Bees In Paradise ** (1944, Arthur Askey, Anne Shelton, Jean Kent, Peter Graves) – Classic Movie Review 12,433

Arthur Askey is very jolly in the naughty British 1944 World War Two musical comedy film Bees in Paradise about four airmen marooned on a South Seas isle.

Co-writer/ director Val Guest’s 1944 Gainsborough Pictures British musical comedy film Bees in Paradise stars Arthur Askey, Anne Shelton, Jean Kent, Peter Graves, Max Bacon, Ronald Shiner, Beatrice Varley, Antoinette Cellier, and Patricia Owens.

Busy bee Arthur Askey is very jolly in this naughty British World War Two wartime comedy musical about four airmen marooned on a South Seas isle where Amazon women force their husbands to commit suicide when the honeymoon’s over.

Although Arthur Tucker (Arthur Askey) loves Jani (Jean Kent), he is ordered to marry Rouana (Anne Shelton), and he is sentenced to paddling a canoe into the ocean when he tries to flee.

Bees in Paradise is very silly and rather ineptly handled, but there are some high spirits and funny lines, though not really enough, leaving Arthur Askey more or less having to carry the whole show. After the film’s poor reception, Askey promptly retired from movies for a decade.

Produced by Edward Black, it is co-written by Val Guest and Marriott Edgar.

Set on a tropical island, it was filmed in Torquay, UK.

Askey recalled that during filming the crew was strafed by the Luftwaffe and he was slightly injured.

The cast are Arthur Askey as Arthur Tucker, Anne Shelton as Rouana, Peter Graves as Peter Lovell, Max Bacon as Max Adler, Ronald Shiner as Ronald Wild, Jean Kent as Jani, Antoinette Cellier as The Queen, Joy Shelton as Almura, Beatrice Varley as Moagga, Patricia Owens, and Joy Millan.

All of the songs are written by Val Guest and Manning Sherwin: Anne Shelton – ‘Keep a Sunbeam in Your Pocket’, The Four in Harmony – ‘Women are the Greatest Ones’, Jean Kent – “I’m a Wolf on My Mother’s Side’, Arthur Askey and Anne Shelton – “It Can Happen Anywhere’, Jean Kent and Arthur Askey – “Are You Naturally Romantic?’, Arthur Askey and Max Bacon – “Keep a Sunbeam in Your Pocket (Reprise)’, The Four in Harmony, Anne Shelton, Jean Kent, and Peter Graves – “Don’t Ever Leave Me’, Anne Shelton and Joy Shelton – “The Age of Discretion’, and Arthur Askey and Anne Shelton – “Going Hither and Dither with You.

Jean Kent died on November 30 2013, aged 92. She made her name in the 1940s and 1950s starring in films from Gainsborough Pictures, including Fanny by Gaslight, Bees in Paradise, Madonna of the Seven Moons and The Wicked Lady. On another Gainsborough film, 1946′s Caravan, she met actor and her future husband Josef Ramart.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,433

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