Back-Room Boy
| Back-Room Boy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Herbert Mason |
| Produced by | Edward Black |
| Written by |
Marriott Edgar Val Guest |
| Starring |
Arthur Askey Moore Marriott Graham Moffatt |
| Music by | Hans May |
| Cinematography | Jack E. Cox |
| Editing by | R.E. Dearing |
| Studio | Gainsborough Pictures |
| Distributed by | General Film Distributors |
| Release dates | 17 April 1942 |
| Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Back-Room Boy is a 1942 British comedy film directed by Herbert Mason and starring Arthur Askey, Googie Withers, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott. A man from the Met Office is sent to a lighthouse on a remote Scottish island to monitor the weather. He hopes to escape from women, but soon finds the island overrun by them.
Plot
Arthur Askey plays meteorologist Arthur Pilbeam who is jilted by his fiancée Betty because he has to speed back to the BBC every hour, on the hour due to his internationally vital job of creating the BBC pips. As he cannot be fired during wartime and wanting to avoid all women, he is assigned the solitary job of sending weather reports from a remote Scottish lighthouse. Before taking a boat from the mainland during the four hours of daylight that are available for the time of year, the locals warn him he will go mad from isolation and the curse of a mermaid within a month as others have.
Authur Pilbeam soon has his peace shattered as a stowaway is found in the lighthouse and the survivors of a torpedoed ship arrive. Things are crowded on the lighthouse until one-by-one people start to mysteriously disappear, leaving Pilbeam to discover what has been happening to everyone and why.
Reception
In his book about 1940s British cinema, Realism and Tinsel, Robert Murphy describes the film as "the funniest if the least original of the Askey comedies".[1]
Cast
- Arthur Askey - Arthur Pilbeam
- Moore Marriott - Jerry
- Graham Moffatt - Albert
- Googie Withers - Bobbie
- Vera Frances - Jane
- Joyce Howard - Betty
- John Salew - Steve Mason
- George Merritt - Uncle
- Aubrey Mallalieu - West
- D. J. Williams - McIntyre
References
- ↑ Murphy p.196
Bibliography
- Murphy, Robert. Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain, 1939-1949. Routledge, 1989.
External links
- Back-Room Boy at the Internet Movie Database
- Back-Room Boy is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
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