A Boy, a Girl and a Bike **½ (1949, John McCallum, Honor Blackman, Patrick Holt, Diana Dors) – Classic Movie Review 10,343

Honor Blackman and Diana Dors light up A Boy, a Girl and a Bike (1949).

Director Ralph Smart’s 1949 A Boy, a Girl and a Bike stars John McCallum as David Howarth, a handsome rich chap who becomes a new recruit at an English North Country mill town push-bike society, provoking ripples among the girls.

Smart’s meekly genteel romantic comedy is appealing and likeable, even if made and acted without much especial confidence or gusto, though the young Diana Dors impresses as the Yorkshire cycling club’s man-chaser Ada Foster and the young Honor Blackman is a very welcome presence as Susie Bates, with Thora Hird an essential component as Mrs Bates, who runs the club’s café.

Honor Blackman and Patrick Holt play the young couple Sue and Sam, keen members of the Wakeford Wheelers, but then David (McCallum) joins the club to pursue Sue, upsetting Sam.

Ted Willis’s screenplay is sporadically diverting, though it is packed with clichés on both the romantic and comedy fronts, with both the romance and the comedy often striking very hollow notes. However, the film has huge nostalgia value, and does provide a valuable portrait of a vanished Northern Britain, a happy, carefree world of bicycle clubs and open roads, as well as glimpses of all the vanished actors.

Also in the cast are Patrick Holt, Leslie Dwyer, Thora Hird, Anthony Newley, Megs Jenkins, Maurice Denham, Alison Leggatt, Julien Mitchell, Amy Veness, John Blythe, Hal Osmond, Maggie Hanley [Margaret Avery], Margot Bourke, Geoffrey Best, John Howlett, Joan Seton, Lyn Evans, Vera Cook, Barry Letts, Barbara Murray, Marianne Stone, Bernard Hepton, Cyril Chamberlain, Valerie Pearson, Ben Williams, Charles Saynor, Gerald Lawson, Dennis Peck, Patrick Halstead, and Jimmy Savile as Cyclist (uncredited).

A Boy, a Girl and a Bike is directed by Ralph Smart, runs 92 minutes, is made by Gainsborough Pictures, is released by General Film Distributors (1949) (UK), is written by Ted Willis, based on a story by Ralph Keene and John Sommerfield, is shot in black and white by Ray Elton, is produced by Ralph Keene and Alfred Roome (associate producer), is scored by Kenneth Pakeman, and designed by Richard Yarrow.

The film is based on an idea by Sydney Box, head of production at Gainsborough Pictures, who dreamt it up when out for a Sunday drive.

It is shot at Gainsborough Studios, London, England, and on various locations in Yorkshire, including Wakefield, Hebden Bridge and Skipton.

The cycles are provided by B.S.A. Cycles Ltd.

The music is played by the London Symphony Orchestra.

RIP Honor Blackman, who died of natural causes at the age of 94 on 6 April 2020, surrounded by her loved ones at her home in Lewes, Sussex. Her family said: ‘Honor was an actor of hugely prolific creative talent. With an extraordinary combination of beauty, brains and physical prowess, along with her unique voice and a dedicated work ethic, she achieved an unparalleled iconic status.’

She is also known for playing Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (1964), Julia Daggett in Shalako (1968) and Hera in Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,343

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