Cheer Boys Cheer *** (1939, Nova Pilbeam, Edmund Gwenn, Jimmy O’Dea, Graham Moffatt, Moore Marriott, Peter Coke, C V France) – Classic Movie Review 7,090

The 1939 British comedy film Cheer Boys Cheer is Ealing Studios’ last release before WW2, with its delightful players Nova Pilbeam, Edmund Gwenn, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott providing considerable cheer.

Director Walter Forde’s 1939 British film Cheer Boys Cheer is an early Ealing Studios comedy, helping to establish the themes and style for classics to come, and providing considerable cheer, especially for its delightful players.

Edmund Gwenn stars as inferior brewer Edward Ironside, who enlists his son John (Peter Coke) in a ruse to acquire and close the brewing company of his venerable rival Greenleaf (C V France). But a romance between John and Greenleaf’s lovely daughter Margaret (Nova Pilbeam) gets in the way.

Never mind that the plot was old in Shakespeare’s day – rival brewing bosses find that their children have fallen for each other. Gwenn plays the greedy, slick maker of factory beer who wants to take over Greenleaf (France)’s small, old-fashioned brewery, so he sends his son John (Coke) to take a position in Greenleaf’s firm to spy and wreak havoc from within. But the plan goes awry when John (Coke) falls for Greenleaf’s daughter Margaret (Pilbeam).

Gwenn and France are good fun, while Coke and Pilbeam are bright and amusing as the romantic young things. Also in the cast are Jimmy O’Dea, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt, Alexander Knox, Ivor Barnard, Jean Webster-Brough and Sidney Monckton.

Cheer Boys Cheer was made by Ealing Studios, a year after Michael Balcon took over from Basil Dean as production head. It was Ealing’s last film in peacetime, released just before the start of the Second World War, and, as such, its story was probably designed in part as a parable for the clash between England and Germany, with the Ironsides as the modern set-up seeking territorial expansion to crush its rivals and seize their business and the Greenleafs as the smaller, considerately run, traditional company. Ironside’s dictatorial owner is even shown reading Mein Kampf!

Even after the war, the Ealing comedies regularly continued these themes of big versus small and traditional versus modern in films like Hue and Cry (1947), The Titfield Thunderbolt and Passport to Pimlico.

Filming began in late March 1939 and ended two days ahead of schedule in early May 1939.

Though Walter Forde spent a week scouting locations at breweries throughout England, a fully functional brewery and yard was built on the largest stage at Ealing Studios.

Cheer Boys Cheer is directed by Walter Forde, runs 85 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios and Associated Talking Pictures, is released by Associated British Film Distributors, is written by Roger MacDougall and Allan MacKinnon, from a story by Ian Dalrymple and Donald Bull, is shot in black and white by Ronald Neame and Gordon Dines, is produced by Michael Balcon and S C Balcon (associate producer), is scored by Ernest Irving (musical director), Van Phillips and Alfred Ralston, and is designed by Wilfred Shingleton.

It is available on The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection – Volume 9 DVD.

Nova Pilbeam (15 November 1919 – 17 July 2015) is remembered for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), as Lady Jane Grey in Tudor Rose (1936) and for Hitchcock’s Young and Innocent (1937).

In 1939 she married film director Pen Tennyson, who had just made his first film for Ealing, There Ain’t No Justice (1939). He died in a plane crash on 7 July 1941 after directing three films.

Moore Marriott (14 September 1885 – 11 December 1949) and Graham Moffatt (6 December 1919 – 2 July 1965) are best remembered for their films with Will Hay.

The cast are Nova Pilbeam as Margaret Greenleaf, Edmund Gwenn as Edward Ironside, Jimmy O’Dea as Matt Boyle, Moore Marriott as Geordie, Graham Moffatt as Albert Baldwin, C V France as Tom Greenleaf, Peter Coke as John Ironside, Alexander Knox as Saunders, Ivor Barnard as Naseby, Walter Forde as pianist at wedding, James Knight as Ironside’s chauffeur, Hay Plumb as Greenleaf employee, Charles Rolfe as Ironside thug, Harry Terry as brewery worker, Jean Webster-Brough as Maggie, and Sidney Monckton.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,090

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Peter Coke plays young John Ironside.