Make Mine a Million

This is actually quite entertaining,a surprise for an Askey film.Send up of the battle for viewers between BBC and the new ITV channel.It is self referential.All of the guest stars appeared in Jack Hilton programmes for .Bruce Set on who played Fabian of the Yard on tv plays police inspector in this film.

Historically noteworthy as the final production of John Baxter - it's vaguely satirical storyline at the expense of TV commercials carrying echoes of the social concern of his thirties films - and preserving for posterity various luminaries of the era (some of them - like racing tipster Ras Prince Monolulu - making very fleeting gag appearances as themselves).

Not for the first time Lance Comfort's direction and Arthur Grant's photography go well beyond the call of duty in making it all remarkably enjoyable to experience.

'Make Mine a Million' is a riotously rumbustious, classic music Hall-style, frightfully frilly farce with plentiful slapstick silliness, and crispy-corny, quick-fire japes! This sun-bright, and summer breezy bit of frothy, eminently titter-worthy nonsense is about the playful, but increasingly desperate travails of an earnest, and somewhat penurious Soap Power salesman (Sidney James), and his amusingly spiv-ish, comedically fraught escapades as he frantically, and somewhat inventively attempts to turn his unknown 'Bonko' brand of 'miracle' soap powder into a national top seller! These delightfully comedic, full-throttle misadventures are brought to vividly frothing life with two larger than life performances by luminous national treasures Arthur Askey, and Carry On Cackling legend Sid James, with a nice turn from the beloved TV star Bernard Cribbins. What keeps 'Make Mine a Million' from being a wash-out is its infectiously roustabout, rib-tickling charm, sparklingly sprightly sight gags, and bonkers 'Bonko' buffoonery! There are also brief, but no less glistering cameo's from bubbly Babs Windsor, cuddly Kenneth Connor, blissfully Buxom starlet Sabrina, and mirth-master Tommy Trinder! Any giddy-headed, smile-seeking fan of vintage British comedy should give 'Make Mine a Million' a spin, as this whiter-than-white, wholesomely family-friendly, wonderfully winsome comedy is clean as a whistle, mayte, and features yet another smoothly sonorous score from mood maestro Stanley Black.

While I really liked Hay's movies, Aksey's left me flat. So, I was a bit hesitant when I found "Make Mine a Million" on YouTube today. Fortunately, my assumption was wrong...and this Askey film is delightful and clever.

Arthur is a lowly (and barely competent) make-up man for British TV. However, his life is about to change tremendously. This is because he develops a friendship with a man who makes Bonko laundry detergent....and he manages to insert an ad for Bonko into a broadcast! Then, he manages to do it again when a horse race is being televised. Immediately, the public go crazy for the soap...so much so that a cake mix company comes to Arthur to ask him to do some gorilla-style advertising for them as well! What's next? See the film.

The plot is very clever. Think about it...a guy managing to create ways for products to be inserted into live broadcasts in order to save costs on advertising! The police are naturally NOT happy about it. Can Arthur manage to do this without going to jail? And, what happens when Arthur becomes a sensation and the public want more of him?!

Overall, a lovely film and it makes me think perhaps I was too hasty in disliking Askey.

Arthur Askey plays a make-up man working for National TV (a thinly disguised BBC) inveigled into advertising a washing powder, the improbably named Bonko! by its rascally promoter Sid James. The plan works, Arthur is fired but Bonko! sales boom. Then another promoter turns up at the Bonko! 'factory' run from three public call boxes, to engage Sid and Arthur to advertise cake mix on the National in the same way.

This is a light comedy with likable characters which is very much of its time, never letting up. Though to call it a satire would be pushing it a bit, a lot of fun is had parodying the BBC as envisaged by Lord Reith, also the sheep-like nature of the public who won't buy a product that hasn't been advertised "on the telly". In fact commercial TV had only arrived in the UK three years previously, in the face of determined opposition from some influential voices in Parliament and other sections of the media; the idea of any sort of advert on the BBC was taboo. Askey was at the height of his popularity at the time and was one of the first major UK TV stars, though he had been in the entertainment business for decades already. Here, he's his chirpy, irrepressible self, whether quipping with landlady Olga Lindo, or incongruously plugging Dermot Walsh's "slap-happy cake mix" on stage with the Royal Ballet, in an amusing and adeptly directed scene. Yet, along with Benny Hill, he seems to have become a non-person in the eyes of many of the professional pundits on British comedy. He works well with Sid James, as funny as ever, playing the same kind of comical rogue he did so well in the Hancock radio series. The guest stars include Sabrina, who appeared in Askey's TV shows, causing an early case of carping from moral watchdogs. It's all a fascinating glimpse of TV at the time, and can be recommended to all who, as Edwin Richfield's lugubrious plain-clothes cop observes at the ballet "prefer a good laugh".