Date with a Dream ** (1948, Terry-Thomas, Jeannie Carson, Bill Lowe, Len Lowe, Wally Patch, Vic Lewis, Ida Patlanksi, Norman Wisdom) – Classic Movie Review 12,310

Director Dicky Leeman’s 1948 British musical comedy film Date with a Dream stars Terry-Thomas, Jeannie Carson, Bill Lowe, Len Lowe, Wally Patch, Vic Lewis, and Ida Patlanksi, with Norman Wisdom, Sydney Bromley, and Elton Hayes. It is the first film of British production company Tempean Films.

Four wartime concert party performers (Terry-Thomas, Bill Lowe, Len Lowe, Wally Patch) decide to re-form the group a year after World War Two and are joined by a young woman (Jeannie Carson), who is a romance magnet for all the men.

Date with a Dream is a modest, scrappily written but short and amusing little musical comedy, with Terry-Thomas’s expertise and liveliness seeing it through, though he was yet to develop his trademark cad persona, plus the attraction of the film debut of Norman Wisdom as the shadow boxer, though he appears only in a very brief, non-speaking role.

Terry-Thomas was married to co-star Ida Patlanksi from 1938 to 1962.

A long-vanished film finally reappeared for its British TV debut in February 2003.

Also in the cast are Wally Patch, Alfie Dean, Patrick Doherty, Julia Lang, Vic Lewis, Joey Porter, Patrick Rose, Thelma Tuson, and Harry Green.

The British film production company Tempean Films was formed in 1948 by Robert S Baker and Monty Berman, and their first production was Date with a Dream (1948), the screen debut of Norman Wisdom. They later moved into TV, making The Saint (1962 – 1969) with Roger Moore.

Robert S Baker (27 October 1916 – 30 September 2009).

Monty Berman (16 August 1913 – 14 June 2006).

Hotelier’s daughter Ida Patlanski was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1903. She helped to run a small dancing school before moving to London in 1937 and assumed the name Pat. Terry-Thomas (born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens) met her while she was auditioning in London for a partner for her flamenco dancing act. They established a popular cabaret double-act, Terri and Patlanski, with Terry-Thomas as comedian, and married on 3 February 1938 at Marylebone Register Office. They divorced on 1 February 1962, estranged for the previous eight years.

In August 1963 Terry-Thomas married Belinda Cunningham, a 21-year-old he met on holiday in Majorca two years earlier.

In 1967 Terry-Thomas designed his own house on the Spanish island of Ibiza. His former wife Pat moved to the nearby island of Majorca, and their relationship with her became warm. Patlanski also had a firm friendship with Terry-Thomas’s wife.

Terry-Thomas was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1971, and by 1983, with his medical bills at £40,000 a year, he was having financial problems. He and his wife sold their dream house and moved into Pat’s small cottage, which she left to him in her will on her death in June that year.

The cast are Terry-Thomas as Terry, Jeannie Carson [Jean Carson] as Jean, Len Lowe as Len, Bill Lowe as Bill, Wally Patch as Uncle, Vic Lewis as Vic, Ida Patlanski [Ida Patlansky] as Bedelia, Joey Porter as Max Imshy, Alfie Dean as Joe, Julia Lang as Madam Docherty, Harry Green as Syd Marlish, Norman Wisdom as Shadow Boxer, Sydney Bromley as Stranger in Max’s office, Elton Hayes as singer, Patrick Doherty, Julia Lang, Joey Porter, Patrick Rose, and Thelma Tuson as Rehearsing Soprano.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,310

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