Smile… Stars in Your Eyes (1956), Network Blu-ray out now!

This is a quite remarkable restoration from Network of a film that has been largely unseen for over fifty years and, it is a heart-warming time capsule of an era when the stage was still – just about - king and your “act” could earn you a decent living from Weymouth to Fleetwood and back again via Scarborough and Southend. Being of a certain age I grew up with the last of the golden age of British variety performers still on our TV screens from Arthur Askey and Ted Ray to Morecambe and Wise, whose careers were born on stage and who stayed there even after the advent of mass televisual entertainment.

 

In 1971, at a very tender age, I saw Jimmy Clitheroe, one of the performers in this film, on Blackpool North Pier in a bill including pianist Valentino (no relation to Rudy…), comedienne Joyce Howard, comedian Ken Goodwin (who my sister loathed) and Manchester mop tops Freddie and the Dreamers who ran amongst us in their shorts. This my friends, was Variety and, even today, our screens are still filled with the ghosts of family entertainment past because, strictly speaking, Britain has talent!

 

Jimmy was over fifty when I saw him but still four feet two and playing a wise-cracking kid and in Stars he does a turn as Nat Jackley’s son in a slapstick routine that’s almost Victorian; in 2020 we still talk about The Beatles and Elvis and in 1956 the ghost of Dan Leno still haunted light entertainment as well as the Good Old Days routines of Marie Lloyd who, even though she passed away in 1922, is impersonated by a young Janet Brown in the fascinating extra feature A Ray of Sunshine: An Irresponsible Medley of Song and Dance (1950). People have long memories when it comes to popular culture…

 

Pat Kirkwood sells The Man That Wakes The Man That Blows Reveille!

Directed by our old pal Maurice Elvey – this is a long way from Hindle Wakes if not the destination entertainment of its characters… Stars in Your Eyes is “dated” and that’s exactly what makes it so watchable and entertaining. If you didn’t know the mighty Pat Kirkwood before you’ll know her now and exactly why she was the first woman to have her own TV show in this country. Pat’s got charisma to burn, Hollywood looks, near infinite legs (they go all the way t’ the floor!) and lungs of the sweetest leather, selling her songs with all the thrill of a Lancashire Garland.

 

Alongside this Salford star’s power, we have Mr Nat Jackley another stage star a comedian of long neck and no fixed expression who somehow manages to control his disparate limbs with almost balletic grace as he winds himself across the stage in various routines. Nat’s the evolutionary evidence of the adaptations necessary to thrive in the Variety Period: he can sing, dance, acts a bit and has a winning personality. Would I credit him as a love match with Perfect Patricia? Probably not but they make a convincing couple at the heart of this story which is more about the business of show than any narrative complexity.

Nat Jackley's turn

Nat’s Jimmy Knowles and Pat’s Sally Bishop, performers improbably on their uppers with the increasing proliferation of the idiot box in households formerly given to theatrical entertainments. Their show kicks off the film with two brisk numbers before they learn that their tour is to be cancelled as a result of low-ticket sales. TV takes a gentle kicking throughout – odd given Pat’s success there – but Jimmy’s not keen at all on taking part in the very thing that’s killing off his trade.

 

With no work on the horizon, he finally relents and goes for an audition and it’s interesting to see the BBC stereotypes already established with the slightly fey Oxbridge type director Crawley Walters (Hubert Gregg) and his yes man, W1A-style assistant Dicky (Gerald Harper) who quickly adjusts his opinion when Crawley decides that no matter how funny Jimmy is, he’s just not “right” for TV…

 

Just not right for TV...

The meat of the story is provided by Jimmy and Sally’s efforts to help their pal, David (Bonar Colleano, the go-to Yank in many a Brit flick), a songwriter who has lost his sobriety and his muse Ann, played by Dorothy Squires later Mrs Roger Moore in a gender reversed A Star is Born scenario and a multiple litigant in a career of triumph and disappointment. Ann’s a big success now but David's a bum, drinking away every penny and needing Jimmy to bail him out of a clip joint (ask yer dad!). David has just one asset, a run-down theatre left in his parent’s estate and which he’s aiming to sell dirt cheap just to cover his debts.

 

Jimmy and Sally collude with Ann to spur David onto putting on a show there with all of their out of work variety friends and, whilst the show must go on, there are property developers intent on ruining everything by hiring a bunch of thugs.

Dorothy Squires projects in her first film. She married Roger Moore you know...

OK, not the most complex plot in history but it is a great excuse to show off the theatrical chops of the cast even if Gene and Fred could sleep easy; this is the best of wholesome British musical theatre! Maurice Elvey directs with efficiency and in his fifth decade of film making martials his cast of dozens well for the set pieces on stage. It’s thoroughly entertaining and all the more so because I know my parents and grandparents would have watched these performers in theatres from Liverpool all the way up the coast to Blackpool. And in 1971 my Dad was still keen to show us his comedy heroes from Sid James (twice!), John Inman and Mollie Sugden to Freddie and Jimmy; a reminder of the times when we all laughed together.

 

No phones...

There’s an excellent booklet as we’ve come to expect from Network with a mix of new essays and original promotional material. Then there are the extras, a trio of Adelphi shorts, including the aforementioned A Ray of Sunshine: An Irresponsible Medley of Song and Dance (1950) in which Ted Ray, a Liverpudlian who was in the same class at school as my Auntie Eva (I know, I never get tired of those Scouse connections…) gets drunk with the alarmingly flexible and long-limbed Lucille Gaye filling the gaps with jokes and incredible flips and high kicks in between performances from the legendary Ivy Benson's All-Girl Band, Wilson, Keppel and Betty (Patsy here, Betty’s daughter… ), Janet Brown and many more. There’s also The Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang who I’m sure did a couple of sessions for John Peel in the early eighties… they have fantastic timing and the comedy cohesion of thousands of stage hours.

 

Ted Ray and Lucille Gaye who has to be seen to be believed

Compared by Max Bygraves, we also get The Nitwits on Parade (1949), a group of, yes, madcaps! who influenced The Bonzo Dog Doo Da Band as well as impressing several very young Beatles. Finally, there’s The Kilties are Coming (1952) a variety showcase with rare performances and interviews with young Scottish lads and lassies including McDonald Hobley!

 

This is a very special package from Network and one to be supported by everyone with an interest in post-war British popular culture. The restoration of Stars in Your Eyes was funded by a Kickstarter campaign and it is to be hoped that this release can pave the way for more. I’m in but then they had me at Pat Kirkwood to be honest… I’ve not seen her since Band Waggon (1940) with Stinker Murdoch and Big-Hearted Arthur Askey.

 

I thank you, Network! It's a bloomin' marvel.

 

Order your copy now direct from their online shop and all good retailers. 

There's a trailer here to help free your wallet so your pounds will follow...

Wilson (from Liverpool), Keppel...

...and "Betty"

Ted Ray

Janet Brown, who later impersonated Mrs Thatcher

Ivy Benson's All-Girl Band!