Sing as We Go!

Sing As We Go is a perfect example of the appeal that Gracie Fields had for the United Kingdom during the Depression Years. Plucky Gracie the eternal optimist who met life on its own terms with a smile and a song and not a few good belly laughs. She was the perfect symbol of the working class working woman in Great Britain.

In her town in Northern England, the main employer is a mill which has had to shut down. They might re-open if the owners led by John Loder can convince an industrialist of a new process for refining cotton. Until then Gracie and the whole town is on the 'dole' which is what they called welfare back then. In the USA it was called 'relief' during those years.

Gracie decides to go to the resort town of Blackpool to pick up whatever work she can there and have a good time doing it. She's staying with cousin Dorothy Hyson who Loder would like to take up with when he visits Blackpool on holiday.

Blackpool is quite the resort area still in the UK and the film was shot there and offers a marvelous look at life during the Depression in Great Britain. Folks had to amuse themselves with simple pleasures and in Blackpool they did it with gusto.

Fields had a marvelous comic genius, the equivalent of Lucille Ball and she also had a great singing voice, not just for comic songs, but for serious ballads as well, though we don't see that here. Her records still sell well on CDs in the United Kingdom.

It was another world. "'t Mill closed" doesn't ring much with us today, but it was life and death to the working towns of north England. Gracie plays her usual role as the decent "Our Gracie" character she really was, and doesn't, as usual, get her man- but she stays ours.

Interesting film to watch as an almost-documentary: lots of behind-the-action shots of what life was like in that set, at that time of history.

Little wonder that Gracie was one of the top film stars of the thirties.Her exuberant personality shines through throughout the film. The film is now almost a social document showing how holidays were spent in Blackpool. This is still a very entertaining film

The Blackpool crowd is almost the star, accompanied always by the wheeeeeeeeee!!!!!! sounds of the funfair. Gracie has a hopeless crush on the millowner's son, but goggle-eyed Hezekiah Crawther pops up at the psychological moment to sing a heartrending harmony to her heartbroken ballad. Their rendition of 'Thora' with Gracie in a false moustache is also one to treasure. Will Grace find happiness with Stanley Holloway's policeman? She deserves to. A perfect vignette of a crowd, a place, a time.

I have a sneaking feeling that Sing As We Go was the late film critic Leslie Halliwell's favourite film of all time. It was in his Top 100, in the '70's he scripted at least 2 UK ITV Clapperboard programmes about it, and the tape I've got comes from '89, when UK Channel 4 let him show a season of his favourites. It's wonderful what rose-tinted spectacles can do - unfortunately I didn't see this at 5 years old as he did, and in situ, so to write. It's been a world away for a couple of generations now, the only probable solace for serious viewers is examining and later presenting dissertations at their University on the significance of and from an enlightened historical perspective the social conditions prevalent in North West England in the early '30's, and the way it was (conventionally) displayed on screen for mass consumption by the plebs. Being merely a pleb I've always enjoyed SAWG, warts an' all, purely from an entertainment point of view!

Gracie thrown on t' dole, finds odds jobs in Blackpool, helps the beautiful girl from London Dorothy Hyson land the handsome London-type John Loder that she's been carrying torch for herself. Some nice action shots at the Pleasure Beach, and some nice songs along the way. "Love, wonderful love" especially showed Gracie's marvellous voice off well, "Sing As We Go" itself, as well as "Just A Catchy Little Tune" were chopped about at the dictates of the script. It's a pity Stanley Holloway didn't get time to do "Sam" or summat, but as least he's there, and he does do a short routine near the end. Frank Pettingell is sterling as drunken Uncle Murgatroyd, but again regrettably his intriguing past career as a clock-mender was skimmed over with a few witticisms.

You won't see a more 1930's Northern-authentic film than this, and although it probably isn't in my Top 100, with an open mind and heart it's a joy to watch.