Davy

In the 1930s English film studios produced a number of sparkling musical comedies, using established stage performers such as Lupino Lane, Jessie Matthews, and Jack Buchanan. Meanwhile Hollywood (particularly Warners and MGM) was working the backstage musical to exhaustion, including the "Broadway to Hollywood" theme of family acts broken up by the ambitions of a talented member, while Fox explored the introduction of serious music into in its popular Durbin films. The early 1940s saw the dying throes of these sub-genres. The 1950s were the golden years of Hollywood musicals, with MGM in particular producing a stream of classic musicals, some of them based on successful operettas, others being film adaptations of the naturalistic type of musical introduced to theatres in the previous decade by authors such as Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Given this history, it is hard to imagine what madness seized Ealing Studios in 1957 in trying to ape the Hollywood musicals of 20 years earlier. Did they perhaps think that filming in colour would make all the difference? If so, they were mistaken. For us Britons, this film is squirmingly embarrassing. "Champagne Charlie" (1944), "Trottie True" (1949), and "Cardboard Cavalier" (1949) had also failed to impress as film musicals, but at least they tried to create a genuinely British style. "Davy" attempts to jump on a strictly American bandwagon which had long since pulled out.

The chief interest in the film for us now is seeing early appearances of Bill Owen, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Liz Fraser, and Bernard Cribbens, all of whom would become well known and loved, and feature in a number of "Carry On" films.

An Ealing comedy with Harry Seacombe, Bernard Cribbins, Bill Owen, Joan Sims and Kenneth Connor, where could it possibly go wrong? Unfortunately as a comedy though, this is neither fish nor fowl. The Mad Morgans troupe provides a fairly inane slapstick act, which is the backdrop to Seacombe's lead, but this film isn't a comedy at all, it's a drama with operatic moments and occasional funny bits and although the operatic moments are perhaps the best parts of the film, the drama that links them is more kitchen sink than opera seria and with only brief flashes of middling comedy illuminating otherwise quite shallow characters, it's all a bit thin. But it really is worth watching, the colour is vibrant and Adele Leigh's and Seacombe's two solos along with the Covent Garden Opera Company's extract from Wagner do save this mish-mash from the scrapheap and you could almost forgive all its many failings.

...and of Covent Garden as it looked in 1957. But that aside this was a wholly misconceived last gasp to come from Michael Balcon at Ealing Studios, following their earlier equal but different failure at making a film star of Benny Hill in 'Who Done It?'

'Who Done It?' - which had been directed by Basil Dearden and produced by Michael Relph - had been a throwback to both Dearden & Ealing's slapstick comedies of the pre-war and wartime period. 'Davy' by contrast marked the first of several attempts over the next few years to launch popular British TV comedians on the big screen in Technicolor; but also remained one of the least successful. First-time director Relph (whose father George plays 'Uncle Pat') seemed overwhelmed by the wide screen, which drains the life from this expensive folly's attempts to try for pathos, in the face of a surprisingly poor script from veteran comedy writer William Rose which would probably have worked better if less elaborately produced.

The production details incorrectly show this film as having been made at Ealing.It was made at the MGM Boreham Wood studios.Unfortunately they were not that much interested in Balcon's films.Looking at this tired effort you can see why.In an ironic way the film rather mirrors the music hall it portrays.Both Balcon and the music halls were coming to their end and would be finished within a couple of years.Secombe was of course most famous for his Goon Show appearances.He also had a tremendous singing voice.However neither his singing talent and comedic abilities are enough to save this film.It does have a glimpse of what has now vanished forever.There is a brief glimpse of Clarkson Rose who was reputed to be one of the best pantomime dames ever.Secombe's film career never really took off and he made very few after this film.

The famous Ealing Studio's last comedy isn't a very good one, a far cry from such as Passport to Pimlico, Whisky Galore and the sublime Kind Hearts and Coronets. These classics as well as brilliant dramas like Dead of Night and It Always Rains on Sunday were all in black & white and perhaps it was with colour that the rot set in. Yes, I know The Ladykillers (recently remade) was in colour but wasn't it the worst colour you ever saw? Davy looks pretty muddy too, at least it did on my TV screen.

Davy, set in the world of the Music Hall, must have seemed like a good vehicle for Welsh entertainer Harry Secombe with opportunities for manic clowning and a chance to show off his beautiful baritone voice. But the film is unconvincing, and the characters not well enough developed to be sympathetic.

The story concerns Davy Morgan, a member of a third-rate comic family variety company, who has a try-out for the Covent Garden Opera but doesn't want to break up the act. This despite the fact that one performer is a hopeless alcoholic and another an obnoxious womaniser. But so long as Davy stays in the fold all will be well. Or so we are expected to believe.

There are a couple of lovely arias in the audition sequence (where did the orchestra come from when Harry sang Nessum Dorma?) otherwise Davy is hardly worth the effort.

By the way, on this evidence it wasn't television that killed the Music Hall (Vaudeville), it was live theatre consisting of old jokes, bad puns, embarrassingly unfunny slapstick and songs that are sentimental tripe.