Traveller's Joy

Googie Withers has just cut a big deal in Sweden, but British monetary regulations so limit the amount of money that British subjects can take out of the country that she cannot pay her hotel bill. Her enormously wealthy ex-husband, John McCallum, is also in Sweden, but the same regulations have him locked out of his hotel room and flat broke.

It's based on a popular stage play of the era, and like many another, it's a brittle affair, full of sniggering sexual innuendo and money worries, an attempt to update the frenetic sex farce of the Pre-Code era that evolves into Screwball comedy in the 1930s. It's supported by the charm of Miss Withers and also by a wonderful supporting role by Yolande Donlan, who manages to talk about Topic A (as Preston Sturges used to call it) while displaying an untidy wad of banknotes which she acquired by only doing what she feels like doing at the moment.

I kept feeling I shouldn't be enjoying the movie anywhere as much as I did and still do, but its well-greased mechanisms appeal to my sense of construction.

What a way for Gainsborough to write finis. This is the unfunny film of an unfunny play. The fun being based on the rigorously enforced exchange control regulations. The amount you took out of the country had to be written into a page on your passport. People were prosecuted for breach of the regulations.

One of the final nails in Gainsborough Films' coffin; eventually hammered home after spending two years on the shelf while the West End hit by Arthur Macrae completed it's run.

Presumably this gallumphing farce (with an annoyingly emphatic score by Arthur Wilkinson) owed it's popularity to it passing for sparkling sophistication in the drab context of postwar austerity Britain. But the appearance in blonde pigtails in the opening scene of Dora Bryan as a Norwegian maid called Eva gives you an idea of what to expect.

Amusing comedy about an assortment of British travellers stranded in Sweden during the era when there were severe restrictions on how much money you could take out of the UK. While waiting anxiously for a ship, they become increasingly desperate in their efforts to acquire money in order to tide them over until they can get back to Britain. Googie Withers is excellent as a smart businesswoman travelling with her male secretary, Yolande Dolan is charming as a slightly daffy girl who may or may not have some money, and Dora Bryan is amusing as the Swedish chambermaid who the hard up British keep trying to sell things to. An entertaining film about one of the odder aspects of postwar British history.

A generally unremarkable British comedy, it is however not too poorly done in itself, with a few amusing bits. Yolande Donlan is the perfect choice to play her character: she adds some sparks with her liveliness, and also to its virtue, the film begins with a montage sequence that provides a feel for the setting quite well. The music used is applied in a clichéd manner, the story lacks credibility, and some characters are plain silly too, but these are not aspects that really bring the film below average. It is dreary at times and never hilarious, but overall it is worth a look, with some good moments to be had along the way.