The Bells Go Down *** (1943, Tommy Trinder, James Mason, Philip Friend) – Classic Movie Review 9126

Director Basil Dearden’s 1943 The Bells Go Down has its appeal but it suffers by comparison with the same year’s Fires Were Started.

You didn’t expect to see Tommy Trinder and James Mason in the same film, did you? Well here they are as World War Two volunteer firemen Tommy and Ted in Ealing Studios’s wartime tribute to the men of the Auxiliary Fire Service.

As in life, comedy mixes with melodrama, though they are strange bedfellows, and the film is now best seen as a useful snapshot album of London during the devastating German air raids.

The good players (notably including Philip Friend as the young lead Bob, who postpones his wedding date to join the Service, and Mervyn Johns as Sam, a small-time crook with a conscience), the convincing atmosphere and the bright writing make up for any unevenness of tone and the feeble models forced by war economies. Trinder is a very amiable presence at the centre of things.

Also in the cast are Philippa Hyatt, Finlay Currie, William Hartnell, Meriel Forbes, Beatrice Varley, Muriel George, Norman Pierce, Lesley Brook, Leslie Harcourt, Leslie Dwyer, Alfie Bass, Sydney Tafler, Patricia Dainton, Frederick Piper, Ralph Michael, Charles Victor, Julian Vedey, Richard George, H Victor Weske and Frederick Culley.

The Bells Go Down is directed by Basil Dearden, runs 90 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios, is released by United Artists, is written by Roger MacDougall, adapted from the book by Stephen Black, is shot in black and white by Ernest Palmer, is produced by Michael Balcon and S C Balcon (associate producer), and is scored by Roy Douglas, with Art Direction by Michael Relph.

The film was made with the full co-operation of the National Fire Service, which now embodies the men and women of the London Fire Brigade and the Auxiliary Fire Service.

Streatham, London-born Tommy Trinder (1909–1989) made around 15 films. He became TV’s first host of Val Parnell’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium (47 episodes, 1955-1958) before Bruce Forsyth.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9126

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