The History of Mr Polly **** (1949, John Mills, Sally Ann Howes, Megs Jenkins, Finlay Currie, Betty Ann Davies, Edward Chapman, Diana Churchill, Gladys Henson, Miles Malleson) – Classic Movie Review 8544

H G Wells’s comic novel The History of Mr Polly is effectively and brightly brought to the screen in 1948 with a witty screenplay by writer-director Anthony Pelissier and one of John Mills’s best performances as the timid draper Mr Alfred Polly, who dreams of exchanging his dull life and shrewish wife (Betty Ann Davies), and takes off in search of better times.

Megs Jenkins enjoys her definitive role in a standout as the ‘Plump Woman’ innkeeper with whom Mr Polly settles down at the Potwell Inn.

Shot in black and white by Desmond Dickinson, it is a bona fide British post-war literary adaptation classic.

Mills recalled: ‘The History of Mr Polly is the first film I produced and starred in for my contract with the Rank Organisation. Although the film wasn’t a great success it remains one of my favourites. I knew Arthur Rank well. After Great Expectations, he came to me and told me to write down what it would take for me to sign a five-year contract.’

Also in the cast are Sally Ann Howes, Megs Jenkins, Finlay Currie, Betty Ann Davies, Edward Chapman, Diana Churchill, Gladys Henson, Miles Malleson, Shelagh Fraser, David Horne as Mr Garvace, Ernest Joy, Edie Martin, Dandy Nichols, Juliet Mills as Little Polly, Wally Patch, Wylie Watson, Doris Hare, Irene Handl, Cyril Smith, Michael Ripper, Laurence Baskcomb, Moore Marriottas Uncle Pentstemon, Dennis Arundell, Lyndon Brook, Frederick Piper, Victor Platt and Muriel Russell.

It was shot at D&P Studios, Denham Studios, Buckinghamshire, England.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8544

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