Traveller’s Joy ** (1950, Googie Withers, John McCallum, Yolande Donlan, Maurice Denham, Geoffrey Summer, Dora Bryan, Anthony Forwood) – Classic Movie Review 11,004

Director Ralph Thomas’s 1950 black and white British comedy Traveller’s Joy is based on the hit London stage play by Arthur Macrae, and stars Googie Withers, John McCallum and Yolande Donlan. It is the last film produced by the original Gainsborough Pictures studio.

With harsh post-war restrictions on how much foreign exchange British travellers can take outside the UK (just £5 at the time), a variety of English men and women are trapped in expensive Sweden. These include an ill-matched pair of Brits abroad, Bumble Pelham (Withers) and her estranged husband Reggie (Withers’s real-life husband McCallum), who are stranded penniless in a Stockholm hotel in Scandinavia and find that they have no choice but to combine their resources to get back to Blighty.

At first the Swedes are upset at their attempts to make the money to get home, until a businessman makes them an offer they can hardly refuse.

Though better in dramatic parts, Withers and McCallum bring a sparky enough touch to their jolly roles in this sometimes-amusing but sometimes-dull version of Arthur Macrae’s clever little play featuring some entertaining dialogue and some nice performances from a popular cast.

It was filmed in 1949 but the release was held up for over two years under the terms of the film rights contract, and there was no release till 1951, 28 March 1951 in London, when the London stage show version finally closed. The play premiered at the Criterion on 2 June 1948, starring Yvonne Arnaud and produced by Hugh Beaumont. It was a smash hit, running for over two years and even seen by Clement Attlee when he was Prime Minister. By the time the film was released, its topicality had passed and the film was a box-office disappointment, costing £120,000 and earning £68,000 at the box office.

It is the debut but third film released of Anthony Forwood (as Nick Rafferty), Dirk Bogarde’s life partner, who made only a dozen films. Forwood was recently divorced (in 1948) from Glynis Johns, whom he married on 29 August 1942.

Yolande Donlan and John McCallum in Traveller’s Joy (1950).

Also in the cast are Maurice Denham, Geoffrey Summer, Dora Bryan, Anthony Forwood, Colin Gordon, Gerard Heinz, Peter Illing, Grey Blake, Gerik Schjelderup, Clive Morton, Anthony Holles, Sandra Dorne, Eric Pohlmann, Gerald Andertson, and Philo Hauser.

Withers had just got married (on 24 January 1948) to McCallum, who said: ‘We think it is an excellent idea to work together.’ But McCallum came down with jaundice and had to take a week off, causing filming to be suspended for a week, costing the production £12,000, though the film was completed half a day under schedule.

Traveller’s Joy is directed by Ralph Thomas, runs 78 minutes, is made by Gainsborough Pictures, is released by General Film Distributors (1949) (UK), is written by Allan MacKinnon and Bernard Quayle, based on the play by Arthur Macrae, is shot in black and white by Jack E Cox, is produced by Antony Darnborough and Alfred Roome (associate), is scored by Arthur Wilkinson and designed by Cedric Dawe.

Antony Darnborough (6 October 1913 – 24 September 2000) was a distinguished British film producer and director, whose work includes: Quartet (1948), Traveller’s Joy (1949), Boys in Brown (1949), The Astonished Heart (1950), So Long at the Fair (1950), Trio (1950), Encore (1951), To Paris with Love (1954) and The Baby and the Battleship (1956).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,004

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