Trouble Brewing *** (1939, George Formby, Googie Withers, Gus McNaughton) – Classic Movie Review 1991

It was weird about Britain in the 1930s. With his buck-toothed grin, cheeky chappie George Formby only just had to strum his ukelele and sing a saucy song and the heroines in his movies capitulated to his charms. Apparently, they were happy, less sophisticated days! Carefree movies like his Trouble Brewing must have happily distracted audiences’ attention from the Trouble Brewing in Germany round about this time.

In co-writer/director Anthony Kimmins’s bright, funny and fast-moving 1939 star vehicle made for Ealing Studios (then called Associated Talking Pictures), Formby plays the Daily Sun newspaper’s printer-compositor called George Gullip. He wins a lot of money at the races but he discovers he’s been paid his winnings in counterfeit cash. So he goes undercover as an amateur wrestler and high-society waiter to track down the forger criminals whose fake money he’s won at the track before he accidentally thumps and captures the chief of police and catches the girl, Mary Brown. It was Formby’s ninth star vehicle, starting with Boots! Boots! in 1934.

George may always have been grinningly gormless, but he always ended up with the girl in his movies, much to the chagrin of his jealous wife and manager Beryl. Formby. And the girl in this case is played by the alluring 22-year-old Googie Withers, already for years into her film career and a year after she appeared in The Lady Vanishes. Another player in that movie also appears – Basil Radford – as a guest at Madame Berdi (Martita Hunt)’s.

[Spoiler alert] Formby’s editor (Garry Marsh) proves to be the bad guy, just like they usually are in real life. A chase in a brewery, where everyone gets dunked in the beer vats, accounts for the title. Tunes are highlighted by Formby’s singing ‘I Can Tell It By My Horoscope’ plus all-time greats ‘Fanlight Fanny’ and ‘Hitting the High Spots Now’.

The song ‘I Wonder Who’s Under Her Balcony Now?’ was cut by Kimmins in case it caused offence. It goes: ‘Will he kiss her under the nose or underneath the archway where her sweet william grows? If he’s fresh and gets too free I hope a bulldog bites him in the place it bit me… I hope he catches the lot when she empties out her old geranium pot.’

Gus McNaughton, Joss Ambler, Ronald Shiner, C Denier Warren, Beatrix Fielden-Kaye, Esma Cannon (the maid) and Tiger Tasker also co-star.

Googie Withers died on July 15 2011, aged 94.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1991

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