A young man is accused of getting a girl pregnant. Two sets of parents tussle and then they find out who really got her pregnant.A young man is accused of getting a girl pregnant. Two sets of parents tussle and then they find out who really got her pregnant.A young man is accused of getting a girl pregnant. Two sets of parents tussle and then they find out who really got her pregnant.
Neil Wilson
- Clarence Smallhope
- (as Niel Wilson)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film was restored by Blackpool resident Eurwyn Jones who negotiated use of the print, tracked down copyright holders to ensure it could be shared with fans across the world, and teamed up with Renown Pictures, who restore classic movies, putting the print through modern technology to present a crystal clear picture quality and sound.
- GoofsNeil Wilson's forename is wrongly spelled as Niel in the opening credits.
- Quotes
Hylda Worswick: You've only to look at the colour of their doorstep to see what her cooking's like.
Featured review
Hardscrabble working class northern life with a music hall lead character
Putting aside the very subjective perspective that all reviewers have of humour, it seems to me that what is interesting about this film now is the social history that it offers. An insight into a world and class that seems to have all but disappeared completely in the space of two generations. Completely transfigured through major economic and cultural changes, mass immigration and global media. The community described in this film was small and localised, homogenous and poor, the remnants of the 19c in the industrialised north. The whole film is an opportunity to showcase the 'comic character' that actress Hilda Baker who emanated from the mill towns of Lancashire had honed on stage and television for 40 years already. The theatre used to bring forth such artists, performers who built a persona on stage, comedians and dramatic actors, whose 'character' was then used in various revues, plays, and later movies and TVs. Audience familiarity was key, they weren't hired to disappear into their characters, but two bing their 'character' to the part. Audiences gong to see Hylda Baker in this tailored vehicle would have known and loved Hilda's peculiarities before they entered the theatre. Furthermore, they would have recognised the 'plot' that another reviewer can't see, I.e. the strong ambitious mother fighting to secure a better future for her offspring. Fighting against the structures of their community, class, background etc. He's at university, already an extraordinary achievement for a working class northerner in those times, and social convention and the offer of some financial security looks set to be used to pressure him into marriage (unfairly?) when the parents of a young woman 'in trouble' tip up at his mothers doorstep. Many around see the offer as golden (which speaks to the poverty of ambition as well as actual poverty of the time, class and place) even the boy himself, who likely knows he's not the father seems minded to accept his lot, but the mother doesn't believe he's responsible, and won't let his 'life be ruined'. She defies the pressure all around, calls out the blackmail and through various comic machinations does her best to ensure his freedom and his return to study.
I grew up with Hylda on TV in Sitcoms in her later years, and I thought her hilarious. The tone of this film is oddly real for such a broad comic character, but in its way it reflects its time and place very well indeed. Some of the other actors are weak and it isn't especially clever, it isn't especially funny either, particularly if you don't 'get' Hylda Baker and aren't familiar with her brand of music hall schtick. But it could be compared to a similar but much more lauded film like 'Sparrers can't sing' from the same year, but set in London's East end. Sparrers is a far better film, but the essence is the same, a view into a disappearing world, perhaps one which we should be glad to see the back of, but one which a film like this can really tell us about in ways that academic study and other more conscious investigations can't.
Yet again, we have Talking PicturesTV to thank for looking after this film, you can be certain it would be looked after by the BFI it were set in London or was by some obscure minority auteur. But films like this, which were once mainstream, if regional and working class in their appeal, are rudely neglected by that institution.
In my view it hardly stands up as a comedy, it isn't the best testament to a Hylda Bakers comic personae either, but it's a fascinating window on another world, and for some older viewers may even bring a little of the warmth of remembrance for some of the 'real life' stock characters of that time and place, such as 'the lodger' whose life is pinpointed by the mother in a short monologue which she delivers when trying to persuade him to put himself forward and marry the girl.
All hail the mother, who behind the nonsense of the form is a character I recognise from my own family (and that generation) strong, ambitious, holding it all together, a dynamic force whose life has been about lifting her chicks out of poverty, whose commitment to betterment is laudable, who is not beholden to nor bowed. By the pressure of religious, social or other conventions. And all hail to Hylda and the writers who subtly gave life to her in this now interesting if clumsy period piece.
helpful•72
- HillstreetBunz
- Jul 14, 2018
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK(studio: produced at Twickenham Studios, London, England.)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 12 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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