Turned Out Nice Again *** (1941, George Formby, Peggy Bryan, Edward Chapman) – Classic Movie Review 3820

Director Marcel Varnel’s 1941 showcase for ukulele-playing comic George Formby gets plenty of opportunities for jokes about knickers since he is cast as gormless George Pearson, an overseer in Dawson’s ladies’ underwear factory. There an opponent tricks him into buying possibly dodgy knicker material and gets him sacked.

Based on a stage play, As You Are by Hugh Mills and Wells Root, this genially pleasant late-career Formby vehicle is also a domestic comedy, with the star as gormless George marrying Lydia (Peggy Bryan) over the objections of his nagging mum, Mrs Pearson (Elliott Mason).

In the jolly plot by Austin Melford and John Dighton, the wife makes up knickers of the material and starts a successful business, which George sells back to Dawson’s, where he becomes a hero and top salesman.

It also stars Edward Chapman as Uncle Arnold, O B Clarence as Mr. Dawson, Mackenzie Ward as Gerald Dawson, Ronald Ward, John Salew, Wilfrid Hyde White, Hay Petrie, Michael Rennie and Bill Shine.

It proved Formby’s last film for Ealing studios, where snobbish studio head Michael Balcon felt Formby’s brand of popular gormless humour did not fit in with the studio’s middle-class, much more sophisticated comedies.

The songs include the classic Auntie Maggie’s Remedy (music and lyrics by Formby and Eddie Latta), as well as Can’t Go Wrong in These, Emperor of Lancashire and You’re Everything To Me.

On 7 June 2016, it was revealed that HM The Queen is a Formby fan, able to sing all his songs, especially Leaning on a Lamp-post.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3820

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LEANING ON A LAMP-POST GEORGE FORMBY song sheet from the 1937 film ‘FEATHER YOUR NEST’ LEANING ON A LAMP-POST GEORGE FORMBY song sheet from the 1937 film ‘FEATHER YOUR NEST’