Holiday Camp *** (1947, Flora Robson, Dennis Price, Jack Warner, Hazel Court, Emrys Jones, Kathleen Harrison) – Classic Movie Review 6971

The light-weight 1947 British comedy drama film Holiday Camp is based on a Godfrey Winn story about the adventures in a post-war holiday camp, mainly involving a killer (Dennis Price) on the loose, a group of gamblers and the blossoming of summer love.

Director Ken Annakin’s light-weight 1947 British comedy drama film Holiday Camp is based on a Godfrey Winn story about the adventures in a post-war holiday camp, mainly involving a killer (Dennis Price) on the loose, a group of gamblers and the blossoming of summer love.

Six credited writers try to spark up this bright and lively, though routine Gainsborough Pictures drama with a splash of camp comedy and light-hearted romance, but there is little to set the heart racing, apart from the delicious cast, who provide the best reason to buy this package.

It stars Flora Robson as Esther Harman, Dennis Price as Squadron Leader Hardwick, Emrys Jones as Michael Halliday, Jimmy Hanley as Jimmy Gardner, Jack Warner as Joe Huggett, Kathleen Harrison as Ethel Huggett, Hazel Court as Joan Huggett and Peter Hammond as Harry Huggett.

And so it introduced the Huggett family, who proved popular and earned their own film series starting with Here Come the Huggetts (1948), followed by Vote for Huggett (1949) and The Huggetts Abroad (1949).

Patricia Roc, Charlie Chester and Garry Wilmot all appear as themselves, and a very young Diana Dors dances the Jitterbug. Also in the cast are Yvonne Owen as Angela Kirby, Esmond Knight, Esma Cannon, John Blythe, Susan Shaw, Dennis Harkin, Maurice Denham, Jane Hylton, Jack Raine, John Stone, Reginald Purdell, Jack Ellis and Alfie Bass.

A very young Diana Dors dances the Jitterbug in Holiday Camp (1947).

Holiday Camp is directed by Ken Annakin, runs 97 minutes, is made by Gainsborough Pictures, is released by General Film Distributors (UK) and  Universal (US), is written by Muriel Box, Sydney Box, Ted Willis, Peter Rogers, Mabel Constanduros and Denis Constanduros, is shot in black and white by Jack E Cox, is produced by Sydney Box, and is scored by Bob Busby.

Rogers claimed he wrote the screenplay and most of the stories. He said the film succeeded ‘the same way that the Carry Ons caught on – you’ve got ordinary people doing amusing things.’

Annakin recalled: ‘The Huggetts caught the spirit and feeling that existed after the war. People didn’t want more fairy stories. They wanted something in which they could recognise themselves. I think I caught the spirit of the holiday camps and we had a very warm, natural cast.’

Nevertheless, it was nothing new, fresh maybe, but not new. Bank Holiday (1938) had established the template for this kind of film a decade earlier.

It is Annakin’s feature film directorial debut, and he went on to film all the Huggett movies. It is set and filmed at Butlin’s Holiday Camp, Filey, North Yorkshire, England, at the Skegness train station, and at the Gaumont-British Studios, Lime Grove, Shepherd’s Bush, London.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6971

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