Splinters

This film charts the formation of the World War 1 concert party called splinters in 1915.It features 2 of the original performers,Sydney Howard and Nelson Keys.the first 20 minutes shows officers coming up with the idea then interviewing the potential organisers.next we see the auditions and then the concert party.It really is a mixed bag.There is a very attractive chorus line,who,at the end of their turn,take off their wigs which is extremely funny.There is a female impersonator who sings off key.There is a very nifty pair of tap artists.There are some attempts at comedy by Howard and Nelson,which now fall rather like lead balloons.Towards the end there is an enemy attack and everyone has to go to the front.So we see the rather incongruous sight of the chorus line putting on their battledress tunics over their dresses!In the battle scenes the lack of modulation of sound is quite apparent as dialogue cannot be heard above the gunfire.Audiences who saw it on its release will have enjoyed it bearing in mind that this film was made only 11 years after the end of the war.Today it is more of a historic record.

In 1915 General Sir Henry Horne ordered the formation of a concert party to raise the spirits of British troops fighting in France. It was such a success that later a theatre was built to house the show (called "Splinters"). At the end of the War some of the men who'd appeared in the shows (including Eliot Makeham, who went on to have a successful film career) staged a version of the show in London and on tour. It consisted largely of female impersonation. According to the book "British Theatre Between the Wars" the tours continued until the late 1930s. This film version, shot at the new Elstree Studios, is a valuable record of some of the songs and two sketches from the stage show. It sounds as though they were performed to a live audience, which is very receptive to the Army jokes and risqué humour. Unfortunately a wrap- around story has been added showing the concert party being established and then performing in the heat of battle. The delivery of the dialogue in these sequences is so slow that at times it seems in danger of grinding to a halt. The show extracts, however, are fascinating. To correct the earlier review, the performers re-creating their stage roles are not Sydney Howard and Nelson Keys but Hal Jones and Reg Stone. Stone was called "the most amusing female impersonator in England." His style, possibly modelled on Julian Eltinge, is elegant and very convincing. He and Jones (and Sydney Howard) returned in a sequel "Splinters in the Navy".

With the Battle of Loos about to erupt, the British High Command decides that what Britain needed to beat Jerry was a giant camp show, with entertainers drawn from combat units. Thus was born the Splinters show, an all-male revue -- including some surprisingly dainty female impersonators. When the War ended, the entertainers were demobbed simultaneously. Most of them reformed for a series of shows that ran into the 1930s. This movie recounts the forming of the troupe and includes several of the performances, as well as a couple of then-popular music-hall entertainers.

It has the appeal of a weird sort of nostalgia, like people who used to go to the 21 Club to order creamed chipped beef on toast at premium prices. Like many of the previously unavailable movies from 1929, the copies that are showing up are not in very good shape. The sound is all right, except when there's gunfire, which tends to dampen the music.