Somewhere in England

I have never found Frank Randle to be funny.The copy I saw just had a few of his abysmal routines and antics.The rest of the film was reasonably entertaining.In his time he was popular in the North of England.Heaven knows why.

I am inserting reviews for all films I've seen that currently lack one, so this is the note I made about this film...'The first F.Randle film, which sets the tone of things to come, he plays a gormless army recruit in a camp setting, here the sub-plot involves a young cadet and a stolen lighter, it's OK.'Randle was a big star of the North of England music hall circuit, and like his more famous contemporary George Formby born in Wigan, apparently his stage act was fairly outrageous for the time, and this had to be toned down greatly in his films, so what remains is only of curio value. It's interesting to see that the English were making films featuring a camp of useless army recruits during some of the darkest days of WW2.

Somewhere in England is a Home Guard training camp, where youngsters and veterans from apparently, the War of the Roses, are undergoing basic training. The oldsters include drill sergeant Harry Korris and recruit Frank Randle. They spend much of the film doing bits of their stage acts, including an extended stretch towards the end when Randle recreates one of his "Happy Hiker" routines. They sing some mildly bawdy songs, including one written by fellow Northern favorite George Formby. There is a bit of a "serious" subplot in which youngster Harry Kemble is accused of theft, but that is handwaved away by the end. The whole thing ends with a patriotic chorus number.

It would be reasonable to write this one off as simply another quota quickie of no value, but I am reminded of some of the Judy Canova and "Weaver Brothers & Elviry" comedies from Republic in the same era. Republic Pictures is best remembered for its great number of well-produced B westerns, starring Roy Rogers and John Wayne, but their hillbilly comedies were wildly popular among their mostly rural audiences. While in England, George Formby Jr. And Gracie Fields can be cited as the top-end of the Lancaster Lads and Lasses, and are still fondly remembered, movies like this one were more typical examples of the genre.

Republic produced a John Ford western and his final Oscar winner, THE QUIET MAN. This movie, although not a particularly brilliant piece of cinema, nonetheless preserves some stage bits that were very popular in their time.... even if, like many a Republic western, it never played at a movie palace in the big city.