Elstree Calling *** (1930, Hitchcock et al) – Classic Movie Review 1004

Made at the dawn of cinema sound in 1930, this star-studded revue movie, filmed at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, showcases and records for posterity some of the best 30s British musical comedy light entertainment. Charmingly, four of the sketches are in early colour, in shades of yellow and brown, including Cicely Courtneidge’s closing production number. A box-office smash, it was one of the most successful early talkies.

It’s basically just a series of turns, but the then highly trendy linking story is about a film company putting on a TV show, and the film’s highlight is a send-up of Douglas Fairbanks Sr and Mary Pickford’s The Taming of the Shrew with Anna May Wong and Donald Calthrop. A couple of sketches with Gordon Harker are directed by Alfred Hitchcock no less, but he said it was ‘of no interest what so ever’. He didn’t even want to talk about it. Ah, well, no murders, I suppose. He filmed the sequences immediately after making his triumphant early sound thriller Blackmail.

It plays as a series of 19 musical and comedy vaudeville sketches presented in the form of a live broadcast hosted by Tommy Handley. Two running gags connect the sketches, featuring an actor (that’s Calthrop) repeatedly denied air time to perform Shakespeare and an inventor who tries to view the broadcast on TV.

The Hitchcock sequences, the Shrew spoof, The Three Eddies African American tap dance team, a couple of songs by Lily Morris (Why Am I Always the Bridesmaid), and the appearances of Jack Hulbert (who performs I Say to You, You Say to Me), Cicely Courtneidge (who performs I’ve Fallen in Love), Will Fyffe (who performs Twelve and a Tanner a Bottle, Handley, Harker and Teddy Brown and His Orchestra make it a must for music hall and vintage movie buffs. It’s a bit of a treasure trove, in fact.

The ensemble numbers are directed by Jack Hulbert, André Charlot and Paul Murray.

The film’s now restored and reissued on DVD.

See also The Elstree Story, directed by Gilbert Gunn in 1952, an appealing and worthwhile short compilation of the British studio’s finest hours. Richard Todd appears as himself. Among the valuable film clips are Hitchcock’s Number Seventeen, Bulldog Drummond, Arms and the Man, Piccadilly, The Informer and Elstree Calling.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1004

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com