Variety Jubilee

Variety Jubilee is a curious film with a thin story but it stands on its own feet as as tribute to the music hall.

In many ways it is The Good Old Days with a plot.

Starting in the Victorian era. Joe Swan and Kit Burns are friends who become a variety act. Kit marries Evelyn despite Joe also wooing her.

Eventually both Joe and Kit manage the music hall. The 1930s bring a decline to their fortunes because of radio and sound cinema.

Joe recalls the story of his life to Kit's grandson who is due to fight in the second world war.

The plot is filled with acts from the stage. There are Cancun dancers, Minstrels, the daughter of Marie Lloyd plays her mother, Wilson and Keppel (No Betty.)

Some of the acrobatics might make you wince. There is a dancer who is thrown around like a rag doll. Rather highlighting that health and safety was lower part of the bill.

Variety Jubilee is worth watching for the old time acts that have been caught for posterity.

It is difficult to classify this type of film or give it a quality rating. As a musical it does not compare well with MGM productions but I hope copies exist. It tells the story of a Music Hall and was made in 1942 when many Music Halls and theatres were still doing good business. The film contains several acts, such as Wilson,Keppel and Betty,which may not be recorded elsewhere. My memory may be wrong and maybe someone can correct me on this but I think The Ganjou Borthers and Juanita were also shown.One of the acts is Charles Coborn, not to be confused with Charles Coburn.(Coborn was the Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo) Not a great film by modern standards but of considerable historical interest.

It is somewhat ironic that this film extols the music halls whose decline it contributed to in no little measure. Though music halls would survive the talkies,the return of television after the ending of the war would cause it's final demise in the 1960s. So watch this film as reflecting the finale flourishing of an established form of entertainment.

There are so many stars of the halls featured in this film. Starting with Charles Coborn,The Ganjou Brothers, Wilson and Keppel minus Betty.and the Prime Minister of mirth, George Robey.

The climax is the band of the Cold stream guards.

The film is co written by Mabel Constanduous,who created the first family on radio,the Buggins family.

The narrative, wrapped around the many excellent music-hall turns in this film, is maudlin at best, but it serves to provide a history of a particular music-hall from the era preceding WWI to the era of WWII. When I play my VHS copy for people, I simply zoom through the story line to watch matchless and perfectly executed acts like Slim Rhyder, Charles Coborn (in his nineties!), the great George Robey, Wilson, Keppel & Betty and some younger variety stars impersonating earlier stars. The IMDb listing is in error as regards Marie Lloyd: the listing assumes that it was she in the movie and that she was billed as Marie Lloyd, Jr. Indeed, it was her daughter Marie Jr. who impersonated her mother, Marie Lloyd. As a previous reviewer noted, it is difficult to give a rating to a film like Variety Jubilee. The best analogy I can think of it that of archeology. To find this film (or Elstree Calling) is to discover a rare artifact of an earlier generation of clever and amusing stars. If you expect surroundsound, wide screen, color and jump cuts or have little interest in the history of show business, you won't see its value. The narrative merits a 3; the acts (or "turns" as the British call them) merit a 10.

The storyline in Variety Jubilee is corny to say the least and some of the acting leaves an awful lot to be desired but the shortcomings of this film are more than made up by the cast list of music hall stars. Charles Coborn "trod the boards" for over 60 years and was over 90 years old when appearing in the film, whilst the rendition of The Can Can by "the ladies of the ballet" is surely one of the finest captured on celluloid. George Robey, Slim Rhyder The Ganjou Brothers & Juanita etc are now but distant memories but in their day were true stars and Variety Jubilee offers a rare view of some wonderful talent. As far as I am aware very few people are aware of what, in view of its music hall content is, in my opinion a minor classic of a film although thanks to the wonder of the internet I was able to obtain a copy of a DVD originally video recorded from UK TV many years ago. It is well worth tracking down a copy as the likes of these marvellous entertainers are gone for ever. Forget the acting and wallow in 90 minutes of nostalgia.