Last Holiday **** (1950, Alec Guinness, Beatrice Campbell, Kay Walsh) – Classic Movie Review 2592

Director Henry Cass’s neat and nimble 1950 small-scale black comedy stars Alec Guinness, who is his usual expert and excellent self in a subtly sentimental, neatly scripted original story and screenplay by J B Priestley. Last Holiday is an Ealing Studios-style comedy, and sometimes confused as their work, but it is made by rivals Associated British. A restrained and understated, very English dark-toned comedy, it is amusing and characterful, and a good showcase for Priestley’s dryly ironic and slyly witty sense of humour. 

Alec Guinness as George Bird and Helen Cherry as hotel receptionist Miss Mellows.

Guinness plays the sad and lonely farm machinery salesman George Bird, a northern Englishman who decides to have fun because he thinks he only has a brief while – maybe even just a month – to live when his physician glibly informs him that he is suffering from the rare malady of Lampington’s Disease.

Cashing in his life savings to take a last holiday at an expensive seaside hotel, he cheers up a rich gallery of fairly lovable stereotypes, including a Labour MP Cabinet Minister, a common bogus pretend titled lady, a new moneyman, and a sad war hero. He finds all sorts of opportunities are now open to him, offers of work and money gratuitously coming his way, but he thinks he is no position to take advantage of them. Cheery cockney Joe Clarence (Sidney James) takes his money to place a bet for him, and it wins him eight times his stake. At the same time, he returns the favour and seeks to help people in difficulty financially.

For the first time, and ironically only now that it’s all too late, Bird acquires friends, influence and money, and falls in love with Sheila Rockingham (Beatrice Campbell), the sweet young woman who is preoccupied with a wastrel husband, Derek Rockingham (Brian Worth). He freely and generously helps her by giving her money so she can bail Derek out. He also offers money to the mousy Miss Fox (Esma Cannon), downtrodden companion to the awful Lady Oswington (Muriel George), so that she can open her own gifte shoppe and be free of her.

Perhaps it is not quite Guinness’s best work, but the star performance is strong and the vehicle for him pretty good, and it is still a very enjoyable, civilised entertainment, smoothly done. The equally expert, vintage British characters actors help out as always, and help out a lot here. Priestley gives them plenty to chew on.

Kay Walsh is outstanding as the strict but kindly hotel housekeeper, Helen Cherry is charming as the cheerful hotel receptionist Miss Mellows, Ernest Thesiger plays the snooty and supercilious Sir Trevor Lampington (Thesiger), the doctor after whom Lampington’s disease is named, Madame Kirkwood-Hackett gives a Margaret Rutherford-style turn as the bossy Miss Hatfield, Coco Aslan plays the stereotypical Italian cook as Gambini, and Heather Wilde is sweet as Maggie the nice whispering maid.

During a strike by the hotel’s staff, all the oddball guests pull together in happy camaraderie, cooking and eating their own dinner. All is well, very well, or at least it seems that all is well.

Also in the cast are Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde White, Jean Colin, Hal Osmond, Brian Oulton, Arthur Howard, Lockwood West, Campbell Cotts, Moultrie Kelsall, Eric Maturin and Ronald Simpson as Dr Pevensey, the quack whose Lampington’s disease diagnosis starts the plot off.

David McCallum Sr (26 March 1897 – 21 March 1972) is the blind fiddler at the start and end of the film. He was the Scottish leader and principal first violinist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Scottish National Orchestra, and the father of actor David McCallum.

It is shot at Welwyn Studios with location filming at Luton, Bedfordshire (for the shopping parade) and Torquay, Devon (for the seaside hotel).

Uncredited work was done on the screenplay by J Lee Thompson.

It was remade as Last Holiday in 2006 with Queen Latifah (as Georgia Byrd) in a project intended for John Candy but shelved on his death.

Last Holiday inspired cult Finnish director Aki Kaurismåki to make I Hired a Contract Killer in 1990, with his Ealing Studios-style script modelled on it.

Henry Cass is the director of Blood of the Vampire (1958) and The Glass Mountain (1949).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2592

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