Half a Sixpence

Master showmen were at work in the production of this perhaps over long but nevertheless delightful picture. It would be impossible to visualise the film without the warm performance of Tommy Steele, and it was an inspired move to bring in George Sidney, one of Hollywood's finest directors of musicals, to give the picture a very special flare. The budget was obviously huge and it all shows on the screen in the very lively production numbers, especially those shot on location. A super piece of screen entertainment which stands up well to occasional re-watching.

Half A Sixpence is a musical adapted from the H.G. Wells story Kipps which Michael Redgrave played the title role back in a 1941 film version. I'm sure his interpretation of the role differed quite a bit from the boisterous styling of Tommy Steele in this film. They're so different in personality types.

It wasn't Wells the interpreter of the scientific future who wrote Kipps, but rather the Wells who was the Fabian Socialist. In a way this should be seen back to back with Pygmalion or My Fair Lady if you will. Some of the same themes were also done American style in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

George Bernard Shaw when he wrote Pygmalion did the exact reverse of what Wells did in Kipps. That other noted Fabian Socialist took the flower girl Eliza and had her schooled in manners by the overbearing Henry Higgins to improve her station. Her economic status doesn't improve any, unless you figure she might marry well like the Freddy Eynsford-Hill character. She speaks well enough to fit in with his crowd.

But the exact opposite happens to Arthur Kipps. He's of illegitimate birth, apprenticed as a draper's assistant and living in the basement of his employer's store with other apprentices. But one fine day, Arthur's ship comes in, a grandfather leaves him an inheritance and a guaranteed annual income.

But unlike Audrey Hepburn, Tommy Steele is still at heart from the lower classes. So the story of Half A Sixpence is his personal struggle to find his place. That could be with a girl of his own class, Julia Foster or the previous unattainable Penelope Horner. Give you one guess where Steele winds up.

Half A Sixpence ran on Broadway for 511 performances in the 1965-66 season with Tommy Steele in the title role there. Steele's infectious style of performing is awfully hard to resist. Though he started out as a rock and roll singer, a British answer to Elvis Presley, Steele is really from the great tradition of Music Hall performers in the United Kingdom.

The socialist polemics are kept to a minimum here, I can't speak for how Wells originally wrote Kipps or how Michael Redgrave played it back in the day. But his points do come across and come across most entertainingly.

I "accidentally" discovered HALF A SIXPENCE during 1979 on the late movie on NYC's Channel 5. I turned it on just before the "Half a Sixpence" number between Tommy Steele and Julia Foster. I didn't get to see it all, but years later it was shown on the Disney Channel. What a great movie! Great choreography (Gillian Lynne of CATS fame), charming actors playing the leads, and all that beautiful on-location photography in England! Tommy Steele sets the screen on fire when he lets loose in a dance number, and his star turn in the role of a simple lad who gets too rich too quickly and ends up miserable is believable and touching. Julia Foster is by turns sweet, vulnerable, AND feisty as his love interest, Ann.

The film (based on the London/Bdwy stage show and directed by movie-musical veteran George Sidney) has the look and feel of an old-fashioned MGM musical, which is probably why I loved it so. It seems to be more widely known in the UK - I believe it was more popular there than in the States at the time of its release, and perhaps it gets more TV airings in the UK? It's just too bad that it's not seen more often and appreciated as it deserves.

HALF A SIXPENCE on the London stage was good. When it came to Broadway,

trimmed and faster paced, it was better. The film, therefore, was keenly

anticipated by anyone, myself included, who loved one or both versions

of the play. What a disappointment. Bloated and overlong with new and

inferior orchestrations and arraingments, the film loses all the charm

that made the musical so delightful. Filters are used for no purpose (a

la Josh Logan with SOUTH PACIFIC), lyrics are dumbed down to inanity,

cameras are moved in and out for no reason and dance numbers are

unimaginative and fall flat! The only saving grace of this mess is the

delightful Tommy Steele who starred on stage and brings his charm and

charisma to the big screen. Without him, HALF A SIXPENCE would be a

disaster; with him it is simply a dreary mis-fire at the end of the

golden age of musical films.....

Here is a funny BIG frilly musical that is also a good comedy. Imagine someone moaning that it is too big, or even dreary! What a silly thing to feel when there is many musical scenes and easy comedy with which to have a great time. HALF A SIXPENCE is a British hybrid of TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE and HELLO DOLLY and belongs in that cinematic hat box of visual candy delights. If my mixed metaphors make sense (to those who know grammar...and grammar jokes). There is lovely film is all respects. It is raucous and silly and loaded with enough art direction and 'whalloping' stereo musical numbers to please even (Darling) Lili or even Leslie Caron at champagne best. HALF A SIXPENCE is actually a Teen musical but set in Victorian England. The dance numbers are just plain great, and humorous MGM veteran musical director George Sidney has delivered yet again. The music and tunes are memorable and if you see this film with educated kids, they get it and the experience is is a genuine family delight. A 'zac' in Oz vernacular is a sixpence...and there is more value than that in this DVD box of musical chocolates. Just enjoy it. Like those films also mentioned above. It has to be better than seeing Adam Sandler urinating on a door in BIG DADDY, the s-bend of 'family' movies for this clever new century.