Value for Money (1955)

Director:

Ken Annakin

Writers:

Derrick Boothroyd (novel)
R.F. Delderfield (writer)

Release Date:

16 April 1956 (Denmark)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

It's D-D Day!

Plot:

A young man from Yorkshire inherits a sizeable legacy from his millionaire father. He decides to try...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Beautiful Woman | Male Female Relationship | Based On Novel

Cast

John Gregson	...	Chayley Broadbent
Diana Dors	...	Ruthine West
Susan Stephen	...	Ethel
Derek Farr	...	Duke Popplewell
Frank Pettingell	...	Mayor Higgins
Charles Victor	...	Lumm
Ernest Thesiger	...	Lord Dewsbury
Hal Osmond	...	Mr. Hall
Jill Adams	...	Joy
Joan Hickson	...	Mrs. Perkins
James Gregson	...	Oldroyd
Donald Pleasence	...	Limpy
John Glyn-Jones	...	Arkwright
Leslie Phillips	...	Robjohns
Ferdy Mayne	...	Waiter

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Batley, West Yorkshire, England, UK

Company:

Group Film Productions Limited

Soundtrack:

Dolly Polka

Rags and Riches and Rugby League

Filmed partly on location in the West Yorkshire town of Batley (given the name Barfield in the film), you know what you are going to get as soon as you watch that Salvation Army band marching up the cobbled market place in the drizzle and soot. Good fun for those of us who live in the town spotting the landmarks. Batley's a lot cleaner now, and the buildings are sandstone again instead of black - it still rains a bit though.

Chaley (John Gregson) owns a rag mill, the economy of the town for much of the twentieth century being based on recycling rags into reconstituted cloth known as either 'Shoddy' (now used as an adjective), or 'Mungo'. And he does what all Rugby League fans do once a year, and that's head south for the sport's Challenge Cup Final. Taking the local stories into account, the weekend trip is as traditional as ever, involving a lot of beer, food and going to clubs and pubs - and the final itself of course.

However, it's not usual for one of the girls in a club to follow you back north in the hope of parting you from your money - and that's when the fun starts in 'Value for Money', especially if you already have a girl back home who's 'sweet on you'.

Good-natured comic shenanigans follow that pulls the legs of stereotypical northerners and southerners alike. Luckily, the twain shall meet after a few plot twists and turns, and it all works out right in the end.

Note - Fifty years after the film was released, people in the town still sometimes refer to Batley as Barfield, and you can here the name being shouted from the terraces at Mount Pleasant (Batley RLFC's ground) on many occasions.

Eh, it's grim 'oop north.