Fiddlers Three ** (1944, Tommy Trinder, Frances Day, Sonnie Hale, Diana Decker) – Classic Movie Review 10,738

Director Harry Watt’s 1944 British black-and-white comedy with musical sections Fiddlers Three [While Nero Fiddled] is a cut-price version of the similar Eddie Cantor’s Roman Scandals with Tommy Trinder and Sonnie Hale as over-cheerful sailors Tommy Taylor and The Professor, who are hit by lightning while sheltering from a storm with a Wren called Lydia (Diana Decker) at Stonehenge, and in their dreams being whisked back to ancient Rome.

Tommy Trinder can amuse Nero (Francis L Sullivan) with his Carmen Miranda impression.

There they find that their ability to foretell the future saves their lives and that Trinder can amuse the Roman emperor Nero (a superiorly camp Francis L Sullivan) with his Carmen Miranda impression. This so impresses Nero that he makes Trinder a Dame of the Roman Empire for his performance as Señorita Alvarez from Brazil.

Trinder and Hale are likeable and amusing, and the film is quite likeable and amusing too. Musical comedienne Frances Day (as the Empress Poppaea) and singer Elizabeth Welch (as Thora) have the quality but are given too little to do. There is some good-natured fun and the original screenplay (by Harry Watt, Diana Morgan and Angus MacPhail) is pretty bright, but some of the wartime humour references are pretty baffling, the Ealing Studios production is tatty and Watt fumbles the direction.

Fiddlers Three is okay as a mild diversion but still a disappointing follow-up to Trinder’s 1940 hit Sailors Three. It also disappointed at the British box office but to Ealing’s relief proved to be a major hit in Australia.

It is Kay Kendall’s debut in a bit part as the slave girl who asks about her future at orgy. James Robertson Justice also makes his film debut as Centurion of the 8th Legion. Also in the cast are Mary Clare as Volumnia, Ernest Milton as Titus, Russell Thorndike as High Priest, Frederick Piper as Auctioneer, Alec Mango as Secretary, Danny Green as Lictor, Frank Tickle as Master of Ceremonies and Robert Wyndham as Lion-Keeper.

It is produced by Michael Balcon and Robert Hamer (associate producer).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,738

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