Home and Away ** (1956, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Lana Morris, Charles Victor, Thora Hird, Leslie Henson, Harry Fowler) – Classic Movie Review 6989

Co-writer/ director Vernon Sewell’s 1956 movie Home and Away is not the film of the Eighties TV soap, but a merry typically Fifties British B-comedy with a fairly dreadful plot about a working-class family that wins the football pools, and a pretty unfunny script. But there is an extremely tasty cast, who proceed with a warm will and a good heart, and rescue it gamely.

Kathleen Harrison and Jack Warner resume their screen partnership that started in Holiday Camp (1947) and continued in the Huggetts series. The adorable Harrison stars with the equally loveable Warner as London couple, Elsie and George Knowles, who believe that they have won the treble chance jackpot on the football pools. They party to celebrate.

But actually the winning ticket belongs to their teenage son Johnnie (Bernard Fox) and his workmate buddy Sid Jarvis (Harry Fowler). Then the friend’s greedy widowed mum (Valerie White) plots to wrest the ticket from the boys by locking her son up, in a naughty pool-swindle scam.

With the screenplay by Sewell and R F Delderfield, based on the play Treble Trouble by Heather McIntyre, Home and Away is a minor vintage comedy from an obviously simpler era but, thanks to the cast and their high spirits, it is amusing enough.

Also in the cast are Lana Morris, Charles Victor, Thora Hird, Leslie Henson, Harry Fowler, Valerie White, Kate O’Mara [aka Merrie Carroll], Sam Kydd, Bernard Fox, Margaret St Barbe West and Ross Pendleton.

Home and Away is directed by Vernon Sewell, runs 81 minutes, is made by Guest-Conquest and George Maynard Productions, is distributed by Eros Films, is written by Vernon Sewell (play adaptation) and R F Delderfield (additional dialogue), based on the play Treble Trouble by Heather McIntyre, is shot in black and white by Basil Emmott, produced by George Maynard, scored by Robert Sharples and designed by Duncan Sutherland.

It was shot at National Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, UK.

It was released on 5 September 1956 (UK).

The Saturday football scores on the radio are from 28 April 1956.

Harrison played the London East End charwoman Mrs Huggett, alongside Jack Warner as her screen husband, in Here Come the Huggetts (1948), Vote for Huggett and The Huggetts Abroad (both 1949), as well as a radio series, Meet the Huggetts, which ran from 1953 to 1961.

The 17-year-old Kate O’Mara (1939–2014) makes her film debut as Annie Knowles, billed under her real name of Merrie Carroll [Frances Meredith Carroll]. She starred in The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) and The Vampire Lovers (1970).

The cast are Jack Warner as George Knowles, Kathleen Harrison as Elsie, Lana Morris as Mary, Charles Victor as Ted Groves, Thora Hird as Margie, Leslie Henson as Uncle Tom, Harry Fowler as Syd, Valerie White as Mrs Jarvis, Kate O’Mara [aka Merrie Carroll] as Annie Knowles, Sam Kydd as Albert West, Bernard Fox as Johnnie Knowles, Margaret St Barbe West as Aunt Jean, and Ross Pendleton as Mary’s boyfriend Al.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6989

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com