Trottie True [The Gay Lady] *** (1949, Jean Kent, James Donald, Hugh Sinclair, Bill Owen, Andrew Crawford) – Classic Movie Review 9217

‘Don’t Miss This Miss… from her WINK to her MINK… this lady was GAY!’

Director Brian Desmond Hurst’s sentimental, entertaining and campy 1949 Edwardian era rags to riches musical romantic comedy Trottie True [The Gay Lady] stars Jean Kent as sexy showgirl ‘The Great Little Trottie’, who rises from child performer to music-hall favourite. During a spell as a Gaiety Girl, Trottie is courted by a rich lord, Digby Landon (James Donald), and moves into the aristocracy via marriage to him.

The splendid Jean Kent oozes an easy and infectious charisma, and Donald is a fine, laconic foil, while Bill Owen (as Joe Jugg, a music-hall colleague) and Andrew Crawford (as Sid Skinner, a balloonist) are compelling as Trottie’s beaux, in this extremely handsome British production shot in glorious Technicolor by Harry Waxman.

Bit part players Christopher Lee and Roger Moore, playing stage-door johnnies, were to become stars and meet as adversaries in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun.

Also in the cast are Lana Morris, Michael Medwin, Lyndon Brook, Joan Young, Harold Scott, Tony Halfpenny, Daphne Anderson, Carole Lesley, Dilys Laye and David Liney.

It is written by C Denis Freeman, based on a novel by Caryl Brahms and S J Simon.

It was restored and re-screened at the 1996 London Film Festival in a superb British National Film Archive restoration made form original colour separation in splendid Technicolor. The vibrant colours bring out crisply the film’s splendidly ornate sets and costumes.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9217

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