Get Cracking

A glimpse of wartime life and the battles between villages to defend their platoons. George and Dina Sheridan worked well together, and the battle for a Vickers gun against Ronald Shiner was well played out with George on roller skates covered in 'flour' looking like ghost.. Classic film. Can't get enough of this one.

I happen to be biased, as I now own the Morris 8 tourer car that 'Everard' - (Ronald Shiner) owned at the the garage and had the Vickers gun in that he and George were arguing over, and also that wouldn't start when all the rotor arms were found under the bonnet.

Great film, and check out "The Demi Paradise" where my same car also had a small part in, with Miss Dudley-Ward & Lawrence Olivier.

George Formby joins the Home Guard and vows to defend Minor Wallop in Lancashire from the enemy -- Major Wallop in Lancashire. This quickly evolves into the usual mix of stage routines, musical interludes provided by George and some actual bits of plots that the director, Marcel Varnel, lets leak through to the audience when he isn't running comedy bits past them. It was his specialty, after all.

Anyone familiar with the 1960s British TV comedy "Dad's Army" will recognize what is going on here, and will be thoroughly pleased with the rough mixture of silliness and seriousness. Everyone takes what is going on very seriously, except for E.V.H.Emmett, who narrates the beginning of the movies in mock-solemn tones; the erratic nature of supplies for the home guard and presence of evacuees hints at the self-proclaimed tough-minded nature of the Lancashire lads and lassies that Our George represented.

I have to confess that I like every George Formby film – more or less. What this one lacks in plot it makes up with atmosphere, of a safe fairytale Britain that never existed but came closest to between the World Wars. Of pretending everyone was in the same boat fighting a common (and uncommon) enemy and encouragement with flag-wavers like this for everyone to do their bit. As we're finding nowadays, a House divided falls.

Here we see what happens when the lads of the village got cracking, with the formation of a Local Defence Volunteers force (the Home Guard, or Dad's Army as they came to be known and also a great UK TV series 1968-1977) to be ready for a Nazi invasion in the two small villages of Minor and Major Wallop, and the results of their rivalry to posses a Vickers gun. There's a cracking cast: George is just George naturally, girlfriend Dinah Sheridan, wise old Edward Rigby and Wally Patch as George's friendly superiors, avuncular Frank Pettingell and nasty Ronald Shiner as their rivals, Irene Handl always on the lookout for her elusive son Ben, and Vera Francis, still an evacuee but sadly underused here. Favorite bits: the Hellzappopin type opening minutes; the night raid on Pemberton's shop looking for the gun. Songs: Get Cracking (on march), Home Guard Blues (on the tank) and the witty Under The Blasted Oak (in George's Garage).

For me, it's a pleasant 90 minutes every time I watch it; of course people who don't like Formby at all but watch this anyway will have a real battle on their hands.

In this very atmospheric film. George is already in the Home Guard and we join the story when he is a dispatch rider. Starts film as a Lance Corporal but due to blondering is demoted. However George comes across as very intelligent and saves the day. Lots of set jokes. With an insight into the way the country thought in 1940's. Great support cast. I really enjoyed this film.

Formby made 7 films for Columbia and this is probably the best of them.Possibly because the topic was so contemporary. This film rather confirms rivalry between platoons as shown in Dad's Army. George was coming to the end of his time as a film star.Ronnie Shiner,who has a supporting role here became a big star in the fifties,as to a lesser extent,Dinah Sheridan.