Not So Dusty

Just found this film on the Talking Pictures TV Channel, I thought I'd take a shufty at it.

There is an old saying from the North of England that my mum used to say, "I'm not so dusty well brushed" which meant "I'm not so bad as I seem/look".

Though I don't know if that's where the film title comes from.

If that is the derivation of the movie title it is not at all appropriate as it is so Dusty, it's covered in cobwebs so ancient is the material.

If this in not bad enough it gets worse when Bill Owen starts singing, and Lobelia gets her number later on.

I don't know who wrote the script but it's so corny the gags were doubtless nicked, from from one of the old music hall comics like Arthur Askey.

Despite the presence of Bill Owen and Leslie Dwyer as two working class dustman, the script is so poor, that to say this was a considered a B film is being too kind. The storyline where Owen and Dwyer come across a rare and valuable book, which then gets passed around is tedious in the extreme. Dandy Nichols, who achieved later success playing the wife of Alf Garnett, makes a valiant effort to inject some humour into the proceedings, but a daft script is even too much for her! This is a very dated film and strictly for lovers of turgid 'comedies' made in the 50's. No wonder these type of films are consigned to the museum of awfully, cheap films, where only film buffs look at them out of curiosity! Give it a big miss!

Bill Owen and Leslie Dwyer are a couple of dust men -- trash collectors for the Americans -- who are given a book as a reward by an old lady. As soon as it vanishes, up pops an American who claims he's willing to pay five thousand pounds for an American collector. And so round it goes.

Directed by Maclean Rogers, he had directed an earlier version of this in 1936, starring the author of the piece, Wally Patch. The title may proclaim otherwise, but the situations, jokes, and performances are moldering, and Rogers is not the director to pull anything fresh out of anything. With Joy Nichol, Bill Shine, Dandy Nichols, and Tony Quinn.

One of a long list of "churn em out quick and cheap" films of the fifties. Bill Owen is amongst the cast of dustmen who make a few quid from a rare book.The book " does the rounds" as it passes from one person to another before ending up in the right hands. The only odd piece of casting seems to be the girl playing Lobelia who somehow looks out of place amongst a cast of chirpy cockneys.

Also notable for featuring actors who found fame later in life. Bill Owen as Compo in Last Of the Summer Wine, Leslie Dwyer as the kid's entertainer in Hi De Hi, Dandy Nicholls as the silly moo in Til Death, Harold Berens in the Prisoner and William Simons ( Derek the schoolboy) as PC Ventress in Heartbeat

Another remake by Maclean Rogers of a quota quickie he made in the thirties (presumably he was responsible for the 'topical' gags that are sprinkled throughout this new version). Wally Patch, who co-wrote the earlier version in which he originally played the title role, plays a villainous supporting role this time round.

As usual, it's painful to see a book supposedly worth thousands (Volume 1 of 'The Philosophy of Diogenes' on this occasion) being roughly handled by people who plainly have no idea how to really handle rare books (or any books at all, since Dandy Nichols casually admits at one point to tearing a few pages from the back of an old algebra text book to make hair-curlers out of).