat from Nazi controlled Europe who were almost certain to invade at any time. With the country fully mobilized against this onslaught, it was important for the morale of the British Public that they knew all and everyone were playing their part and doing their bit.

And therefore the wartime propaganda machine was set in motion. An array of posters and photos, (My favorite of these has to be Winston Churchill armed with a tommy gun,) billboards and radio shows were producing just as much ammunition for this war as the factories that turned out the aircraft and tanks. Even the motion picture industry was enlisted into the propaganda army in an effort to get the message across and it worked at treat.

The most morale boosting picture of the entire war did not come from Hollywood or feature any significant tough guy of the day. It wasn't a film depicting battles and shell-shocked men risking life and limb for their country. It was a musical comedy starring the Lancashire comedian George Formby who joked and gaffed and basically bumbled his way through to victory over a flock of evil Nazi spies with enough time and coolness of character to give us a few cheery songs along the way on his ukulele. Magic.

At the time Formby was the highest paid and most beloved star in Britain and the message was clear..If George can do it, you can too. And they did.

It was one particular scene in the film which made it the success it was. A dream sequence with George flying to Berlin and giving Hitler a few good wollops on the jaw. A post-war poll showed that this scene alone did more to raise British spirits than any other scene in any other film made during the war on either side of the Atlantic.

Also references were made to Lord Haw-Haw, the German version of Tokyo Rose with George disgruntled at yet another pathetic broadcast shouting, "I'll tell you a few things an' all if I 'ad time." A desire that echoed the sentiment of all Britons in 1940 I'm sure.

George's songs as always are the lynch-pin of any Formby movie and here we have two of his best, 'Granddad's Flanalette Nightshirt' and 'Count Your Blessings and Smile' a song that once again delivers the message about the job that needed to be done. With lyrics like, 'While your playing your part, Keep a song in your heart.....' the audience were left in no doubt as to what he was asking them to do.

The marvelous, glamorous and down right sexy Phylis Calvert plays the love interest, Garry Marsh the British band leader spying for the Nazis, and a young Torin Thatcher as the German U-boat Captain. And look out also for a small part played by Bernard Lee who went on to play M in the first ten James Bond films.

Also it is worth noting that writing credits go to Basil Dearden who went on to direct epic films like Khartoum. It's amazing that from these humble beginnings a true cinematic master was being born. From little acorns etc etc.

Check this one out. It may be a bit dated now but it's a large slice of nostalgia with huge blob of cream on the side and a cherry on top.

Mistaken for a spy, a ukulele musician unwittingly becomes instrumental in foiling a Nazi plot in this lively British comedy. The star of the film is George Formby (perhaps best known for 'Keep Your Seats, Please!'), a comedian whose dimwitted mannerisms take some getting used to, however, as the espionage angle of the film begins to ignite, Formby becomes more and more likable with his genuine desire to be a war hero. Not all of the gags work, but with Marcel Varnel (of 'Oh, Mr. Porter!' and 'Ask a Policeman' fame) at the helm, the film is frequently well paced with excellent comic timing in the sequences that do work. The very best of these is an extended sequence in which Formby tries to recover a camera that has fallen out of a window. There is also a superbly edited dream sequence in which all of Formby's memories of his adventures until then play out in a dream he has of flying to Germany and punching Hitler during a propaganda speech! The antagonists here are a little too bumbling for Formby to ever seem in any real danger, but the film remains an entertaining ride with several memorable songs from Formby to cap it all off. 'North by Northwest' it may not be, but it is still easy to appreciate 'Let George Do It!' alongside other such films about ordinary men becoming the super spies they are mistaken for being.

This is the film quite rightly regarded as the best George Formby vehicle, with a much more interesting suspense story mixed together as usual with some rousing tunes on his banjolele. I think Leslie Halliwell even included it in his top 100 films of all time, probably pushing the boat out a bit too far for most people!

At Dover George is on his way to Blackpool with the rest of his Dinky Doo troupe, but in the wartime blackout gets lost and ends up in Bergen Norway instead. There through a case of mistaken identity (what happened to the real uke player?) he finds a job awaiting him in sinister Garry Marsh's dance band. The trouble is Marsh is a Nazi agent (spoken incredulously: "A British subject working for Hitler") passing on information to U Boats - George helps decode his messages with the assistance of British agent Phyllis Calvert. He not only has the Nazis to contend with but an outraged Norwegian Bernard Lee popping up throughout to get him for asking his wife if she was a Dinky Doo. The doped up dream sequence where he manages to get to Berlin and sock Hitler on the jaw went down well with the British audiences at the time too – definitely not as subtle as Chaplin's Great Dictator though! Great songs: Granddad's Flannelette Nightshirt in the refreshment room to Hal Gordon's utter delight, Mr. Wu's A Window Cleaner Now at band rehearsal, Count Your Blessings And Smile (with the badly dated hep swing trio) & Oh Don't The Wind Blow Cold both in the nightclub. This was Marsh's last Formby film, he joined the RAF just after for the duration of the War; George's mate Ronald Shiner was only given one line in here; Phyllis Calvert got paid the princely sum of £20 a week for the 6 weeks it took to film, and apparently didn't think much of the hero she was supporting – a very dull man who seemed to be always tinkering about with watches being some of her more charitable comments in the 1980's.

Well, it's not a dull film, a low budget period propaganda piece that worked in all departments with plenty of inconsequential but memorable scenes and one I watch every few years with no lessening of enjoyment.

In a case of mistaken identity, a big band ukulele player (George Formby) ends up in the wrong band on a ship bound for Bergen, Norway instead of Blackpool. He soon finds himself caught up with a nest of Nazi spies in pre-invasion Norway.

Formby's biggest and most overt propaganda movie of WWII sees him having a crack at Adolf Hitler as well as Lord Haw Haw, even if it is only a wish fulfillment dream sequence. This was also Ealing Studios first propaganda film and has a good pace and plenty of humour. As another bonus, the film also has George singing 'Grandad's Flanelette Nightshirt'. Co-written and produced by Basil Dearden.

Remembering George Formby as a child, when I often heard him play his ukulele, I had never seen him in a movie. Then I came across a movie called To Hell with Hitler, staring George Formby, I couldn't resist to watch it.

Thoroughly enjoyable to watch and he sings and plays his ukelele in the early days of the war, when he unknowingly becomes a spy, all that for a girl he met.

First released in 1940 as Let George do it, he certainly does!