Will Any Gentlemen? (1953)

This little known British movie certainly has a star studded 'best of British' cast. There are no less than two Dr. Who's (Hartnell and Pertwee), as well as a veritable cavalcade of period British talent.



Sid James, Joan Sims, and Peter Butterworth all make brief appearances, and a frighteningly youthful George Cole stars.
Based on a slightly stilted stage play by Vernon Sylvaine (a play actually popular amongst am-drams at the time) the narrative is pure farce and, whilst this may have worked to a degree in the village hall theatre of yesteryear, it all gets a bit tiresome here. Which is a real shame as I was really looking forward to what looked on paper like a scorching period Brit-com.



George Cole stars as the mild-mannered bank clerk Henry Sterling. While attending a music hall show, Sterling accidentally falls under the spell of stage hypnotist Mendoza (the stagey Alan Badel). Undergoing a complete change of character, Sterling becomes an incorrigible womanizer and gambler, completely out of character which confuses his poor devoted wife (Veronica Hurst).



Following a whole series of ludicrous (farcical) coincidences, Mendoza eventually comes to Henry's rescue, bringing him out of his hypnotised state. But none of this before we see Henry drunk, Henry womanizing and Henry looking bewildered in classic Cole style.
Individually the performances are fine. Jon Pertwee shows early promise as the real scoundrel of the piece with hints at what was to come (Dr. Who, Worzel Gummidge) beginning to show through. Hartnell is typecast as the grumpy cop (a version of his Army Game and Carry on Sergeant persona). Joan Sims raises a laugh or two as the object of her master's lust, mastering the art of the 'Ooooh Henry - you musn't!' line really meaning 'Oooh Henry - you Must!'.



But sadly the whole is substantially less than the sum of its parts and the resulting film is very mediocre indeed with a slow moving, rambling narrative that just never quite gets going.



Quite apart from the disappointment with the film itself, it should be noted that much of the film looks painfully colourised - like those dreadful Laurel and Hardy make-overs. However, this isn't a feasible excuse this time as this started its life in colour. The effect is variable but it's not a pleasant film to watch as so often the colour looks low in contrast and soft. Having never seen the original, it's difficult to assess how it relates to the original print or whether something terrible has happened in transfer. I suspect the former as in general, these Optimum releases are very good indeed.



The movie is presented in 4:3 which doesn't differ vastly from its original Academy ratio meaning little is lost through cropping and / or panning and scanning. The audio here is mono and in better shape than the picture.

'Will Any Gentlemen?' is enjoying its DVD debut here having previously only been available as part of a twofer VHS (along with the excellent 'The Green Man' also featuring a young Mr. Cole) so should be well received by completists. For anyone else though there are far better features from the period to enjoy, like the truly excellent 'A French Mistress' released by Optimum on the same day.