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Ukulele player in the "Dinky-Do" concert
party is mistakenly engaged to play in a broadcasting ships orchestra,
who's leader sends messages, coded in music, over the air to Nazi
U boats preying on Allied convoy ships. A fantasy scene in which the
star comes to grips personally with Hitler was regarded, at the time,
as one of the major morale boosters of the war.
The film was a big success in New York and Moscow, where it had long
runs.
Brendan Ryan
A ukulele player accidentally goes to
Bergen instead of Blackpool and is mistaken for a spy.
Generally thought to be the best George Formby vehicle, with plenty
of pace, good situations, and catchy tunes.
Leslie Halliwell's Film Guide
This is it! For me, the best of the bunch.
Four brilliant songs and some sinister Nazis for George to vanquish
- he even treats Hitler to a taste of the Formby knuckle!
From the start of the film in the blacked out railway station to the
overnight crossing on the Bergen boat, there is always plenty of action.
and the plot never sags. Interest is maintanied throughout the film.
and then to cap it all, George makes the trip home via a submarine
torpedo tube!
They don't make 'em like this anymore!
The "catchy tunes" as Leslie Halliwell calls them
are actually all classic Formby songs.
Peter Pollard
This is generally considered George's best picture,
and rightly so - it is the greatest wartime comedy-thriller.
The film is perfectly written, with plenty of action for George to
get his teeth into, and to see his comic bumbling and slapstick set
right in the midst of a deadly raging war makes the comedy more effective
than ever.
The scene in which George comes face to face with Hitler is probably
the most famous moment in any Formby film.
Gary Marsh gives a fine performance playing Mendez, as does Phyllis
Calvert as Mary, but perhaps the most outstanding feature of this
film is the music - the songs are first class. The superb, lavishly
extended arrangement of "Count Your Blessings and Smile"
really brings home George's optimistic message which was badly needed
in 1940, but is equally important today!
Andy Eastwood
Considering the fact that these are dolorous days in
England, "Let George Do It," now at the Globe, is something of a
phenomenon, interesting not so much as entertainment as evidence of
the Britisher's incorrigible "thumbs up" attitude in the face of
mortal danger. As a screwball antic of a goofy ukulele player who,
by a prank of fate in a blacked-out London railway station, suddenly
finds himself chasing German spies in Norway, this British
importation is ragged farce, more mad than gay. But the surprising
thing is that it was attempted at all.
As crazily contrived as a Rube Goldberg invention, it is the tale of
the hapless troubadour who embarks for an engagement in Black-pool,
but arrives in Bergen instead, to be greeted as a member of the
British espionage. Installed as stool-pigeon in an orchestra led by
the head of the German spy ring, timorous George eventually unmasks
the villain and the means by which he transmits to waiting
submarines the positions of British merchantmen, but not until he
has been subjected to the blandishments of a woman spy, plowed
through the dough of a bakery in search of a lost code and descended
in an enemy submarine, from which he is ejected via the torpedo
tube.
The case is somewhat brightened by the presence of George Formby in
the role of the unheroic hero, but most of the scenes have only a
sporadic humor as if the cast and director were half-listening for
air-raid sirens at any moment. Besides, to most Americans with
memories of the Harold Lloyd epics, this sort of comedy is apt to
seem dated—or is it simply that only the English, also incorrigible
in their sense of humor, can laugh at their own jokes?
The New York Times
Published: October 14, 1940
LET GEORGE DO IT
USA title: "To Hell With Hitler"
USSR title: "Dinky Do"
Australian title: "Gunner George"
Danish title: George Always Copes"
Ealing/ABFD
Writers: John Dighton, Austin Melford, Angus MacPhail,
Basil Deardon
Producers: Michael Balcon & Basil Deardon
Director: Marcel Varnel
Trade Show: March 6th 1940, Released on: November 11th 1940
CAST:
George Formby, Phyllis Calvert, Garry Marsh,
Romney Brent, Coral Browne, Diana Beaumont, Torin Thatcher, Hal Gordon,
Donald Calthorp
SONGS::
Mr Wu's A Window Cleaner Now (Formby/Gifford/Cliffe)
Grandad's Flannelette Nightshirt (Formby/Latta)
Count Your Blessings And Smile (Formby/Gifford/Cliffe)
Oh! Don't The Wind Blow Cold (Formby/Gifford/Cliffe)
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