DVD/150: LOOK UP AND LAUGH (Basil Dean, 1935)

Co-written by J.B. Priestley, this was Gracie Fields' sixth star vehicle - and my first seeing her.

This occasionally betrays every minute of it's 83 years thanks to it's clunking comedy co-stars and the tinny sound which renders several scenes unintelligible.

But for all it's drawbacks it is oddly watchable, thanks to Priestley's co-scripted tale of working-class solidarity and the steady direction.

Gracie is a stage performer who returns to her home town just in time to rescue her father's music market stall.

A department store owner wants to knock down the old market to expand his empire but he hasn't reckoned with headstrong Gracie who rallies the market-holders to occupy the building.

Fields is unrelentingly brash, bursting into song every few minutes - "Sally" even gets an airing - but has undeniable star wattage.

 In her second screen role, Vivien Leigh shows none of her future uniqueness.


Shelf or charity shop?  I have changed my mind... despite Vivien it's going to the charity shop

Dvd/150: 21 DAYS (Basil Dean, 1940)

Larry Durrant has failed in business but made good with his girlfriend Wanda, but one night her past reappears in the shape of her slimy husband.  He pulls a knife on them and in the struggle Larry accidentally kills him. 

Larry dumps the body but loses incriminating gloves which are found by a tramp, a lapsed priest. Larry visits his older brother Keith, a successful barrister, who is shocked at Larry's dilemma but reveals that the tramp has been arrested for the murder.

Larry is consumed with guilt but, at Keith's suggestion, enjoys the three weeks until the trial and marries Wanda.  Larry decides that he will confess his guilt when the trial ends - but the priest is found guilty...

The hero's guilt shows Graham Greene's involvement and Basil Dean's taut direction just survives the vicissitudes of time.  Of the leads, Leslie Banks outshines stagey Olivier and under-used Vivien.

Shelf or charity shop?  One for the Vivien archive - by the way, the film was shot in 1937 but was held back from distribution until 1940 to capitalize on Vivien's sudden star power thanks to GONE WITH THE WIND...