Davy ** (1958, Harry Secombe, Ron Randell, Alexander Knox, Susan Shaw, George Relph, Bill Owen) – Classic Movie Review 7089

The British theatrical poster for Davy (1958).

Director Michael Relph draws the bitter-sweet short straw of making Ealing Studios’ last comedy, the 1957 Davy, which is engaging enough but rather a sad affair. Harry Secombe stars as a young music-hall singing star entertainer called Davy Morgan (Secombe), one of The Mad Morgans comic team, who weighs the chance of opera stardom with London’s Royal Opera House offered to him by producer Sir Giles Manning (Alexander Knox) against remaining in the family vaudeville act.

Davy gets an audition scene at Covent Garden. But his sister Gwen (Susan Shaw) worries about the future of her marriage with George (Ron Randell) if the team splits.

Lots of deservedly popular British faces from the Fifties and some deservedly popular classic opera tunes give Davy some pep, and there are obvious echoes of Secombe’s real-life radio programme The Goon Show in the humour, but William Rose’s often soppy screenplay and Relph’s rather uninspired direction hold it on a low note. Secombe sings Puccini’s Nessun Dorma in his fine tenor voice and Mozart’s Voi Che Sapete is performed by Adele Leigh.

Secombe’s goonish farcical acting sits uncomfortably with the film’s moral conflicts and cosy values. And that is a shame, because it is an interesting theme with a potentially super part for the always likeable and engaging Secombe. The colour and widescreen are welcome, in a film that cost a higher than usual $458,000, the first British film in Technirama. It was planned as a vehicle to launch Secombe as a film star, but it was not a success, earning only $40,000 in the US and Canada and $265,000 elsewhere, losing $279,000.

Peter Frampton, who plays young Tim, remembers Davy fondly, as ‘it meant time off school and star treatment.’ He went on to work on Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972) and win the Oscar for Best Makeup for Braveheart. Also in the cast are George Relph, Bill Owen, Adele Leigh, Isabel Dean, Kenneth Connor, Joan Sims as a Tea Lady, Gladys Henson as a Tea Lady, George Moon, Clarkson Rose, Liz Fraser as a Tea Lady, Charles Lamb, Arnold Marlé, Campbell Singer, Rachel Roberts, Bernard Cribbins as the Stage Hand, Collins Music Hall (uncredited) and Ron Moody as the Unicyclist (uncredited).

Davy is directed by Michael Relph, runs 85 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios, is released by MGM, is written by William Rose, is shot in Technicolor by Douglas Slocombe, produced by Michael Balcon and Basil Dearden, and scored by Eric Rogers, with Art Direction by Alan Withy. Reginald Goodall conducts  The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Dock Mathieson is the conductor and musical director.

Davy is available on The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection – Volume 4 DVD, along with BIRDS OF PREY (1930), THE SECRET OF THE LOCH (1934) and THE LOVES OF JOANNA GODDEN (1947).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7089

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