A Girl in a Million ** (1946, Hugh Williams, Joan Greenwood, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne) – Classic Movie Review 10,880

Francis Searle’s 1946 British comedy film A Girl in a Million stars the delightful Joan Greenwood, along with Hugh Williams, and features the ever-droll Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne.

Director Francis Searle’s 1946 British comedy film A Girl in a Million stars Joan Greenwood and Hugh Williams, features Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne in one of the 11 films they made together (notably Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes), and also features another Hitchcock favourite, Wylie Watson, Mr Memory in The 39 Steps.

Williams plays research chemist Tony, who has gone through a nasty divorce because his first wife was a shrewish, nagging chatterbox, but thinks he is safe when he gets remarried to dumb and ditzy Gay Sultzman (Greenwood), a mute beauty. But then alas Greenwood is cured, and she can speak, and his troubles begin all over again.

Despite a jolly enough premise by Muriel Box and Sydney Box (original story and screenplay), this comedy remains resolutely lacklustre. But Greenwood’s delightful performance spearheads the game acting turns that just about save the day. The tasty support cast, especially the ever-droll Radford and Wayne, as Prendergast and Fotheringham, and Watson as their snooty butler Peabody, and Eileen Joyce’s recital of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto provide delicious diversions.

Radford and Wayne made 11 films together: Crook’s Tour, Dead of Night, A Girl in a Million, It’s Not Cricket, The Lady Vanishes, Millions Like Us, The Next of Kin, Night Train to Munich, Passport to Pimlico, Quartet, and Stop Press Girl.

Also in the cast are Yvonne Owen, Hartley Power, Garry Marsh, Michael Hordern, Jane Hylton, James Knight, Edward Lexy, Millicent Wolf, Charles Rolfe, Aubrey Mallalieu and Julian D’Albie.

Francis Searle’s first feature film as a director, A Girl in a Million, turned out to be his only A picture, but he went on to enjoy a long career with many B movies.

Director Francis Searle’s feature films: A Girl in a Million (1946), Things Happen at Night (1947), Celia (1949), The Man in Black (1949), The Lady Craved Excitement (1950), Someone at the Door (1950), A Case for PC 49 (1951), Cloudburst (1951), The Rossiter Case (1951), Love’s a Luxury (1952), Never Look Back (1952), Whispering Smith Hits London (1952), Murder at 3am (1953), Wheel of Fate (1953), Profile (1954), One Way Out (1955), The Gelignite Gang (1956), Undercover Girl (1958), Murder at Site 3 (1959), Trouble with Eve (1960), Ticket to Paradise (1961), Freedom to Die (1961), Emergency (1962), Dead Man’s Evidence (1962), Gaolbreak (1962), Night of the Prowler (1962), and The Marked One (1963).

Miss MacTaggart Won’t Lie Down (1966) is the first and best in a series of 30-minute films Francis Searle called Screen Miniatures, which he made between 1966 and 1972. Others in the series are The Pale Faced Girl (1968), Talk of the Devil (1968), Gold Is Where You Find It (1968), It All Goes to Show (1969), A Hole Lot of Trouble (1971) and A Couple of Beauties (1972).

Francis Searle was born on 14 March 1909 and died on 31 July 2002, aged 93.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,880

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