I saw this film at the NFT where it was showing as part of the Carol Reed centenary season.The film is set in Liverpool but Edmund Gwenn and Betty Driver speak with thick Lancashire accents more appropriate to Manchester than Liverpool.I found it difficult to understand what they were saying at times.This film emanates from a period when films would actually be made for the Northern part of the UK.The best example being Mancunian Films.It is quite clear from both the story and the budget that this film was not meant for showing in the South of the country.If it did get a showing it was probably in the morning when the cinema was being cleaned,in order to comply with the quota requirements of the Cinematograph Acts.This like many other Ealing films had musical numbers dotted at regular intervals in the story.It would appear from the programme notes that accompanied the screening that most reviewers of the day thought that Betty Driver was doing a Gracie Fields impersonation.Maybe because Gracie had come to the end of her contract with Ealing and Basil Dean was looking for a replacement.I actually found the numbers quite a bright spark in what was rather a simple minded farce.Jimmy O'Dea is in the middle of his brief flirtation with UK films.his acting leaves a lot to be desired.Even the marvellous Edmund Gwenn can do little to breath life into this.
Review of Penny Paradise
