'Gaiety George' (1946)

Review by Rex Bunnett

'Gaiety George' is an oddity. It is 'inspired by the memory of George Edwardes' - but that statement at the beginning of the film seems to be the end of the inspiration.  Our hero is George Howard, an Irishman (although the accent of Richard Greene who plays him is via an English public school) who comes to London with a £300 legacy (and the famed dimple), buys a theatre, falls in love with an artist (Ann Todd), and invents musical comedy. Peter Graves plays the newspaper critic who is the villain of the piece - but who ends with a heart of gold.   The most annoying thing about this film is the lost chance of having some excepts of those turn of the century Gaiety and Dalys shows while there were still people around who could remember them (the film was made in 1946).  Instead, we have two fictional musical comedies - 'The Tallyho Girl' and 'Tomboy Princess' - by George Posford and Eric Maschwitz.  The first has some pleasant dance routines by Freddie Carpenter but neither really give the feel of the period.  Although no theatres are mentioned, I guess the idea was to show a Gaiety show and one from Dalys - the first being the pure musical comedy, the second operetta.    Phyllis Robins and Leni Lynn are in the cast but little is given them - and- there is a nice little cameo by Jack Train in one of his tipsy moments.  The rest of the plot has the son dying in the first world war, Greene ends up with grey hair but still looks sparkling, and Todd is a brick throughout.  And of course, Edwardes last show when he was reduced to having almost nothing, is a huge success - so he dies with a smile on his face, and we, the audience have a lump in our throats.   Whilst not a good film 'Gaiety George' is worth seeing - if only for Freddie Carpenter's work in the show sequence.  

Rex Bunnett